Intellectual and ethical development in higher education students: Pedagogical implications

This article analyses some pedagogical implications of studies on the intellectual and ethical development of adults in general, and higher education students in particular. In an initial phase two studies are described (those of Perry and Kitchener and collaborators), with samples of higher education students in which one can see that their thinking developed, throughout their studies, from a radical absolutism to a progressive relativization of knowledge. Subsequently (1) the results are analysed of the research that shows that few higher education students reach the most advanced stages of intellectual and ethical development, and (2) the main implications of these results are identified in pursuit of the goals of higher education. Finally some strategies are proposed with a view to triggering the intellectual development of the students.