Rationality as a goal of education

Abstract

Those who believe education should involve more than learning facts often stress either (a) development or (b) thinking skills. A focus on development as a goal of education typically entails a conception of knowledge as organismic, holistic, and internally generated. In contrast, thinking skills programs commonly assume a mechanistic, reductionist perspective in which good thinking consists of some finite number of directly teachable skills. A conception of rationality as a goal of education is proposed that incorporates the complementary strengths and avoids the limitations of the developmental and thinking skills approaches. Rationality is defined as the self-reflective, intentional, and appropriate coordination and use of genuine reasons in generating and justifying beliefs and behavior. Philosophically, rationality is a justifiable goal of education, not only because it is a means to worthwhile ends but because it is an important end in itself and because it can be promoted via non-indoctrinative means. A psychological account of progressive rationality is provided that postulates continuing multiple interactions of (a) domain-specific developmental stages, (b) the learning of specific thinking skills, and (c) content-specific knowledge. Suggestions are made for fostering rationality at various educational levels. Finally, it is argued that the proposed conception of rationality as a goal of education complements and clarifies a variety of other educational goals.

The Generalizability of Critical Thinking

“…668-9. 12 David Moshman argues persuasively that rational thinking requires both general reasoning ability and subject specific skills, criteria, and content knowledge. See Moshman (1989), esp. pp.…”

Are religious believers irrational: a direct test from an efficient market hypothesis

“…The positive relationship between family income and education has been widely documented in recent literature [e.g. Blanden and Gregg 2004], and that educated people tend to be more rational in the course of economic decision-making [Moshman 1990]. As the literature survey points out, less educated adults tend to be more religious and bias economic decision-making towards their beliefs [Schieman 2011].…”

More Rational or More Emotional Than Others? Lay Beliefs About Decision‐Making Strategies

“…Enlightenment philosophers such as John Locke drew on Aristotle’s ideas that rationality is a unique characteristic of humans and that, without a natural law of rationality, humans would have no virtue (Locke, 2002). Similarly, Rousseau (2018, p. 267) wrote that “[A] Christian only needs logic in order to have virtue.” These ideas are reified in educational systems, whose mission in a democracy includes developing students’ ability to use reason as a basis for decisions and to connect premises to deductions through thoughtful reflection (Moshman, 1990). Notably, the importance of rationality is reinforced by standardized tests assessing students’ ability to develop logical arguments, identify logical flaws, and engage in scientific reasoning (Bao et al., 2009; Milewski, Johnsen, Glazer, & Kubota, 2005).…”