David B. Annis

A normative study of students’ reported preferred study techniques

Abstract There is no data in the literature regarding the study techniques actually used by students in various grades. The absence of this data may in part explain the conflicting results in the literature on study technique effectiveness. This normative study investigated the study technique preferences of 914 students in grades 6–8, 10–12, and at the college level in order to determine the study techniques actually used by students at various ages. The results indicate that with increasing grade level there is an increase in the total number of study techniques described by students, and also that with increasing grade level Read Only decreases in popularity and is replaced by the study techniques of Underlining and/or Note Taking. Possible explanations for these results include the more active involvement and encoding required by Underlining and Note Taking and the increasing influence of individual differences.

The Impact of Philosophy on Students' Critical Thinking Ability.

Abstract College students enrolled in various kinds of philosophy courses and in a nonphilosophy control group were tested at the beginning and end of the term with different forms of the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal in order to determine the effect of course content on growth in critical thinking. It was found that Logic had a consistent impact on certain aspects of critical thinking, while other philosophy courses when compared to the control group did not have this consistent effect. It was also found that student sex interacts with number of previous philosophy courses for at least one aspect of critical thinking, with females scoring lower than males when both have no previous courses in philosophy and higher than males when both sexes have had previous philosophy courses. Implications of these findings for increasing the growth of critical thinking in other disciplines are discussed.

Fostering Creativity in Philosophy

The American Philosophical Association suggests that studying philosophy can have an important impact on one’s creative thinking ability. This paper abstracts from the empirical research on creativity a reasonable model of creative thinking, and discusses what the account implies about fostering creative thinking in philosophy courses. Given the empirical research on creativity and the nature of philosophy, studying philosophy can have an important impact on one’s creative thinking ability, but faculty need to focus on it in their courses.