Look Back: Kappan authors on intellectual development

Abstract

In this monthly column, Teresa Preston looks back at how Kappan authors have discussed the intellectual development of students. Authors generally agreed that it is important that schools teach students to use their minds, but they haven’t always agreed on how well schools are fulfilling that mission or what instruction that promotes intellectual development should look like. In the 1950s, Kappan authors responded to Arthur Bestor’s critiques of schools as “intellectual wastelands” by pointing out that it was more important for students to learn to think about curricular content and apply it in their lives than it was for them to master large amounts of content. Kappan authors also considered how schools should handle new information that called old ideas into question and how emotions relate to intellectual development.