Changes in critical thinking, attitudes, and values from freshman to senior years.

Abstract

To investigate changes in critical thinking ability, stereotypic beliefs, dogmatism, and values, a battery of cognitive and affective measures was administered to 1051 students as freshmen and then as seniors. The data were considered separately for males and females. The principal findings were that: (a) there is a significant decrease in stereotypic beliefs and unreceptivity to new ideas, (b) seniors are more "outer-directed" than they were as freshmen, (c) there is a significant improvement in critical thinking ability, and (d) seniors are not more homogeneous in certain attitudinal traits than freshmen. It was also shown that most of the changes took place during the freshman and sophomore yrs.

Critical Thinking in College Freshmen: The Impact of Secondary and Higher Education

“…As expected the average growth is rather small. The small increase in CT that is found matches the results of previous research (Astin, 1993;Bers, McGowan & Rubin, 1996;Giancarlo & Facione, 2001;Hagedorn et al, 1999;Lehmann, 1963;McMillan, 1987;Miller, 1992;Saucier, 1995). Even though CT is considered to be an important educational goal (Halpern, 1993(Halpern, , 1998Ku, 2009;Tsui, 2002), the impact of one year of HE on students' CT is rather small.…”

“…CT performances of beginning and more advanced students in cross-sectional or longitudinal studies were compared. Most of the researchers found that CT grows during HE and that the largest part of the growth takes place in the first two years (Arum & Roksa, 2011;Astin, 1993;Bers, McGowan & Rubin, 1996;Giancarlo & Facione, 2001;Hagedorn et al, 1999;Lehmann, 1963;McMillan, 1987;Miller, 1992).…”

Student-Faculty and Student-Peer Relationships as Mediators of the Structural Effects of Undergraduate Residence Arrangement

“…Whereas measures of the quality and impact of relationships with faculty appeared somewhat more important in positively influencing freshman persistence and gains in intellectual development, relationships with peers appeared to have a somewhat more positive influence on gains in personal development and the perceived intellectual press and sense of community in students' nonacademic lives. The latter finding is, perhaps, not particularly surprising given the body of evidence concerning the powerful influence of peer culture interactions, norms, and values on student perceptions and behaviors (9,12,15,33). On the other hand, the lack of significant beta weights between the two faculty relationship measures and nonacademic life/intellectual press most likely reflects the colinearity of these two variables with other predictors.…”

Tension in Freshmen and Senior Engineering Students

“…Other investigators, some of which are: Webster, 1958;Freedman, 1961;Webster, Freedman, and Heist, 1962;and Lehman, 1963, have concluded that freshman college students tend to evidence more authoritarian personality traits than do senior college students. The authors interpret the results of these studies as suggesting that college freshmen would tend to report more anxiety or tension than college seniors.…”