Book review: Impressive analysis of meaning-making and symbols

Opiskelijavalintojen kehittäminen kasvatustieteessä : tutkimus- ja kehityshankkeen loppuraportti

Beliefs of human nature reflected in the third age. Discussion group of philosophical psychology in the UTA of Jyväskylä

Beyond free will : The embodied emergence of conscious agency

Is it possible to reconcile the concept of conscious agency with the view that humans are biological creatures subject to material causality? The problem of conscious agency is complicated by the tendency to attribute autonomous powers of control to conscious processes. In this paper, we offer an embodied process model of conscious agency. We begin with the concept of embodied emergence – the idea that psychological processes are higher-order biological processes, albeit ones that exhibit emergent properties. Although consciousness, experience, and representation are emergent properties of higher-order biological organisms, the capacity for hierarchical regulation is a property of all livin…

Viisaus tienä

Onko viisaus samaa kuin oppiminen? Merkitseekö viisastuminen sitä, että ymmärtää jotakin uutta, mitä aiemmin ei vielä ymmärtänyt? Avaako kriisinjälkeinen kasvu oven uuteen? Ajatus kärsimyksestä ja vaikeuksista matkana viisauteen on tuttu myös useasta maailmanuskonnosta. Elämänkulkua voi tarkastella erilaisten kielikuvien kautta. Elämän voi nähdä puuna, joka aloittaa kasvunsa, on kukkeimmillaan ja lopulta alkaa rapistua. Viimeinen askel on pudottaa lehdet tai neulaset ja kuolla. Elämän voi nähdä myös jatkuvasti yhä korkeammalle nousevana viivana. Tällöin oletuksena on, että siinä on erilaisia, laadullisesti toisistaan eroavia tasoja ja että nousemme yhä korkeammalle kasvun myötä. Toisinaan e…

Training of students ́scientific reasoning skills

Modernin tieteen rajapinnoilla : kaksi teosta tieteellisen vallankumouksen aikakaudelta

Filosofia tutkielmia / Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz ; toimittaneet Tuomo Aho ja Markku Roinila ; suomentajat Tuomo Aho ... ja muita. Helsinki : Gaudeamus Helsinki University Press, 2011. 511 s. ISBN 978-952-495-121-0 Modernin tieteen synty Euroopassa / Paolo Rossi ; suomentanut Lena Talvio. Tampere : Vastapaino, 2010. 395 s. ISBN 978-951-768-153-7

Voimaannuttava ikäjohtaminen

Lähtökohtia luontoon liitettyjen merkitysten ja elämysten tutkimiseksi

University Applicants’ Critical Thinking Skills: The Case of the Finnish Educational Sciences

This study investigates the quality of the critical thinking skills of applicants (n = 77) seeking entry to the faculty of educational sciences in a Finnish university and how these skills are associated with the applicant’s age, previous higher education experience, and matriculation and entrance examination scores. The data consist of the applicants’ responses to problem-solving tasks and their matriculation and entrance examination scores. Critical thinking skills were measured with comparison and argumentation tasks. The results indicate that comparison of the texts and analysis of the arguments they contained were more difficult tasks than putting forward arguments both for and against…

Systems thinking and adult cognitive development

This chapter explores the links between scientific systems approaches and adult cognitive development. First, it describes the premises and basic concepts of systems thinking. It then continues to give an overview of the history of systems approach and the development of the main models and theories from its roots, which lie in the natural sciences. This is followed by an examination of the three systems paradigms, namely, Closed Systems, Open Systems, and Dynamic Systems and their implications to research and operational interests, in addition to their explanatory power in today’s world. Second part of the chapter focuses on describing the intersections between the Dynamic Systems paradigm…

