Knowing and reasoning in college

Understanding college students' intellectual development is at the heart of effective educational practice. How do college students learn? How can educators maximize intellectual development in the college environment for both sexes - both in and out of the classroom? In this book, Marcia B. Baxter Magolda demonstrates how educators can use a deeper understanding of the way students learn to teach more effectively. Drawing on a unique longitudinal study of more than one hundred college students, both male and female - and presenting information not available in single-gender studies - the author explains surprising gender-related patterns that affect the way students develop. Baxter Magolda uses data gathered from in-depth interviews over a five-year period to reveal four distinct "ways of knowing." These range from the most basic - in which learning is a question of acquiring information and repeating - to the most complex - in which students evaluate a variety of opinions before finally forming their own. In an innovative approach, the author presents direct excerpts from interviews with students, allowing us to "hear" their experiences in their own words - and offers rich data about the current realities of learning in college. The book provides useful real-life examples of how instructional approaches, class expectations, peer interaction, evaluation methods, and other factors affect intellectual development in the classroom. Similarly, the author demonstrates how peer relationships, student organizations, educational advising, internships, employment, and international and cultural exchange can support and develop complex learning beyond the classroom. Knowing and Reasoning in College provides practical recommendations on how to respond to each of the four ways of knowing. It shows how, by designing instruction and interaction to reach students at every level, educators can maximize learning, promote skill acquisition and development of complex reasoning, and enrich students' overall college experience.