This paper considers critical reflection as a pedagogical strategy in UK higher education at a moment of an amplification of populist, reactionary discourses. It draws on written reflections of foundation-level students in a case study cohort and offers insights into their lived learning experiences and perceptions of the value of reflection. This…

College student anti-intellectualism is defined as a general disdain of intellectual and academic endeavors. Eigenberger and Sealander (2001), using the student anti-intellectualism scale (SAIS), reported that SAIS scores were negatively correlated with openness to experience and elaborative/deep cognitive processing. Proneness to boredom,…

Have college students become careerists rather than intellectuals? Are working-class students to blame for grade inflation, grade-grubbing, and the downscaling of the university's noble mission of educating the whole person? These assertions, although somewhat buried in a mass of facts and findings, are present in almost every research study on…

"Anti-intellectualism" refers to a student's lack of interest in and disrespect for intellectual pursuits and critical thinking and a preference for an education experience that is practical and requires only memorization. "Academic self-efficacy" refers to a student's confidence in his or her ability to succeed in challenging academic tasks. The…

Analyzes a number of situations that reveal students' disinterest in learning about events and people from the past; traces possible causes of this disinterest. (RL)

Analysis of the forces behind the current lowering of academic standards in the universities. (SP)

Presents the results of a survey on student attitudes that the author's research firm carried out. (Editor)

Analysis of the essays of 3,514 Minnesota secondary students indicated that the majority (53.8%) would choose to be the smartest student in their class rather than the best-looking or the most athletic. Content analysis data, however, suggested significant awareness of an anti-intellectual stigma advanced by peers. (Author/CR)

Evaluates books by H. F. Kearney, R. L. Greaves, I. Berg, and P. Bourdieu and J. C. Passeron as inadequately analyzing the problem of preserving high culture from dilution and eventual decay in the crisis of mass higher education, while opening American society for upward mobility from below. (JM)

Presents a humorous speech given to high school English teachers on two serious subjects: externally imposed standards and standardized testing, and anti-intellectualism in the classroom and in the culture. Argues that English teachers themselves are responsible for some of the anti-intellectualism they encounter by teaching literature in an…