Transformations Toward Mature Thinking: Challenges for Education and Learning

In this chapter, adult cognitive development and its transformation are explored in the context of a rapidly changing postmodern world. This chapter presents and describes three models of adult cognitive development and their educational implications. The models presented are Basseches’ model of dialectical thinking, Kuhn’s model of epistemological development, and Baxter Magolda’s model of the development of self-authorship. These models are described in greater detail because they present advanced forms of adult cognitive development but also because of the challenge they pose to educational practices. These models open possibilities for understanding educational practices and learning es…

Ajattelu, tietoisuus ja tiedostuminen Jean Piaget'n teoriassa

Kasvatus hajoavassa ajassa : nuorten arvot ja moraalikasvatuksen mahdollisuudet

Keskustelupedagoginen näkökulma aikuiskasvatukseen

Debating wisdom: There Can be No Psychology of Wisdom without Wisdom in Psychology

The highest forms of adult development have been called as “reaching of wisdom”, as E.H. Erikson for example put it. There are, of course, many definitions of wisdom, and many approaches, methods, and disciplines to study it. In its attempt to define itself as a science, psychology seeks to rely upon empirical means to identify or operationalize core terms. For example, many wisdom researchers seek to define wisdom “empirically” by identifying qualities that everyday individuals use when they describe people who they consider to be “wise”. Drawing on such studies, researchers have suggested that wisdom can be understood in terms of qualities such as humility, empathy, compassion, socio-cogn…

Who Stole My Banana? Social Science as Intersubjective Corroboration

We are honored at the opportunity to exchange ideas with three scholars for whom we have deep respect and admiration. In what follows, we clarify our thinking in response to a series of erudite and...

Professional expertise, integrative thinking, wisdom, and phronēsis

This chapter examines adult thinking from the perspective of professional expertise and phronēsis, that is, practical wisdom. It first describes differences between experts and novices, and presents three conceptualisations of the development of expertise. This is followed by an analysis of the form of adult thinking referred to as integrative thinking, and phronēsis. The relationship of these two with expertise is examined. The analysis shows that professional expertise requires holistic thinking involving the ability to integrate or conciliate various and even conflicting perspectives in order to find new solutions to problems. Furthermore, the role of emotions and ethical reflection is e…

Reflections on the modern mass university and the question of the autonomy of thinking

The article examines the concepts of massification and globalisation of higher education and contrasts them with some concepts from developmental psychology. The traditional task of universities is to train autonomous, self-directed and critical citizens who think scientifically. In this article I shall ask whether these tasks are possible in massified, marketised and globalised universities. My main aim is to draw on empirical findings to open theoretical perspectives on the topic. peerReviewed

An overview of the concepts of change and development - from the premodern to modern era

This chapter focuses on the concepts of change and progress: on one hand, it approaches this topic from the point of view of the history of science; on the other hand, from the point of view of modern developmental psychology. The section on the history of science focuses on the historical period of the pre-modern Hellenistic era to the Enlightenment. This period is long, and it therefore includes several, different world views and cultural trends. In this chapter culturally significant trends of thought within the PtolemaicAristotelic tradition are described.The section on the modern developmental psychology approach analyses the following questions: (1) which characteristics must changes …

Sokraattinen keskustelu, viisaus ja etiikka : integratiivinen opetuskokeilu

Tiedon rajallisuudesta

Valkoinen kurki levittää siipensä. Huomautuksia taijiquanin oppimisesta ja tuntemattomaan maastoon etenemisestä.

Integrating epistemic knowledge and logical reasoning skills in adult cognitive development 1

Developmental processes in Adulthood - European Research Perspectives

The main objective of this Special European Issue is to investigate some topical aspects of recent research on adult development in Europe. More specifically, the issue offers a detailed discussion of questions involved in complex forms of adult cognition, scientific thinking, responses to the demands of everyday life, the effects of various life events on well-being, and the construction of an integrated model of the cognitive, social, and personality domains. Theo- retically, the articles are based on various viewpoints such as the neo-Piagetian perspectives on thinking, although others have connections with the Vygotskian approach to learning. In conclusion, we assert that the developmen…

