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…

This article aims to investigate the impact of neoliberalism on the trends of higher education, and on the changes in the approach of universities and colleges between traditional education and education in the service of globalization and neoliberalism. The research method was theoretical and qualitative that demonstrates the progressive impact…

The proliferation and expansion of massive open online courses (MOOCs) prompts a need to revisit classical pedagogical questions. In what ways will MOOCs facilitate and promote new e-learning pedagogies? Is current learning design adequate for the "massiveness" and "openness" of MOOCs? This article discusses the ways in which…

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…

This paper explores how environmental education through ecological art can help students develop creativity, critical thinking, and an arts-informed notion of being a citizen of the world. In illustrating the importance of uncovering the relationship between environmental education and ecological art, the paper examines how this may be used to…

The publication of Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa's influential new book, "Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses," the findings of which were summarized in an article by the same authors in the March/April "Change," has caused a national furor centering around their multi-institutional findings that the…

The central goals of teaching are to educate students about the course material and stimulate their intellectual development more generally. Yet faculty have few avenues to assess teaching effectiveness on these fronts, and students have few opportunities to reflect upon their own growth as scholars and citizens. This article details an exercise…

Examined relationship between reflective judgment and standardized critical thinking tests in college students (n=100). Results indicated students who reasoned at higher stages of reflective judgment also revealed better critical thinking skills, suggesting a developmental basis for the acquisition of critical thinking skills. (Author/ABL)

Stresses that critical thinking is more than a set of skills; it also involves intellectual traits that should be cultivated. These traits include intellectual humility, courage, empathy, integrity, and perseverance; faith in reason; and fair-mindedness. Self-questioning is an important means of developing these traits. (SL)

Discusses the importance of fostering critical thinking in chemistry. Presents strategies to improve critical thinking that were used in general chemistry for science and engineering majors, a similar course for less-prepared science and engineering majors, and a course for nonscience students. (JRH)

While university students are adept at acquiring knowledge, they are less and less skilled in critical thinking, and nearly illiterate in enlarged understanding, or contextual thinking. Higher education trains students to merely assume responsibility for tasks, not think about the larger realities of which they are a part. (MSE)

Throughout its history, American education has focused narrowly on practical and vocational issues and has ignored the need for intellectual development. The lesson is not yet fully learned, and an emphasis on critical thinking as a goal of education is only beginning to gather strength. (MSE)

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.…

The author defends and clarifies a previous assertion that college faculty may need to be taught to take advantage of classroom opportunities to make insights and awareness clear to their students. (MSE)

Shows that Plato's categories of knowledge may be used as conceptual frameworks for the study of film. (GT)