Week 11 Post 2

The section titled "Cognitive Growth and Higher Education" really stood out to me when I read chapter eighteen. I believe that one of the main reasons is because I can easily relate to the examples included in this section as well as apply this information to my own life. It is stated that the primary reason in which students attend college today is to secure better jobs and to learn specific skills and the secondary reason is general education. This holds true in the United States as well as many other countries. Studies show that college correlates with better health. Generally, college students smoke less, eat healthier, work out more, and have a longer life span. In addition, they are more likely to be spouses, homeowners, and parents of healthy children. It is highly likely college influences individuals to combine the subjective and objectives in a flexible, dialectical way. It improves verbal and quantitative abilities, adds knowledge of specific subject areas, teaches skills in various professions, fosters reasoning and reflection. Many of these abilities characterize postformal thinking. I was intrigued by the fact that some research finds that thinking becomes more reflective and expansive with each year of college. First year students believe that clear and perfect truths exist and they are distressed if their professors do not explain these truths. The initial phase is followed by a wholesale questioning of personal and social values. If a professor makes an assertion without extensive analysis and evidence, upper-level students are more skeptical.