“Philosophy’s rematch: A new conceptualization of the study of higher education”

​Fourth-year doctoral student Gabe A. Orona published an article in Arts and Humanities in Higher Education offering recommendations for the disciplinary development of higher education.
 
The title of the article is “Philosophy’s rematch: A new conceptualization of the study of higher education.”
 
Orona studies measurement and assessment in higher education. He is interested in conceptualizing and constructing, designing and analyzing, assessments consonant with the aims of higher education, and using these to evaluate student learning outcomes. Much of his work centers on issues of validity, and the appropriate use and interpretation of test scores.  Orona is specializing in Educational Policy and Social Context (EPSC). Professor and Dean Richard Arum serves as his advisor. 
 
Abstract

In recent decades, philosophy has been identified as a general approach to enhance the maturity of higher education as a field of study by enriching theory and method. In this article, I offer a new set of philosophical recommendations to spur the disciplinary development of higher education, departing from previous work in several meaningful ways. Due to their deep and useful connections to higher education research, philosophy of measurement, virtue epistemology, and Bayesian epistemology are introduced and discussed in relation to their conceptual association and potential practical influence on the study of higher education. The culmination of these points signals a learner-centered lens focused on the development of students.