This research aims to thoroughly explore how authentic assessment methods, designed to emulate real-life challenges, contribute to enhancing the abilities of students to construct logical arguments, critically evaluate evidence, and articulate thoughts coherently in writing. In order to achieve the stated objective, a qualitative research design…

In Immanuel Kant's "Critique of Practical Reason" ["Kritik der praktischen Vernunft"] (hereafter: KpV), Kant in the second book's second part "Methodology of Pure Practical Reason" ["Methodenlehre der reinen praktischen Vernunft"] wonders why "the educators of the youth" have not "made use of…

Advocates teaching critical thinking through showing students the logic of a subject. Uses one example of instruction in history that allows students to think their way through the logic of the subject rather than memorize bits and pieces of someone else's thought (never grasping its logic). (VWC)

Describes an assignment sequence using photographs to introduce developmental students to conventions of academic inquiry, and to give them practice analyzing and synthesizing. Reports that students link details observed in the photos to inferences drawn about them. Concentrates on the assignment linking a photo of E. B. White with an essay by him…

The formal development of critical thinking is discussed, and guidance is provided to help faculty insure that critical thinking becomes an integral part of learning. Theory, research, teaching practice, and college programs pertinent to the development and role of critical thinking are presented in order to show how educators have shaped…

Recent state reforms that embrace the effective schools movement may actually be counterproductive. These mandates encourage the persistence of outmoded, teacher centered, pedagogical practices and current school organizational structures, inhibiting the development of students' independent reasoning and problem-solving skills, as well as the…

The "componential" theory of intelligence explains intelligence in terms of three types of component processes that make up intelligent performance. The first of these, "metacomponents," are the higher-order or executive processes that one uses to plan what one is going to do, monitor what one is doing, and evaluate what one…

This paper describes a method of introducing ethics to a second-year class of civil engineering students. The method, known as a "structured controversy", takes the form of a workshop where the students assume the identity of stakeholders having an interest in a proposed development in an environmentally sensitive region. The instructor…