Liberal Arts Program Research Articles

Collaborative strategies for designing employability curriculum in a liberal arts context

In Australian higher education, the push for curriculum innovation to enhance graduate employability is crucial but faces contention and debate. While the importance of integrating employability skills is widely recognised, perspectives on how and whether to incorporate these as curricular objectives vary, especially in liberal arts programs. This paper explores a multidisciplinary academic team’s experiences of embedding employability units into the Bachelor of Arts and undergraduate Communication and Creative Arts degrees at one Australian university. It addresses the challenges of diverse disciplinary perspectives on employability, career education, and work-integrated learning (WIL), and the design for a diverse student cohort, including career starters, career advancers, and career changers from multiple disciplinary contexts. Utilising Tuckman’s ‘forming, storming, norming, and performing’ model, the paper evaluates the team’s dynamics, offering insights and guidance for academics and institutions undertaking similar curriculum innovation projects to enhance graduate employability. This case study highlights the institutional support necessary for fostering sustainable curriculum reforms and the positive effects of collaborative curriculum design on the professional development and teaching capabilities of the educators involved.

Discourse Rules of a Book Essay and a Case Study for the Writing Classes in a University Curriculum of Liberal Arts

This thesis explored what the genre knowledge of the book essay is and its discourse rules in the writing classes in a University curriculum of a liberal arts program. Using an example of a class design for book essay writing, it presented the cases pertaining to how the learners internalized the discourse rules and reflected them into their book essays. It put forth an extensive approach, proposing that the discourse rules fall under the premise that the academic book essay belongs to an academic essay, which is located between book journals and academic theses. Also, it presented writing rules which can allow the writers to face their tasks using not only the approach of essays, but also an insight of criticism, using both formal and informal approaches. Learners were able to select their books in a self-directed manner, for the books were related to their own majors and thus were interesting to them. Moreover, they utilized the advantages of the free style forms of writing book essays by selecting their book genre without any restrictions. Also, the program respected the learners’ choices when it came to the components on book essays according to their reading materials by providing, as extensively and diversely as possible, each component in the ‘introduction’, ‘body’ and ‘conclusion’ respectively. Through connecting the writings to presentation classes, this strengthened the learners’ competency of understanding and criticism regarding the transference of their abilities as well as the reading materials and instructions in order for them to establish their authorships. Finally, the learners were able to internalize the discourse rules and they showed that they can reflect them into their writing on their own. This thesis furthermore suggested that the more genre-restricted discourse rules be researched in a more specific way.

Experience of ‘Sustainable Awareness and Practice’, Study on Global Citizenship Education : Focusing on D University Cases

This paper emphasizes that the foundational direction of global citizenship education is sustainable awareness and practice. It examines the feasibility of this approach, focusing on the case of D University's liberal arts course class. To achieve this objective, key considerations and challenges that need addressing when implementing global citizenship education in university liberal arts programs were highlighted initially. Insights were shared on practical challenges in global citizenship education between countries, issues related to the process and design of learning domains, and the categorization of courses based on subject groups. The outlined outcomes were derived from a project class within the subject group at D University, the sole subject group to offer a global citizenship education course.Firstly, within the realm of global citizenship education, activities in cognitive, social, emotional, and behavioral domains are occasionally conducted sequentially; however, it is evident that these three areas can also be concurrently addressed. Secondly, experiences through projects can contribute to the scalability and sustainability of both individuals and regions. Although scalability and sustainability may pose challenges for individuals, fostering solidarity with others and collaborating with various organizations facilitates sustainable awareness and practices in global citizenship education.From this study, we can infer that the potential for scalability and sustainability is heightened through collaborative projects with other students on campus and hands-on experiences can be gained as a member of an external non-governmental organization (NGO). Therefore, the concept of ‘sustainable practice’ encompasses ‘activity,’ ‘sustainability,’ and ‘scalability.’ This paper is meaningful as it presents a direction for global citizenship education in university liberal arts programs.

