Achieving learning outcomes during a semester- or quarter-long course is no guarantee that students "got it"--that students have learned how to learn or that they have successfully bridged the gap between theory and practice. Higher education has developed diverse pedagogical approaches to expand the notion of teaching. Over the past…

In this article, the author suggests that college educators need to do more than tell students how to expand upon their careerist reasons for going to college; they also need to help them "feel" the value of that expansion. The author recognizes that this is part of the motivation for proposed structural changes to undergraduate education, such as…

One of the dilemmas that policy makers, campus leaders, and individual faculty members often describe with chagrin is the difficulty of scaling up successful innovations. Officials at the National Science Foundation (NSF), for example, admit they are discouraged because the results of most NSF-funded projects are not disseminated beyond the target…

Curricular innovation is at the center of the challenges many colleges and universities face as they seek to help students address more successfully than previous generations the complex, multi-faceted, systemic challenges of global climate change, population growth, loss of biodiversity, environmental justice, toxic wastes, and food insecurity.…

Ethical leadership is the critical appropriation and embodiment of moral traditions that have shaped the character and shared meanings of a people (an ethos). Ethical leaders speak authoritatively and act responsibly with the aim of serving the collective good. They are, therefore, leaders whose characters have been shaped by the wisdom, habits,…

Evidence abounds that, in recent decades, students have typically entered college relying on perspectives they have uncritically accepted from others and are not sufficiently challenged and supported to transition to internal authority during college. Students who have experienced significant challenge, particularly as a result of marginalization,…

A three-year program at Bethel College (Minnesota) has introduced faculty to various models of college student development, including the reflective judgment model of intellectual development, and their instructional applications. Knowledge of student development, now common to faculty and staff, has had a profound impact on teaching, learning,…

A reflective judgment model of adult intellectual development is proposed, for use by college faculty and staff in helping students question their assumptions about knowing and learning and in making more reflective judgments. The model is based on cognitive development theory and has specific implications for the college years. (MSE)

The reflective judgment model offers a rich context for analysis of science and science teaching. It provides deeper understanding of the scientific process and its critical thinking and reveals fundamental connections between science and the other liberal arts. Classroom techniques from a college chemistry course illustrate the utility of the…

College honors programs provide an especially promising context in which to promote reflective judgment by challenging and expanding students' intellectual horizons. However, faculty must carefully assess the different levels of cognitive development among their students, cultivate the skills of reflective judgment accordingly, and understand that…

Liberal arts colleges have abandoned their goal of education for the university-college model of education-for-a-job. The need for a new model is discussed. Colleges need to establish a central theme: "a curricular career of learning how to learn and accepting the responsibilities of leadership." (Author/MLW)

Discussion at the Wingspread Conference on the New American College (August 1994) concerning a new model of educational excellence in higher education is summarized. The model emphasizes the need to connect general education with specialized education, theoretical learning with practical learning, and development of intellectual skills with…

A procedure that the Whittier College community, on the strength of their own four-year experience, would recommend for the consideration of other colleges contemplating the development of a new curriculum is set out stage by stage. (LBH)

Carleton's new governance experiment to bring together all elements in the college community in a combination of localized decision-making and coordination. (Editor/IR)

Discusses curricular tradition in liberal higher education and proposes a schema of curricular principles emphasizing the character of the learner, the world to be known, a common heritage of humanity, and kinds of disciplines. Uses the University of Chicago's past and current curricula to illustrate the ongoing search for curricular coherence.…