The construct of metacognition appears in an ever increasing number and range of contexts in educational, developmental, and cognitive psychology. Can it retain its status as a useful construct in the face of such diverse application? Or is it merely an umbrella term for diverse mental phenomena that are loosely if at all connected? Here I argue…

The article presents a generalized program for improving critical judgment and facilitating intellectual progress in gifted students. It examines the development of a critical base of knowledge, generalizing past experience into a theoretical base, and applying a theory of knowledge in education. Examples from adult and elementary programs are…

This paper helps to clarify the role of empirical evidence in psychological and epistemological theories. Following Galileo's idealization, epistemological theories do not describe the behavior of individuals in the real world. It is only when the "impediments" of the real subjects are gradually removed by experimental manipulation that…

Reports a two-year longitudinal study of 55 adolescents and young adults who were divided into three groups and given Reflective Judgment Interviews and the Concept Mastery Test to investigate sequentiality of reflective judgment stages. Results indicate support for seven hypothesized shifts in epistemic assumptions over time.(Author/RH)

This review of two distinct areas of research--brain research and psycho-epistemology--indicates a possible link between the two which may potentially help to identify an as yet unknown molar trait which could be responsible for divergent opinions regarding teaching and learning theories, and may help to explain differential achievement when these…

Seldom are college students introduced to theories that describe how they and other students change intellectually during their college years. Two epistemological perspectives on cognitive development in college students and how they can be presented to students are examined in this paper. The first perspective is William Perry's forms of…

Outlines a conceptual framework, the Reflective Judgement model, which describes predictable differences in the intellectual development of college students. Validation attempts are discussed, and applications leading to sound counseling and educational interventions are suggested. The model is illustrated with an example of a classroom assignment…

Discusses the relationship between Piaget's theory of cognitive development and Perry's theory of intellectual and ethical development, and recommends a framework for their application in course design. Involving students in examining not only course content, but also their beliefs and reasoning patterns, is recommended as a route for improving…

An approach to intelligence which emphasizes domain-specific constraints on knowledge structures is compared to information processing approaches. The evaluation of any cognitive ability as being intelligent crucially depends on prior specification of the formal constraints on the domains of knowledge from which that ability originates. (Author/RD)

Examines thought processes closely linked with intellectual development and transcending boundaries of many disciplines. Among the topics discussed are: nonuniform change without calculus; discrimination between observation and inference; asking one's own questions; hypothetico-deductive reasoning; and types of knowledge. (JM)