원격-대면 연계 평생교육 국악 수업구성안 연구 -방송통신대학교 학습자 의견조사를 중심으로-

This research offers a gugak class plan designed for teaching gugak (Korean
 traditional music) in a higher level of lifelong education linking remote and
 face-to-face classes. By examining educational goal and the request of both the
 program provider and the middle-aged and elderly student group, this study aims
 to scrutinize conceptional expansion of gugak education, and to suggest
 theoretical ground with a concrete example that can elevate the quality of lifelong
 education. The gugak class, as a part of college liberal arts program, is designed
 to raise a culturally creative person and to help them understand rapidly changing
 contemporary society. It is supposed to provide students with some aspects of
 sentimental relief, social interaction, and access to musical practice. Students are
 expected to listen to gugak from a critical perspective on the basis of
 understanding its aesthetic values. All the class works as well as academic
 discussions are planned to deal with contemporary social issues in relation to
 gugak. Along with the knowledge, the gugak class should be able to guide the
 students with how to take advantage of gugak infrastructure, such as local concert
 venues and free performances, so the middle-aged and elderly students, by
 themselves, can enjoy and understand the music for the rest of their life, not to
 mention the inspiration for further academic or professional challenge.

Redefining liberal arts education in the twenty-first century

Redefining liberal arts education in the twenty-first century

A Study on the Operation of College Liberal Arts Education for the Improvement of Quantitative Reasoning Competency as Data Literacy

The goal of this study is to suggest the potential and significance of quantitative reasoning education as a college liberal arts program and to come up with methods to improve it. To do so, this study analyzed the case of <Quantitative Reasoning and Computational Thinking> at S National University, presenting its achievements, weaknesses, and improvement plans. From the first semester in 2020, <Quantitative Reasoning and Computational Thinking> at S National University has been offered as a semi-compulsory subject with the purpose of cultivating quantitative reasoning based on quantitative relationships and computational thinking for everyday algorithms. In the class, instructors refrain from using mere problem solving using mathematical and/or scientific formulas, and instead an activity-oriented learning approach is emphasized. This allows for the students to interpret quantitative data based on logical algorithms. According to a survey about this subject, most students were satisfied with its contents and reported that it had helped them solve problems creatively based on quantitative and computational thinking. Nevertheless, various problematic issues such as the low enrollment of students in the humanities and social sciences, the dualization of subject operation between classes, and the difficulty in securing lecturers, were raised. To address these issues, it is necessary for us to expand awareness among students that <Quantitative Reasoning and Computational Thinking> aims to promote thinking ability through the understanding and interpretation of quantitative data. Also, it is important that we have faculties that operate on a consistent basis, so that the courses offered are able to meet the goals of the subject. By applying these improvements, the effort to develop liberal arts subjects that enhance students’ data-driven scientific thinking should be continued.

Anthropology Majors Prepare for Life after College

AbstractUnlike business, health, or engineering courses, undergraduate liberal arts programs do not point majors directly to a professional application, so students often need to creatively explore and identify professional roles and workplaces in which to use their education. Anthropology presents particular challenges: while students may enroll in economics if their institution has no undergraduate business program, or biochemistry may function as premed, there is no clear sense of what comes after an anthropology degree. In 2018, the American Anthropological Association announced a new approach to understanding this issue through its Undergraduate Research Fellowship. Currently enrolled anthropology majors worked together with faculty mentors, collaboratively across universities, to do anthropological research on the question, “how do anthropology majors approach the question of what comes after college?” The research provided practical insights and recommendations to departments, faculty members, career counseling centers, and the students themselves. This special section comprises six papers: an introduction to the project and the field sites; four analytic papers in which student researchers and faculty mentors explore the topics, “how students come to major in anthropology,” “how students are changed by studying anthropology,” “what anthropology majors think about their professional future,” and “what resources are available to support students’ college‐to‐career transition”; and a reflective essay that considers the fellowship not as a research program but as a high‐impact pedagogical intervention. We show that, by participating in ethnographic research, student researchers become full members of the anthropology community who can give valuable recommendations for the future of the discipline.

The Crisis of Higher Education: Neoliberalism and the Privileging of "Innovation" in The Twenty-First Century.

