Focused on college-aged, but applies beyond those limits
Adult cognitive development is a quickly expanding field. This little volume provides an excellent introduction to one small part of this field - the traditional college student. Five theorists (William Perry, Mary Field Belenky, Baxter Magolda, Patricia King and Karen Kitchener, and Robert Kegan) are reviewed with short chapters describing the major tenants of their theories, contemporary shortcomings of their work, and continuing usefulness of the theory for college educators. Perry set the stage for this discussion by framing collegiate cognitive development in epistemological terms. As collegiates matured he identified shifts in identity and meaning formation. Belenky extended Perry's research to women, identifying five epistemological patterns during women's life-span. Magolda's Epistemological Reflection Model was developed from longitudinal study, and identified gender tendencies and the cross-domain non-generalizability of epistemological level. King and Kitchener's Reflective Judgment Model extends Jean Piaget's stages into adulthood by emphasizing critical thinking and ill-structured problem resolution. Kegan's life-span theory of orders of consciousness sees consciousness as the personal construction of experience, emphasizing the organization, rather than content, of feelings, thinking and relating. Development in Kegan's theory involves redefinition of the subject-object distinction.
Please note that only Perry and Magolda limit their theories to the collegiate. Belenky, King and Kitchener, and Kegan are identifying collegiates within a broader life-span theory.
In addition to the five theories, there is one chapter devoted to discussing the interpersonal, cultural and emotional influences on cognitive development, and a concluding chapter that attempts to synthesize the theories into a congruent framework and to provide advice on improving informal assessment of collegiate cognitive developmental level.
While it would be difficult to improve on this concise introduction to collegiate epistemology, this is in no way a comprehensive introduction to the complex field of adult cognitive development. Much work continues under the umbrella term "postformal operations" and major theorists of note include Jan Sinnott, Michael Commons, Francis Richards, Lawrence Kohlberg, John Broughton, Michael Basseches, Herb Koplowitz, Gisela Labouvie-Vief, Patricia Arlin, Allan Chinen, and Cheryl Armon. Furthermore, intelligence, wisdom and aging requires mention of Robert Sternberg, Howard Gardner, Timothy Salthouse, and Paul Baltes.
I recommend this volume as a primer to the field of cognitive development, especially as it relates to changing epistemological patterns. Anyone working with older adolescents and young adults is likely to benefit from exposure to this material.
