How do students learn to reason and think about complex issues? This book fills a critical gap in our understanding of a long-neglected facet of the critical thinking process: reflective judgment. Drawing on extensive cross-sectional and longitudinal research, including their own ten-year study, Patricia M. King and Karen Strohm Kitchener detail the series of stages that lay the foundation for reflective thinking, and they trace the development of reflective judgment through adolescence and adulthood.King and Kitchener's new model of reflective judgment is designed to enhance both research and practice in the areas of critical thinking, intellectual development, and education. The authors examine key questions concerning reflective judgment: How do high school, college, and graduate students reason differently about ill-structured problems? Does students' reasoning improve with additional exposure to and involvement in higher education? Do adult learners differ from traditional-age students in their reflective thinking? How does the reasoning of adult college graduates differ from that of non-college-educated adults? The authors also describe the implications of the Reflective Judgment Model for working with students in the classroom and beyond—encouraging educators to think differently about interactions with their students and to create ways of more effectively promoting the ability to make reflective judgments.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 289-314) and index.

PATRICIA M. KING is associate professor and acting chair of the Department of Higher Education and Student Affairs at Bowling Green State University. KAREN STROHM KITCHENER is a professor in the College of Education and the director of the counseling psychology program at the University of Denver.