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 traces the evolution of holistic student development as the centerpiece of the college experience in the 1960s to its current all-too-often overlooked function in postsecondary education, and it explains why students, employers, and the democracy all benefit from educating the whole person. Holistic student development encompasses…

The formative merits of university education are at risk of being reduced from graduateness in the sense of broad academic cultivation to professional training with a strong emphasis on employability. The difficulty in opposing this trend is the absence of a clear framework for academic cultivation. The aim of this study is to construct a model…

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)

Examines students' learning and intellectual development while living in formal learning communities in residence halls. Students in residential learning communities had significantly higher levels of involvement, interaction, and gains in learning and intellectual development than did students in traditional residence halls. Participation in…

Use of Perry's developmental scheme to test college students' intellectual development found that instead of developmental stages, there are two possible general attitudes taken toward knowledge: it (1) consists of facts to be supplied by faculty; or (2) is a quest in which students have responsibility for their own learning. (Author/MSE)

This study contributes to the reconceptualization of student personnel work by examining the views of college and university presidents on the goals of student affairs programs, and by determining the views of chief student affairs officers of their program goals. (Author/LA)

Examined rates of cognitive and psychosocial development and the influences of salient life experiences of traditional-aged college students. Results from 15 college students over one academic year suggest that intellectual and psychosocial developmental processes are not uniform, occur at discrepant rates, and are significantly affected by life…

This study, with 228 freshmen at the University of Hartford (Connecticut), found significant intellectual growth (especially in movement away from dualistic thinking) in most students over the year, with the amount of growth related to the number of completed interdisciplinary general education courses, which were specifically designed to promote…

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…

An unfolding model was selected for the scores on the Scale of Intellectual Development to take into account that, for stage-based instruments, agreement with a statement first increases as the student approaches the stage represented by the statement, then decreases as the student progresses beyond that stage. (Contains 21 references.) (Author)

Links the works of William Perry and of Carol Gilligan in a discussion of the need to consider differences between men and women in their patterns of intellectual development. Considers the need to examine gender differences especially as they relate to career decision making. (NB)

A working definition of the humanities and characteristics of a liberally educated person are specified. The humanities embrace areas of human knowledge that possess these elements: central concern for human beings rather than for the processes of nature or the structures of society; primary focus on the individual rather than on the group;…

This edited collection of occasional papers and reports by Harvard's director of the Bureau of Study Counsel addresses questions of student learning and intellectual development, the role of the faculty and advisory agencies in encouraging students' intellectual growth, and the nature of advising and counselling. (Author/LBH)

With a knowledge of students' thinking processes, activities advisers and leaders can design environments for maximum learning and development. An interpretation of Perry's model of intellectual and ethical development is provided. (MLW)