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…

Extends the work of Wilde et al. (1978), in a longitudinal study of attitude change in college students (N=2,178). Compares "Greeks,""ex-Greeks," and independents on family and peer independence, liberalism, cultural sophistication, and social conscience. Found that year of enrollment was more prominent than was Greek affiliation in inhibiting…

Several theories of sequential changes in intellectual functioning during adolescence and adulthood are addressed in this article. Methodological difficulties of testing these theories through longitudinal research are summarized. Educational implications of the Reflective Judgment Theory on research in intellectual development during college…

Examines intellectual and metacognitive development of 300 male college students in a longitudinal design. Although the change in Dualism and Relativism confirmed previous research, Commitment, Empathy, and metacognitive measures followed a V-shaped discontinuous path. Intellectual and metacognitive development was found to vary with academic…

Conducted four-year longitudinal study of college students' intellectual development during college in which students reported the impact of their cocurricular experiences. Findings from 101 students revealed that students' peer relationships, organizational involvement, living arrangements, employment, and exchange experiences contributed to…

Findings of this three-year longitudinal study, based on 172 African American students, suggest that attendance at an historically Black college significantly enhances the intellectual growth of African American students. The findings held for both standardized, objective measures of reading comprehension, and for self-reported measures of gains…

This study was designed to determine whether age or education had the greatest impact on the intellectual development of college students of traditional and nontraditional ages. (Author)

A study (n=139 students) used hierarchical structural equation modeling to examine the relationship between intellectual development and identity from the beginning of the freshman year through the end of the sophomore year. Results suggest that the college freshman's sense of identity is important in later intellectual development. Intervention…

A study was done to examine the impact of two different models of liberal education on students at Miami University (Ohio). Students enrolled in two general/liberal education programs completed a wide-ranging battery of instruments to assess the impact which their educational experiences had on their intellectual and personal development. The…

The undergraduate liberal arts program is assumed to promote sophistication in thinking. At the same time, certain levels of cognitive ability are assumed to be present in students accepted into selective undergraduate colleges. Beginning in the fall of 1991, a long-term research study was undertaken at a small residential liberal arts college…

Many graduate students lack the capacity for self-authorship, the ability to develop one's own perspective. Data from a longitudinal study of sixteen students, begun in their first year of college, illustrates the difficulty of moving from embracing multiple perspectives to constructing self-authored perspectives. The stories of three graduate…

This study investigated students' metacognitive and intellectual development within the context of academic training, achievement, and personality type, using two longitudinal data sets from a four-year public institution. The first set included 408 male students of the 1996 cohort; the second was comprised of 419 male students of the class of…

This study investigated the relative freshman-year cognitive impacts of 2 historically black and 16 predominantly white colleges on black students. Of these institutions, 5 were 2-year institutions and the rest were 4-year colleges. The data were taken from a pool of 2,416 freshmen students who participated in the National Study of Student…

This book describes the Reflective Judgment Model (RJM) and provides a comprehensive review of the research on it and the Reflective Judgment Interview (RJI). Chapter 1 defines reflective judgment as an often neglected aspect of critical thinking. Chapter 2 discusses stage-related assumptions that underlie RJM and relates RJM to current work in…

Current theories of intellectual development claim that such development proceeds through invariant sequences of increasingly more adequate cognitive structures. According to the two dominant theories on changes in intellectual functioning during adulthood, intellectual development is essentially accomplished by adolescence, although sharpening…