Online collaborative learning (OCL) has become a common instructional strategy in higher education for developing students' skills in collaboration, problem-solving, and critical thinking. Cognitive engagement in OCL evolves dynamically, but we do not yet fully understand which patterns of cognitive engagement are conducive to OCL and when to…

This article examines the psychological theoretical foundations of college student development theory and the theoretical assumptions of this framework. A complimentary, sociological perspective and the theoretical assumptions of this approach are offered. The potential limitations of the overuse of each perspective are considered. The conclusion…

This article is about student learning, specifically the problem of what a university can do to develop its students' powers of learning. The broad approach is to discover what we can learn from the university's long experience with developing students' critical faculties and then apply the lessons to developing students' powers of learning. The…

The Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education (CAS) promotes standards to enhance opportunities for student learning and development from higher education programs and services. Responding to the increased shift in attention being paid by educators and their stakeholders from higher education inputs (i.e., standards and…

This paper presents the main functions that university plays in society and describes the seminar methodology created at Ramon Llull University. Specifically the article focuses on and explains how seminars help to promote complex knowledge in students. An empirical study with students participating in seminars is designed to assess the…

Contends that communication education has a unique chance to prepare students for the "epistemological crises of our age" and uses William Perry's scheme of relativism in student development to assess three approaches to communication pedagogy. (MH)

Using a sample of 2818 first-year college students, this study relates their identity processing styles as determined by the Identity Styles Inventory to self-perceived academic self-efficacy and academic performance. Conceptualizes obstacles to identity development and academic success and discusses proactive interventions within a context of…

Used multiple measures with nine supervisors-in-training to explore supervisor development. In terms of content of thoughts in response to particular vignette, participants' thoughts were primarily neutral, suggesting they were able to be nonjudgmental and objective. Participants seemed particularly challenged by situations that required…

A moral development scale (Defining Issues Test) administered to students as entering freshmen and 4 years later indicated a significant decrease in conventional reasoning and an increase in principled reasoning. (Author)

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;…

An alternative general education program for freshmen at Albertus Magnus College is described. The program, an interdisciplinary student-centered introduction to general education, is composed of two parts that the student takes concurrently: (1) a year-long seminar in thought and expression, and (2) a sequence of four (usually 7-week) courses in…

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)

Data were analyzed from the postcollege phase of a 7-year longitudinal study of college students' (n=101) epistemological development. The data revealed that the gender-related patterns of relational and impersonal knowing that these students demonstrated during college were integrated into postcollege experience in work, education, and personal…

Piaget's theories of cognitive development are applied to the college student and suggestions are given for helping students at different developmental stages. It is proposed that teachers provide experiences that promote cognitive conflict as a means of moving students into new stages. (MSE)

A study was conducted to investigate the relationship between the intellectual maturity of college students and evidence of rhetorical maturity in their writing--specifically, why some students write better than others, since general language abilities cannot account for all the differences between good and poor writing. By focusing on college…