Liberal Education and General Education in American Universities

Abstract

Starting from the two levels of educational concept and content, this paper studies the generation, change, basic characteristics and development trend of American university liberal education and general education in recent years. Since the 17th century, the development of liberal education and general education has roughly presented four different stages of development. Since the 1990s, although there are still differences between liberal education and general education in terms of concept and curriculum, there are more and more commonalities between them than before World War II, and the integration with professional education is gradually strengthened. Absorbing practical and practical content, laying more emphasis on imparting basic knowledge and basic abilities, serving professional education, constitutes an important part of undergraduate education in the United States. This paper discusses the timeline of general education and liberal education in the United States, mainly including its emergence, development and improvement, and explores the similarities and differences between liberal education and general education. Finally, it summarizes and puts forward enlightenment.