The Role of Education in Transforming the Potential Social Skills of College Students

Abstract

This study advances “transformation” as the role of education in changing individual lives, and offers it as central to a theoretical framework that enables one to understand college education and the development of students in institutions of higher learning. Using a qualitative analytical approach, with in-depth field interviews, this research proposes a model that clarifies the process by which students are transformed into fully potential individuals as a consequence of their college experience. Education transforms both societies and people in a particular direction by shaping and reshaping their patterns of thoughts, means of problem solving and ways of life. This will then contribute to further individual and social transformation. This study finds that the process of education enables significant changes in students by contributing to the social skills that transform their identity and ultimately their society.