ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on cognitive learning. It summarizes what has been learned under these headings: verbal and quantitative skills, substantive knowledge, rationality, intellectual tolerance, esthetic sensibility, creativeness, intellectual integrity, wisdom, intellectual and cultural pursuits of students, and lifelong learning. Verbal and quantitative skills are especially significant outcomes of higher education, not only because they are valuable in their own right but also because they facilitate learning of all kinds in college and throughout life. Virtually all of the evidence encountered suggests that college does, on the average, have a substantial cognitive impact—whether outcomes are measured by comparing freshmen with seniors, college students with comparable persons not attending college, or alumni with comparable noncollege people. The evidence points to the conclusion that, on the average, higher education significantly raises the level of knowledge, the intellectual disposition, and the cognitive powers of its students.
