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The Measure of Epistemological Reflection (Baxter Magolda & Porterfield, 1988) was revised to reflect a constructivist view of epistemological development that emerged from a longitudinal study of young adults' development. This article includes a description of the new constructivist interpretation process, how it is used, and criteria upon which to judge its value.
Student learning has come to the forefront of both curricular and cocurricular reform in recent years. Contemporary forms of pedagogy argue for incorporating students' narratives into teaching and learning, using students' lived experience as a foundation for learning, and helping students develop their own voices through mutual construction of meaning (Baxter Magolda, 1992, 1999b; Hopkins, 1994; Maher & Tetreault, 1994; Shor, 1992, 1996; Twomey Fosnot,1996). These approaches represent a shift in higher education from a teaching-centered approach focused on knowledge acquisition to a learning-centered approach, focused on knowledge construction (Barr & Tagg, 1995). This shift is consistent with student affairs practitioners' long-standing philosophy that students' holistic development is the goal of education. Contemporary statements from professional associations urge student affairs practitioners to adopt learning as the primary mission of the field (ACPA, 1994) and to initiate partnerships with campus constituents to promote students' learning (AAHE, ACPA, & NASPA, 1998).
To help students construct knowledge for themselves, student affairs professionals must enhance their understanding of how students make meaning of their experience-the assumptions that they hold about the nature, limits, and certainty of knowledge; how they view themselves; and how they construct relations with others. Thus, ongoing theory building and assessment of students' holistic development is an essential component of the shift toward student learning.
TENSIONS IN ASSESSING STUDENTS' DEVELOPMENT
Assessing students' holistic development is a challenge, due to the complexity of development, its constant evolution, and its dynamic interaction with the environment. Initial theories of college students' development were generated from open-ended interviews to access these complexities. Cognitivedevelopmental theorists, such as Perry (1970) and Belenky, Clinchy, Goldberger, and Tarule (1986), and psychosocial theorists, such as Chickering (1969), constructed their theories from student narratives. Perry and Belenky et al. explicitly expressed their constructivist approach, acknowledging that their interpretations came from their own connections to their data, that others might arrive at different interpretations, and that the experiences of their respondents might not...