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Are They Ready Yet? Developmental Issues
refer to the thinking of those who tend to see knowledge as certain and absolute and who
believe single correct answers exist for all questions. For people in stages 1 or 2, something
is true or it is false. Beliefs need little or no justification since there is assumed to be an
absolute correspondence between what is believed to be true and what exists. Accepted
authority figures know the truth, and one learns truth from them. Justification of beliefs
is thus primarily a process of repeating what one has been told. Students in these stages see
good teachers as those who unambiguously provide material for memorization and then
test that memorization. A student who is a prereflective thinker is mystified or angered by
being asked to analyze their thinking and justify their opinions. These students find criti-
cal thinking exercises and group work to be superfluous. They just want the right answers
and a good study guide so they can memorize the correct material for the test. They ask,
“Is this going to be on the test?” since anything not tested is unnecessary.
Stage 3 thinkers are a bit more advanced than stage 1 or 2 thinkers, albeit still prereflec-
tive. These students understand there may be areas in which knowledge is temporarily
uncertain, but all true knowledge is certain. Therefore, in areas in which knowledge is
uncertain, everything is “mere opinion.” For these students all opinions have equal author-
ity since no one knows the truth (yet). Thus stating one’s opinion is justification enough
for that opinion, since opinions just happen. They will say, “That’s just your opinion!” as
reason for discounting something someone says, or “That’s just my opinion” as justifica-
tion for their own view. The idea that opinions have reasons and can be better or worse
based upon supporting evidence makes little sense to them; they see no reason for critical
thinking. A stage 3 thinker may insist, “Until there is enough clear evidence to convince
everyone that evolution is correct, no one knows, and anyone’s guess is as good as anyone
else’s.” According to King and Kitchener’s (2003, 2004) data, the average high school
senior is at stage 2.7 and the average first-year college student is in stage 3 thinking.
Quasi-reflective thinking. Quasi-reflective thinking, stages 4–5, includes the recognition
that uncertainty is part of the knowing process. Students in these stages are able to see
knowledge as an abstraction, as constructed. This is a major advance in sophistication of
thinking. Now beliefs begin to be internally derived, not just accepted from authorities,
and evidence is an essential part of the knowing process and is an alternative to dogmatic
assertion. There is also awareness of alternative approaches and perspectives, and of con-
textual issues that dictate differing rules of evidence and different ways of framing issues.
In some ways there is a “swing of the pendulum”; students who are prereflective thinkers
tend to see knowledge as absolute and certain, while quasi-reflective thinkers may see
knowledge as relative and generally unknown and unknowable.
Stage 4 thinkers tend to see knowledge claims as idiosyncratic since all people have their
own perspectives and may see evidence differently or have access to different information.
Knowing has a strong element of ambiguity, since while beliefs must be justified by giving
reasons and using evidence, which reasons and which evidence matter is up to the indi-
vidual. Such thinkers tend to choose evidence that supports their prereflective beliefs
rather than hold those beliefs up to the light of evidence (e.g., young-earth creationism).
Stage 5 thinkers understand that differing opinions may be the result of differing con-
textual and subjective issues, but that certain contexts do have uniform rules for evidence
and judgments can be made. Stage 5 thinkers also understand that absolute truth may
never be knowable; only differing interpretations of evidence, events, or issues may be