Derek Bok Thinking Quotations

Efforts to develop critical thinking falter in practice because too many professors still lecture to passive audiences instead of challenging students to apply what they have learned to new questions.

Although professors regard improving critical thinking as the most important goal of college, tests reveal that seniors who began their studies with average critical thinking skills have progressed only from the 50th percentile of entering freshmen to about the 69th percentile.

I think one thing that does cause unhappiness is protracted anxiety and worry.

Economists who have studied the relationship between education and economic growth confirm what common sense suggests: The number of college degrees is not nearly as important as how well students develop cognitive skills, such as critical thinking and problem-solving ability.

I don't think the alternative to Yale is jail by any means. On the other hand, there is a mass of research that does show that there are real advantages to your subsequent career in going to selective institutions.

I think it's sort of an outrage that companies should have to hire firms to teach the college graduates they employ how to write.

There's a great deal of difference between thinking reflectively about moral issues and achieving higher standards of ethical behavior.

I think any self-respecting educational institution ought to judge its policies by its best estimate of what their long-term consequences for their students and for the society will be.

I think the minority students that we admit to Harvard are every bit as meritorious as the white students that we admit.

If you think the cost of education is high, think about ignorance.