<p>DofS - I think I may have been thrown by your remark "that for the most part, college faculty, who are in the first place not necessarily trained to be top-quality teachers in general, do not know how to teach these particular skills. One of my acquaintances, a professor of industrial psychology, may have this ability, but to expect it from faculty in literature and other liberal arts, who are educated in their specialty is a bit much." I do believe, along with MarathonMan, that the call here is for a thorough investment in general education and the liberal arts route rather than narrow specialization as the route to take for higher education. Since so many of today's students go to college with visions of future employment dancing in their heads and employers look to college grads to hire there is a real point and need to address these higher ed public policy issues.</p>
<p>What is interesting here is the focus on "Liberal education" and spotlight aimed on those colleges and universities that evidently do go beyond the jargon and offer inventive and broad-ranging content to provide "challenging encounters with important issues". Many of these colleges do not immediately jump to mind - at least not to mine - when one thinks of job training - indeed, it even goes against the grain. The students on the receiving end of this general education - whom, in this context, we want to assume are inquisitive and sharply intelligent general readers, are taking these courses because they want a "high quality liberal education that will expand their horizons, sharpen their intellectual tools, critical thinking skills, and ethical judgment". In the absence of core curricula it does not seem out of order if educators need to more clearly articulate and explore the meaning of general education to refurbish notions of what makes a vibrant and meaningful liberal arts education these days. Whether or not these courses actually challenge students "to encounter important issues of today and tomorrow, and provide them with the mental agility, breadth of knowledge, and depth of understanding needed to respond to the accelerating changes in our knowledge-intensive society and global environment with high-quality syntheses of "complex, capacious civic issues through general education courses used to teach basic science" is, as they say, gravy.</p>
<p>For a close look at what Vassar has to offer in this context:</p>
<p>"This Vassar Course Intersection brings two classes together, a Chemistry course in Instrumental Analysis, the other an Introduction to Urban Studies, around the single problem of lead exposure in urban environments. The class in Instrumental Analysis enrolls primarily Chemistry majors, while the Urban Studies class attracts students who are interested in public policy. For three weeks at the end of the semester, both groups must pool their knowledge and work collaboratively to study a real-world problem---the levels and effects of lead exposure in their own urban environment. The resulting collaboration provides students with an opportunity to put their academic learning in a wider social and political context, while demonstrating the power of inter- disciplinary investigation.</p>
<p>The Instrumental Analysis course covers spectroscopy, chromatography, and electrochemistry. Due to the course intersection, there is an extra emphasis on the importance of sampling to the overall validity of any investigation. There is also an enhanced appreciation of calibration, validation, and measurement uncertainty because the experimental results are being used to formulate and propose policy. The urban studies students are given some background in the chemistry of Pb (lead) especially in regards to toxicology and epidemiology, exposure pathways and routes, dose response and analysis, impact of chronic and subchronic exposures, and Pb persistence in the environment. There is an emphasis on the challenges of assessing risk in the context of scientific uncertainty, and on the importance of longitudinal and cross-sectional population exposure data. The course intersection has three culminating events: the Instrumental Analysis students present their results of sample analysis to the Urban Studies students, who, after consideration of the science, make a presentation of their policy options. Finally groups comprised of students from both courses discuss the recommendations, giving the experience of peer teaching the connections between science and policymaking"</p>