Actively Open-Minded Thinking in Adolescence

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

Abstract

Openness to alternatives is an important intellectual habit. Baron (1988, 1993) suggested that the best critical thinking is actively open-minded; that is, characterized by active and unbiased search for alternatives, evidence, reasons, and goals.

Our goal was to investigate the development of actively open-minded thinking (AOT) in adolescence, focusing on the key transition from middle school to high school. We predicted that AOT would flourish among adolescents, who are old enough for complex abstract reasoning but too young to have become entrenched in particular epistemic commitments. We also predicted AOT would rise across the transition from middle school to high school. This transition is characterized by two major changes: academics become more demanding and social networks shift. These changes generate considerable intellectual and social stimulation, which we predicted would foster increased AOT.

In a longitudinal mixed-methods study, we followed adolescents for 18 months, across the transition from 8th grade to 9th grade. We recruited the entire eighth grade class from eight different schools in four states, yielding a total of 1551 participants. The schools included two large, diverse public schools, four charter schools, and two small private schools. The resulting sample was 49% female, 47% African-American, 25% Caucasian, 15% Hispanic, 11% Asian, and 2% Multiracial/Other. These students took our survey at four time points, once at the end of each semester. The survey included multiple measures of AOT, including a traditional rating scale, two new multiple choice measures, and cognitive reflection reasoning problems, as well as a large battery of other measures. In addition, we collected teacher reports of students’ AOT at all four time points. A subset of 96 students were interviewed twice, once in the middle of each year, using a problem-based protocol designed to elicit demonstrations of AOT or its absence.

These data converged to reveal widespread openness to disagreement and desire for understanding. Most strikingly, the majority also showed signs of high levels of open-minded thinking, identifying, as 8th graders, the possibility of expert disagreement (85%), the utility of evidence for theory selection (87%), and the provisionality of resulting conclusions (92%).

AOT increased substantially in the transition from middle school to high school, in all measures except the self-report rating scale. In the survey data, improvement was not significant within each year but was significant in the transition from 8th grade to 9th grade, suggesting that, as predicted, the transition itself played a major role in fostering AOT. Increases in AOT were predicted by increases in love of reading, interest in school, vocabulary, growth mindset, and friendships with other high-AOT students, which we take to indicate approaches to intellectual stimulation. GPA and attendance were positively associated with AOT, but not changes in AOT, suggesting that not all schoolwork develops AOT.

American adolescents seem to have a considerable capacity for actively open-minded thinking, which increases for students who seek out novel intellectual stimulation. The current research suggests that in the development of AOT among adolescents, opportunities to pursue intellectual interests and exposure to novel ideas are key.

Authors

• S. Emlen Metz, University of California - Berkeley

• Alisa Yu, University of Pennsylvania