56.042 - Intellectual Character Development in Adolescents: Promoting Learning and Success

Session Type: Symposium

Abstract

Many agree that adolescents are ill-equipped for the “knowledge economy”. In response, there has been renewed interest in fostering the skills and character strengths that students will need to succeed. Intellectual character refers to strengths, such as open-mindedness, that are associated with productive thinking. In this symposium, four papers, spanning the course of adolescence, will consider how intellectual character strengths are important for adolescent learning and how we might best foster intellectual character strengths in adolescents. Beginning with curiosity in middle school, then open-mindedness over the transition to high school, turning to intellectual humility in high school, and concluding with intellectual courage and autonomy in college, this symposium will inform those dedicated to promoting the learning and success of adolescents.

Sub Unit

• SIG-Adolescence and Youth Development

Chair

• Shelby Clark, Boston University

Papers

• Fostering Adolescent Intellectual Curiosity: Student and Teacher Perspectives on Indirect and Direct Methods of Enculturation - Shelby Clark, Boston University; Tenelle Porter, University of California - Davis; Scott Clifford Seider, Boston University

• Actively Open-Minded Thinking in Adolescence - S. Emlen Metz, University of California - Berkeley; Alisa Yu, University of Pennsylvania

• Exploring Intellectual Humility, Achievement Goals, and Grades Among High School Students - Tenelle Porter, University of California - Davis; Karina Schumann, University of Pittsburgh

• Intellectual Courage and Autonomy: Virtues for Flourishing in Higher Education - Rebecca M Taylor, Emory University; Ashley Floyd Kuntz, The University of Alabama at Birmigham

Discussant

• Jal David Mehta, Harvard University