The authors of this paper maintain that challenging the frame of “innovation” as a privileged keyword for higher education is a fresh and useful intervention in the conversation about the neoliberalization of higher education in the United States. Since our home institution, Purdue, is being celebrated by US News for “innovation,” the focus on the concept enables us to offer a Purdue lens on the topic. The authors argue that three high profile developments that have taken place since 2013 under the leadership of Purdue President Mitch Daniels—the University Honors College, the Cornerstone Integrated Liberal Arts Program, and Purdue Global—may also be regarded as “ideological innovations.” Alongside the laudable aspects of each of these developments, we argue that each serves the administration’s plan to decrease faculty power, especially in the humanities, by promoting initiatives that, in each case, increase the precariatization of instructional labor at Purdue and that move curriculum design and the hiring of teaching staff away from traditional academic departments and toward a more centralized model of educational control under the direction of high-level university administrators in and outside the College of Liberal Arts.

Decisions Squared: A Deeper Look at Student Characteristics, Performance, and Writing Center Usage in a Multilingual Liberal Arts Program in Russia

This article contributes to the ongoing discussion of student characteristics and usage/nonusage patterns in the writing center. Using a sample of 107 economics students from a selective, bilingual liberal arts program in Russia, the author finds statistically significant relationships among GPA, gender, English-language proficiency, and writing center usage. Namely, writing center usage predicts higher GPA and closes two achievement gaps related to gender and English proficiency. These findings complicate the picture presented by Lori Salem (2016), whose research showed gender, low SAT score, and being an English language learner to be strong predictors of writing center usage and produced a lively discussion about whether traditional writing center methods could be failing the students most likely to use the service. The present study suggests that while users may have less systemic social privilege, they also tend to be stronger students. As such, interventions should take care not only to address the needs of the students who actually visit but explore barriers to writing center access for nonvisiting students who are at the highest risk of dropping out.

A Study on a Contact-free Teaching Method for the Liberal Arts Program in Colleges－Focus on Chinese Character Class

This study aimed to examine teaching methods for a real contact-free class of Chinese characters. For this purpose, a “teaching and learning community” was organized for better instruction at colleges and focus was placed on the reinforcement of efficiency of contact-free classes. Following this, a Standard Class Plan was made for a contact-free class that would apply real instruction for ten classes of Chinese characters as a subject within the liberal arts. Curriculum consulting was presented by the Institute for Innovation in Education. All the classes of Chinese characters received a good evaluation in educational achievements and for their communication between teachers and students. In respect to the contact-free Chinese character program, in addition to video lessons and real-time Zoom classes, the followings were included: First, a Chinese character video lesson was presented and the students were tested with the use of a short quiz consisting of 40 questions. Second, to increase the participation among the students, a test for learning diagnosis was made. Third, after the consulting was completed, the results were shared between the students. In this manner, the Chinese character class was designed as a precyclic, contact-free program. Based on the results above, this study proposed strategies to increase participation.

The Actual Operation of an Institution-University Collaboration Extracurricular Liberal Arts Program －Focusing on Local Community Problem-solving Living Lab Activities Cases

The purpose of this study aims to operate an extracurricular liberal arts program that combines (combines a Living Lab with what? An object is needed here), a “Living Lab” (a problem-solving innovation platform used worldwide), and to ensure the possibility of a university liberal arts curriculum in the form of collaboration with institutions and universities. In order to derive practical Living Lab cases, major institutions of the local society and universities linked together to highlight community issues and implemented a joint team activity involving local residents (from the village community), as well as college students (from Living Lab clubs) as the subjects for problem-solving. The local community collaboration Living Lab activity was judged to be a comprehensive competency activity that can evenly develop all the capabilities of the core competency indicators of college students, and at the same time as a comparative and cultural program that proved valuable as a means of collaboration with the local community.</br>The institution of the local community where the university is located has proposed a collaborative project between participating students and supervisors (mentoring) of the university in conducting a joint Living Lab project, with a local community of residents. The aim of this ambitious project was the re-promotion of areas in crisis through the collaboration with local communities in the hopes of making use of non-face-to-face IT technology that can help residents and students alike overcome the challenges presented by the COVID-19 situation, and ultimately create a driving force behind innovation. The university decided to participate in the project together with the purpose of fostering talents who can carry out “communication and convergence” that connects universities, students, residents, and institutions beyond generations and regions.</br>As mentioned earlier, Korea's Living Lab is currently in an early stage of development compared to that of Europe and other participating regions. But since there is no systematic theory or formalized method for implementing such Living Lab programs, formative research is needed using new attempts and examples rather than following proven theories and methods. In particular, in order to apply this project as a university extracurricular liberal arts program, efforts were made to establish of a more stable university Living Lab comparison program model before the actual operation stage and result verification stage were added through (a) the tangible design stage and (b) the course design stage. was put in.</br>In the event that this type of Living Lab extracurricular liberal arts program is conducted as a “content development type program through activities,” other types of cases such as a “policy proposal program through discussion” or a “mixed policy proposal and content development program” could be sufficiently expanded upon to create multiple educational effects. We aim to complete this program with follow-up studies, and by more closely designing the program and verifying its educational effects.