Lukiomenestyksen ja yliopisto-opintojen aloitushetken iän yhteys yliopisto-opinnoissa menestymiseen ja opintojen etenemiseen : seurantatutkimus

Tässä tutkimuksessa selvitettiin, missä määrin lukion opintomenestys selittää yliopisto-opinnoissa menestymistä ja opintojen etenemistä. Aineisto muodostui 120:n vuonna 2006 opintonsa aloittaneen liikuntatieteiden tai kielten yliopisto-opiskelijan takautuvista opintotiedoista. Tutkittavista kerättiin lukiosuoritusten arvosanat, ja heidän yliopisto-opintojensa etenemisnopeutta ja suoritustasoa seurattiin vuoteen 2015 saakka. Aineisto analysoitiin korrelaatio- ja regressioanalyyseilla. Regressioanalyysissa selvisi, että tutkittavien lukion päättötodistuksen arvosanojen keskiarvo ja ikä opintojen aloitushetkellä selittivät yliopistossa suoritettujen arvosanojen keskiarvoa. Mitä parempi keskiar…

From causal thinking to wisdom and spirituality: some perspectives on a growing research field in adult (cognitive) development

This article concentrates on the latest international trends in the research on psychological development of adults, and especially on the development of cognition. The field of research has been very fragmented, and researchers have kept creating new models one after another to describe their own lines of thought and also seeking for empirical evidence for their models. This has created a rather equivocal picture of the phenomenon itself. The present article attempts to identify the historical roots of the field, and introduces descriptive factors that could conceptually determine the gist of the phenomenon. In this context we will discuss, mainly, research going back to Piaget and Perry, …

Kuinka moneus muuttuu ykseydeksi : integroinnin teema aikuisen ajattelussa

Artikkelissa keskitytään viimeisimpään kansainväliseen keskusteluun aikuisen psyykkisestä kehityksestä. Tarkasteltavana on tällöin useamman psyyken alueen muutos: ajattelun, tunteiden, tahdon ja toiminnan kehitys. Tutkimuksen kenttä on ollut hyvin hajanainen ja tutkijat ovat luoneet yhä uusia malleja kuvaamaan omia ajatuskulkujaan ja hankkineet malleilleen empiiristä todistusaineistoa. Tämä on luonut hyvin monivivahteisen kuvan itse ilmiöstä. Artikkelissa pyritään yhdistämään erilaisia ajatuslinjoja ja eristämään niitä kuvaava tai kuvaavia tekijöitä, jotka voivat toimia ilmiön ydintä määrittävinä käsitteinä. Tällöin käsitellään mm. Gisela Labouvie‐Viefin (1982; 1994; 2006) käsityksiä aikuis…

Systematic reasoning: Formal or postformal cognition?

The focus of this study was to investigate the relationship between formal and postformal systematic metasystematic reasoning. Shayer's (1978) chemicals task and a modified version of Kuhn and Brannock's (1977) plant task were used to measure formal thinking and Commons, Richard, and Kuhn's (1982) multisystem task and balance-beam task to detect postformal reasoning. Subjects were university students from the humanities and social sciences (N=35). For each subject, a composite score was defined by taking into account the highest score in the tasks measuring the same developmental stage. Findings indicated that composite scores of formal and postformal reasoning were significantly correlated…

Formal operations and postformal reasoning: A replication

The relationship between formal operations and postformal reasoning was examined by using the Shayer (1978) chemicals problem to assess formal operations and the Commons, et al. (1982) four-story problem to measure postformal reasoning. The subjects were 35 undergraduate social science and humanities students. None of the subjects who were classified as concrete operational or transitional on the chemicals task showed postformal reasoning. The hypothesis that full format operations are a necessary condition of post-formal reasoning and the expectation that subjects showing full formal operations are more likely than others to exhibit postformal reasoning was not supported.

