This article explores students' experiences of intellectual, social, and emotional growth during the first year at university and the extent to which these experiences can be considered transformative (Mezirow, 1981). The study is a qualitative interpretive multiple-case study built on semi-structured interviews with students in two higher…

Introductory students regularly endorse "naïve skepticism" -- unsupported or uncritical doubt about the existence and universality of truth -- for a variety of reasons. Though some of the reasons for students' skepticism can be traced back to the student -- for example, a desire to avoid engaging with controversial material or a desire…

Recent scholarship has highlighted the importance of increasing the intellectual viability of lower-level foreign language (FL) study while facilitating connections between academic practice, learners' lives, and global communities. This article reports on a content-based role-immersion simulation (RIS) designed to incite a critical orientation…

While previous research has examined outcomes related to academic rigor, mixed findings have resulted from differing conceptualizations of rigor as well as varying methodological approaches. Defining rigor as those in-class practices and assignments that require students to engage in deep learning and demonstrate cognitive complexity, we use…

The aim of this research is to investigate the aspects of science education, which are pedagogically desirable for the individual in the society of 21st century. The research was conducted by Curricular Delphi Study method in three rounds with international comparisons. In the first round, an open-ended survey was used, and in the next two rounds…

This chapter argues that schooling neglects virtue through the dominant quest for right answers. This is not only intellectually disreputable in presuming the correctness of what is taught, but it undermines the development of necessary intellectual virtues, such as open-mindedness, impartiality, and accuracy in the school curriculum, and it fails…

The authors describe an inquiry-based learning project that required students in a first-year world history course to reflect on and analyze critically the nature of the knowledge found in Wikipedia--the free, open-content, rapidly evolving, internet encyclopedia. Using a rubric, the authors explored students' perceptions of the collaborative and…

Performing inquiry should enhance the intellectual development of students on numerous levels. We evaluate whether inquiry-based activities elicit inquiry behaviors by comparing these activities with traditional review sessions. We find that both inquiry-learning and teaching behaviors increase during inquiry-based activities, but that teachers…

This article recounts a real-life conversation relating to beliefs, opinions, and attitudes. It asserts the country's democracy needs intellectual debate, but increasingly lacks the inclination and skills to have it. Like students within their homogeneous peer groups, American citizens increasingly inhabit intellectually gated communities.…

Literature and liberal arts college students' early research experience usually stresses methodology and is carefully structured and supervised. In advanced work, students must begin to develop habits of critical thinking, personal involvement with their material, and development of a metacritical attitude. (MSE)

Universities face enormous problems. Their survival depends on how they respond to persistent budgetary cuts from public sources, conflicting expectations from varying constituencies, and competitive pressures from competing training organizations. As they search for institutional arrangements that will be conducive to their success in the face of…

Highlights epistemological development of young adults, including the nature of problems commonly confronted by college students, by reporting on an investigation into the epistemic orientation of general education faculty, focusing on their assumptions about typical undergraduates' approaches to reasoning; and discusses implications for…

This article discusses William G. Perry's model of intellectual development, which posits that college students move through four phases of understanding their relationship to knowledge: dualism (knowledge as received truth), multiplicity (knowledge as opinion), relativism (knowledge as relativistic), and commitment in relativism. Specific…

CIVILIZED MAN'S HISTORY BEGAN WITH THE PROCESS OF GATHERING KNOWLEDGE AND, WHEN NEW KNOWLEDGE BEGAN TO CONFLICT WITH OLD KNOWLEDGE, THE DEVELOPING OF A CRITICAL AND QUESTIONING ATTITUDE. SINCE THE RENAISSANCE AND THE ENLIGHTENMENT THERE HAS BEEN A CONTINUOUS EROSION OF THE IDEA THAT EDUCATION AND THE POWER IT FURNISHES OVER SOCIETY ARE THE…

An attempt is made to clarify the aims of critical training in academic subjects at the higher education level. Additionally, common motifs of thought in the extensive material of cognitive criticism are considered, and the material itself is synthesized. Attention is also directed to the criteria of essentiality and implications for teaching. Two…