The Effects of College in Prison and Policy Implications

ABSTRACT: Despite the policy relevance of college-in-prison, the existing research on these programs has important flaws, failing to address selection and self-selection bias. We address an important policy question: what are the effects of college-in-prison program? To do this, we provide the largest study published to-date of a single college-in-prison program. We analyze the effects of the Bard Prison Initiative (BPI) in New York, a liberal arts program that has offered college courses to incarcerated students since 2001. By leveraging the BPI admissions process, we employ a design-based approach to infer the causal effect of participation in BPI. We find a large and significant reduction in recidivism rates. This reduction is consistent across racial groupings. Moreover, people with higher levels of participation recidivate at even lower rates. In light of these findings, we provide policy recommendations that support college-in-prison programs.

A Study on the Types of Perceptions Held by Students Regarding the ‘Classics Reading’ Course as Part of the Liberal Arts Education in University －Focusing on ‘Reading Arete Classics’ of K University

The purpose of this study was to investigate the types of perceptions held by students regarding the ‘Reading Arete Classics’ course, which was offered as a liberal arts program at K University. For this purpose, Q methodological analysis was used to study subjectivity among the students, such as individual perception and belief. The Q population was composed based on literature analysis, in-depth interviews, survey materials on Reading Classics, and after expert reviewing the Q sample was composed of 33 statements. 31 students of ‘Reading Arete Classics’ were selected as P samples, and the data were analyzed using the PQ method 2.35 program. The data analysis based on the most positive statements, negative statements and identification items, along with the types of perceptions concerning ‘Reading Arete Classics’, were classified into the three types. Type 1, which was called “discovering the value of classics”, revealed the value of classics and the pleasure of reading books through ‘Reading Arete Classics’. Type 2, called “discovering the pleasure of discussion”, taught the joy of discussion during the discussion process of ‘Reading Arete Classics’. Type 3 called “discovering the value of collaboration” showed the students the fun and the value of engaging in joint activities while making and solving the problems posed by the questions for discussion through team activities. The results of this study will be used as basic data to improve reading classics classes as liberal arts courses.

Editor’s Introduction

Editor’s Introduction

A Moving Conversation: A Curricular Pathway from Private Dance Studio to Dance in Higher Education

Dance education in the private studio provides multiple perspectives and experiences for understanding dance as a discipline of study. Based on personal experience with a program that I piloted, I share how a private dance studio can provide a pathway to a college liberal arts program through shared synergy. By offering classes that provide a specific foundation for dance course work in higher education, the private studio can ease the transition and support success for students who move on to study dance in college. During the implementation of this program in 2001, I was offered a full-time college teaching position. Although this program did not extend beyond the pilot, this curriculum has continued validity as a model today.

Engagement in Continuing Subject Knowledge Development: A Year After Short-Term International Courses

This article examines how students’ subject knowledge acquired in short-term international courses (SICs) developed while engaging in university studies in the year following their SICs. It also explores factors associated with their engagement and disengagement. Two interviews with a 1-year interval with 25 students revealed their transformations in their SIC subject matter knowledge. Some students’ engagement in continuing studies of the SIC-related subject matter was supported in a multifaceted manner by their personal motivation, teaching-learning environment, educational structure, and wider social relationships. However, the analysis demonstrated that many students discontinued deepening their knowledge of the subject matter. Students’ personal factors and certain dimensions of the institutional educational system explained their disengagement in continuing studies. Concerning the continuing SIC impacts on students in interdisciplinary liberal arts programs, the study discusses some suggestions drawing on the concepts of integrative learning and formative assessment.

