Content and Criticism: the aims of schooling

A number of recent writers have urged that schools not try to foster critical thinking in students, and this attack on what had lately emerged as very widely held to be a central aim of schooling is examined and found wanting. The debate is placed in the context of the evolving discussion in twentieth-century philosophy of education of critical thinking as an educational aim, and it is argued that the distinctions and arguments which are needed to rebut the attack on critical thinking can in large measure be found in the literature from Dewey on.     

Perceived and Measured Needs Levels of Counselor Education Students

Because the counseling profession places high value on counselors possessing accurate self-awareness, this study investigated the differences and relationships between counselor education students' self-perceived and measured needs levels. A sample of 107 counselor students estimated their needs levels and then completed the Personality Research Form (PRF). Significant differences between their perceived and measured needs levels were found for 10 of the 14 PRF scales. Wide variations were evident in both perceived and measured needs levels. Significant correlations between perceived and measured needs levels percentiles for all 14 scales indicated consistency in over or under estimation of needs levels. Age and number of quarter hours completed were generally unrelated to accuracy of needs level estimation.     

PRIORITIES OF TEST PUBLISHERS

The profiles of seven major publishers of elementary-level tests were prepared from systematic ratings of the qualities of their tests. Meaningful rating differences among the publishers' priorities were found and three types of publishers could be identified and described.     

Should Students Have to Borrow? Autonomy,Wellbeing and Student Debt

The orthodox view on higher education financing is that students should bear some of the costs of attending and, where necessary, meet that cost through debt financing. New economic realties, including protracted economic slowdown and increasing austerity of the state with respect to the public funding of goods and services has meant that the same generation who have to borrow the most in order to attend face significantly fewer employment prospects upon graduation. In this context, is the current approach of shifting the costs of post‐secondary education from the general public to individual students justified? Most debate on the issue has focused on the demands of distributive justice within the modern higher education system and on the whole accepts the idea that students ought to pay. I argue that distributive arguments alone are insufficient because they tacitly endorse the provision of higher education as being much like a consumer's choice. As an alternative, I explore the place and importance of higher education in supporting personal autonomy as a central liberal democratic value. I then argue that debt financing of higher education places unreasonable constraints on student's choices with respect to the kind of democratic citizens that they would otherwise aspire to be. This constraint has negative implications for the wellbeing of individual students and the larger society.