Impressive analysis of meaning-making and symbols

Integrative thinking is the key: An evaluation of current research into the development of adult thinking

Post-formal relativistic-dialectical thinking has been widely claimed to be a new developmental stage of intellectual development. Other theoretical models come very close to post-formal thinking, with overlapping features such as the study of wisdom and epistemic understanding, as well as models of expertise, critical thinking, and scepticism. No coherent theory exists in the fields of post-formal and relativistic-dialectical thinking, though scholars have claimed that there is some similarity between the models. While empirical evidence of interconnectedness between them exists, a major difficulty lies in the theoretical definition of concepts. We critically assess the definitions of rel…

The Phenomenology of Between: An Intersubjective Epistemology for Psychological Science

We outline the concept of intersubjective corroboration as an epistemology for psychological science. Psychological knowledge arises neither from subjectivity nor objectivity, but from intersubject...

Se kehittyy, mitä kehitetään : viisaus kokemustietona ja itsekasvatuksessa

Study guidance experiences, study progress, and perceived learning outcomes of Finnish university students

In recent decades, the massification and diversification of higher education have generated new challenges for the guidance of university students. The present study focuses on students’ experiences of guidance in relation to their study progress and perceptions of their learning outcomes. The data (n = 4916) were collected from 2010–2013 through yearly Internet surveys whose targeted respondents were the students of a Finnish University. According to the results, general study guidance was a very strong predictor of students’ self-assessed development of their academic and generic skills as well as working life orientation. It also decreased the probability of slow progress in studies. Sig…

Validation of a modified version of the Experiences of Teaching and Learning Questionnaire

Providing teaching-learning environments that foster university studentsö learning is an essential task of higher education. Valid and reliable tools for assessing them are therefore needed. This study investigates the measurement properties of a modified version of the Experiences of Teaching and Learning Questionnaire (ETLQ). Two independent data-sets (N = 1637 and N = 1711) were collected from Finnish university students. Confirmatory factor analyses resulted in a modified measurement model for the ETLQ, consisting of 11 factors. The first three factors assessing the teaching-learning environment – Teaching for Understanding, Disciplinary Understanding and Supportive Teaching – were indi…

Krishnamurti ja sanojen tyhjyys

Intialainen ajattelija Jiddu Krishnamurti väittää, että sanat eivät ole tie totuuteen, koska tietä ei ole: ”Totuus on poluton maa.” Hän avaa mahdollisuuden nähdä erilaisten näkökulmien taustalle ja irralleen niistä.

'Hiljainen todistaja'. Mietintää akateemisen tilan laadusta.

Yliopisto-opetuksen ja oppimisen laatu voidaan käsittää hyvin monella eri tavalla. Tässä teoksessa laatua on käsitelty usealta eri näkökulmalta: esimerkiksi käsitteellis teoreettisen analyysin keinoin, korkeakoulupolitiikan viitekehyksestä ja suhteutta maila se pedagogiseen kohtaamiseen. Käsillä oleva teksti tuo uuden näkökulman laadun käsitteeseen: onko myös fyysinen ympäristö ja -tila osa yliopisto-opetuksen ja -oppimisen sekä tutkimustyön laatua? Tilaa ja ympäristöä ei yleensä mielletä laatutekijäksi. Mikä merkitys tilalla on kokemuksiimme, työssä viihtymiseen ja työn tuloksiin? Tässä artikkelissa keskityn ainoastaan joidenkin yliopistollisen tilan piirteiden pohtimiseen: ympäristön mykk…

Integrative thinking is the key : An evaluation of current research into the development of adult thinking

Post-formal relativistic-dialectical thinking has been widely claimed to be a new developmental stage of intellectual development. Other theoretical models come very close to post-formal thinking, with overlapping features such as the study of wisdom and epistemic understanding, as well as models of expertise, critical thinking, and scepticism. No coherent theory exists in the fields of post-formal and relativistic-dialectical thinking, though scholars have claimed that there is some similarity between the models. While empirical evidence of interconnectedness between them exists, a major difficulty lies in the theoretical definition of concepts. We critically assess the definitions of rela…