New Definition for Liberal Education

Parent Cafe
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<p>Katonahmom, the things bandied about in your post seems like educational pedagogy mumbo jumbo which ten years down the road will be yet another failed experiment with a decade of students left undereducated.</p>

<p>I have no problem with selective interdisciplinary majors where connections are demonstrated. My son is in such a program in AI which is a dual compsci/cog sci major. This makes sense as do many others. And I have no problem with a art professor participating in a structures class to inspire students to think along the lines of a Santiago Calatrava. Or even me attending a class or two in vascular biology to explain some basic principles in confind, incompressible flow and wow them with ye ole Hardy Cross technique who was a legendary classroom instructor as well. </p>

<p>I have no problem with seeing that college graduates acquire the skills enumerated in Post #1. And we must graduate student who are critical thinkers and life long learners. But there are alternative ways of getting there other than with education pedagogies which be high in jargon at the expense of content.</p>

<p>Just call me an old foggie.</p>

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<p>Katonahmom: team teaching sounds fine to me as a general principle. I agree generally with the statment that disciplines are not part of the real world. In the olden days, before structured education for the majority of people (and still in some places today) students would find a master to learn from, and that person would teach ["wisdom"?] across subject lines as he wished, in order to impart knowledge and understanding. But things to be taught usually have to be broken up into subjects in today's educational world.</p>

<p>Of course, teaching across subjects can lessen the need to train someone to think "outside the box" [pardon the expression, please] by not puting him/her into the box so much in the first place.</p>

<p>But I was addressing teaching teamwork to meet so-called business desires rather than team teaching.</p>

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<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>

<p><a href="http://209.85.135.104/search?q=cache:jZ4OTNFf36UJ:www.sencer.net/pdfs/Newsletters/September2004.pdf+Vassar+college+team+teaching&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=35&client=firefox-a%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://209.85.135.104/search?q=cache:jZ4OTNFf36UJ:www.sencer.net/pdfs/Newsletters/September2004.pdf+Vassar+college+team+teaching&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=35&client=firefox-a&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>The following eleven institutions received Special Commendations for Distinguished Achievement in Undergraduate Education to honor their strong commitment to and accomplishments in learning-centered liberal education:</p>

<pre><code>* Audrey Cohen College
* Chatham College
* James Madison University
* Millikin University
* Moraine Valley Community College
* Northern Arizona University
* Pacific Oaks College
* Santa Clara University
* University of Chicago
* University of Missouri - Columbia
* Wesleyan University
</code></pre>

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<p>My interest in liberal education, integrative learning etc. now thoroughly piqued, I googled a few sites and came across this University of Cincinnati report from 2004. It certainly highlights the aims, vocabulary, and catch-phrases of the "new definition of liberal education" - a conceptual vision that we will most likely find at the core of revamped college brochures and marketing materials as many colleges seek to strengthen their liberal arts core and promote the centrality of liberal education to their academic missions. I wonder if no. 15 of the Action Steps means a tuition hike?</p>

<p>"Parents, students, guidance counselors, and teachers often do not understand what liberal education means or why it is essential. UC does not currently emphasize the importance of liberal education, its general education requirements, and the coherence of the undergraduate experience in its marketing materials, university website, and campus dialogue.</p>

<p>Key Strategies: </p>

<ol>
<li>UC will implement a university-wide admission requirement that will emphasize the interconnectedness of all of its colleges and more competitive baseline admission standards, with the expectation of a modest but meaningful rise in UC baccalaureate admission standards for less selective colleges, while allowing for individual colleges to have additional, more selective admission requirements as well. </li>
</ol>

<p>F. Action Steps: </p>

<ol>
<li><p>When promoting the goals of liberal education, we will develop more effective ways to describe the meaning and value of liberal education. We will develop a new language for the market, and also for our internal constituency, that speaks clearly to the value of liberal education and liberal arts disciplines. In its marketing materials, on the web, and in campus discussions, the University will emphasize the importance of liberal education for all UC students, regardless of major or collegiate affiliation, and will underscore the diverse and expanding opportunities for liberal learning outside the traditional classroom—through research projects, internships, workshops, cultural events, and civic engagement.</p>

<ol>
<li> We will promote the integration of liberal and practical education in diverse and inclusive learning environments that stress the importance of encountering multiple modes of inquiry, crossing disciplinary lines, exploring knowledge and experience from many cultures, integrating a wide range of learning experiences, fostering a sense of social responsibility, and preparing students for leadership in society.</li>
</ol></li>
<li><p>We will strengthen the connections among the liberal and professional programs and curricula, across diverse modes of educational practice and pedagogy, including experiential learning environments, and among the research activities and innovations of our faculty and students.</p></li>
<li><p>We will enhance support for interdisciplinary, cross-college curricular offerings and integrative modes of learning at all degree levels, and we need to reward faculty for pursuing these instructional innovations.</p></li>
<li><p>We will develop strong ties between the baccalaureate liberal arts programs and UC’s preparatory colleges in an effort to extend the opportunities provided by exposure to the liberal arts to all UC students. </p></li>
<li><p>We will develop in our students an understanding of and ability to work with the complexities of international, ethnic, and cultural diversity to enable them to function effectively in a rapidly changing global environment. Learning environments that promote this awareness in our students will be supported and promoted.</p>

<ol>
<li>We will make better use of orientation periods to introduce freshmen and transfer students to the cultural life of the campus, the academic richness of our curricular offerings, and the intellectual opportunities to learn in many diverse environments. Admissions activities and programming for potential students needs to include faculty and alumni contact and their input regarding the content of what should be conveyed in admissions materials and events.<br></li>
<li>Liberal arts programs will actively seek to attract Cincinnati Pride recipients to their degree programs, and the goals of CAT will be effectively aligned with the goals of liberal education.</li>
</ol></li>
<li><p>A university-wide “theme term” each year (similar to U of Michigan) would promote intellectual engagement and campus dialogue. The chosen theme could focus on a significant topic of broad interest to the liberal arts and professional colleges; each year the announced theme would be connected to clusters of courses across the colleges, special workshops, lectures, and community projects that will engage students, faculty, staff, and community members in lively intellectual discourse on topics of compelling national and/or global interest.</p>

<ol>
<li>We will increase the student residence rate and expand Main Street activities to emphasize student opportunities to engage in intellectual and cultural dialogue and enhance the learning environment. We will also support more opportunities for peer mentoring and student-to-student learning with the goal of integrating residential and non-residential student learning.</li>
<li>The funding mechanism used to support instructional delivery will be a responsibility-centered, performance-based budgeting model that is transparent and that takes into account the general education commitment and large service mission of the liberal arts disciplines as well as interdisciplinary and cross-college programs of study.
<a href="http://209.85.135.104/search?q=cache:dktrOmRFn1wJ:www.uc.edu/uc21/documents/meetings/04-16-04_AT16.doc+new+liberal+education+team+teaching&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=29&client=firefox-a%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://209.85.135.104/search?q=cache:dktrOmRFn1wJ:www.uc.edu/uc21/documents/meetings/04-16-04_AT16.doc+new+liberal+education+team+teaching&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=29&client=firefox-a&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/li>
</ol></li>
</ol>