Effects of self-disclosure experience on life skill acquisition in university physical education courses

For promotion of life skill acquisition in university physical education courses taken as distribution requirements for liberal arts programs, the experience of “self-disclosure” has been receiving some attention (Shimamoto and Ishii, 2007). However, there has been limited information on the design of physical education classes focusing on self-disclosure, and the results thus obtained. The present study examined whether university physical education courses focusing on self-disclosure experiences (Nara and Kiuchi, 2020) lead to life skill acquisition among first-year university students. The study subjects included students taking softball classes as a first-year compulsory physical education course (n=137: 87 men and 50 women) at a national university in the Tokyo metropolitan area. The course was revised to focus on self-disclosure, and the effects were measured by comparing 3 groups before and after the course: a revised group (n=77: 57 men and 20 women), an unchanged group (n=23: 12 men and 11 women), and a control group (n=37: 18 men and 19 women). The revised and unchanged groups comprised students taking revised and unchanged versions of the course taught by the same instructor, while the control group comprised students taking standard softball courses without a focus on selfdisclosure, taught by different instructors. In-class self-disclosure scores were significantly higher (F(2, 134) = 5.46, p <0.01) for the revised group (13.13±2.20) than for the unchanged group (11.83±2.29) or the control group (11.92±2.11). Analysis of variance showed no group–time interaction for the life skills score. However, when the revised group was divided into 3 subgroups ranked by self-disclosure score and the subgroups compared, only in the subgroup ranking highest in self-disclosure showed significant improvement in life skills (F(2, 74) = 3.92, p <0.05). Analysis of variance performed after dividing the revised group into 3 subgroups based on initial life skill levels before taking the course revealed no group–time interaction. It was therefore concluded that (1) the revised course program significantly increased experiences of self-disclosure for the students enrolled, (2) students who experienced self-disclosure in the physical education course significantly increased their life skills regardless of their life skill level before taking the course, and (3) the revised course showed educational results in terms of not only psychosocial effect but also motor skill, physical strength, and health.

Interdisciplinary Faculty-Led Summer Study Abroad Linking Liberal Arts and Professional Programs

ABSTRACT This paper describes a faculty-led summer program in Madrid, Spain. We argue that it represents a case study in the implementation of best practices in study abroad, particularly as it relates to experiential programs that include an internship component. Adding to a growing consensus on best practices for these types of educational opportunities, we claim that study abroad experiential learning should include purposeful interdisciplinarity, in particular as it relates to the interconnection between a liberal arts education and useful business acumen. We believe that this integrative approach can serve as model for the liberal arts in the twenty-first century. In the article, we present detailed data on 15 years of the program, allowing the reader to contemplate and analyze the intricacies of implementation. We conclude that the benefits to students participating in experiential study abroad programs will be maximized in the post-pandemic world of this century.

Keeping the faith: The university experience and apostasy

In 1963, Glendon College, York University, located in Toronto Canada, admitted mainly Christian students of European origin to a small liberal arts program. Fifty years later the College remained small with a continuing, but less embracive, commitment to the liberal arts; however, the student body included large numbers of young adults who professed religions other than Christianity and came from backgrounds other than European.Within this context, this article focuses on the impact of the Glendon College experience on students’ religious identification and participation in religious services. Overall, I find that in the mid-sixties the College experience contributed to changes in the religious identification of students. By contrast, a half-century later, students’ post-secondary experiences were of little consequence for religiosity. One possible explanation for differences in the College effect is that because of the current racial and religious diversity of Toronto, students are more likely than in the past to confront their religious identities in high school.Keywords: liberal arts, religiosity, change, university experience.

Ethical Issues of Globalizing Liberal Education: The Case of Japan

Is it ethically justifiable to teach liberal education in non-Western countries, which might have a negative impact on the career of those programs’ graduates, because they could be regarded as troublemakers, who destroy their own culture? In this paper, I will show that a fundamental value conflict exists between liberal education with its emphasis on autonomy and Japanese culture with its emphasis on harmony. But if this is the case, is the application of liberal education in Japan not cultural imperialism? I will argue that the moral dilemma can be dissolved by infusing Japanese area studies throughout the curriculum of a liberal arts program with its emphasis on the Western tradition. Such an integration would not privilege any kind of knowledge, and would give students real choices about what kind of values are better for their life and their society.