| Higher order critical thinking is an implied goal for all schools participating in the academic frame of the International Baccalaureate (IB) curriculum. Being a gifted student enrolled in the IB does not, however, guarantee higher order thinking will be achieved. This study articulated, through student voice, the potential effectiveness of transcendental teaching styles in the IB system, and how that style might become the platform to attain higher orders of cognitive ability. Embedded as a problem among the reasons for this ambition not being successfully accomplished is a possible reliance on traditional education approaches that miss the transcendent culture of ephemeral inspiration. Understanding that the IB curriculum is designed to help students' articulate complex ideas in relevant contexts, this inquiry-based study identified unachieved higher sublimations of thought among learners exploration of ideas, questions and perspectives related to higher level critical awareness. Therefore, the purpose of this phenomenological research study was to recognize the distinctions of transcendental learning and why higher order thinking was not being achieved within the IB. This study utilized qualitative research methods that focused on phenomenology as the best way to consider the descriptions of interrelated student environments providing interpretations of influences accordingly. . The research was an inquiry- method phenomenology addressing the need to recognize student voice which may have been marginalized in practice. The end goal framed the researcher's interpretations of the participants in their day-to-day academic life. The IB graduated student participants associated with the study were five graduated IB students who have completed college and are currently in the workplace. |
