Liberal Arts Research Articles

新文科背景下外语类一流本科专业建设的困境

In the context of the country’s vigorous promotion of first-class undergraduate education, strengthening first-class majors and cultivating first -class talents have formed a wide consensus in colleges and universities. First-class undergraduate majors have become the top priority of accelerating education and teaching reform and realizing connotative development. This article is based on the characteristics of the development of foreign language majors, focusing on implementing the requirements of new liberal arts construction, and intended to analyze the dilemma faced in the current first-class undergraduate majors in foreign languages from the background of the times, talent training, discipline construction, and resource support, and explore breakthroughs in breakthroughs The effective methods of these dilemma are in order to provide inspiration and reference for first -class professional construction of foreign language.

Opportunities and Challenges of Liberal Arts Education in the Era of Artificial Intelligenc

The era of artificial intelligence has brought opportunities and challenges to liberal arts education. In terms of opportunities, personalized learning becomes possible, the application of intelligent educational tools to improve the teaching effect, the rich diversity of teaching resources to promote the diversification of teaching content, and the innovation of teaching mode to stimulate the innovation of education methods. However, liberal arts education also faces many challenges in the era of artificial intelligence. Data privacy and security concerns threaten the rights of students and teachers, the role of teachers needs to be redefined to meet the challenges of technological development, and algorithmic bias and discrimination can affect the equity and quality of education. Therefore, liberal arts education in the era of artificial intelligence needs to grasp the opportunities while seriously addressing the challenges, through strengthening data security protection, promoting teacher professional development, promoting the integration of technology and humanities and other measures to achieve sustainable development and progress of liberal arts education.

Research on the Construction of Deep Learning-oriented College English Blended Gold Courses in the Context of New Liberal Arts

Comprehensively promoting the construction of new liberal arts is an inevitable requirement for the education and teaching reform of liberal arts majors in colleges and universities in the new era. Different from the traditional liberal arts, the new liberal arts can better serve the national development and regional social progress. Based on the background of the new liberal arts, this paper discusses its new requirements for College English. By investigating the current situation of College English blended teaching, the paper finds the deficiencies, and combines the concept of deep learning to mainly analyze the necessity of applying it to college English teaching. On this basis, it puts forward new initiatives for building the deep learning-oriented blended College English gold courses based on the new liberal arts from five aspects, namely, teaching environment, teaching resources, teaching process, assessment system, and teacher literacy, so as to promote the connotative and innovative development of the College English course and achieve the goal of all-round education.

Revealing Campus Food Insecurity at Urban, Private, Liberal Arts Universities

ABSTRACT To address existing and emerging food access needs, three metro private universities in the midwest, with increasingly diverse student bodies representing historically underrepresented backgrounds, utilized a web-based Food Access Survey to collect students’ self-reported experiences (n = 1,478) accessing food and experiencing hunger. The results from this survey highlight those with marginalized identities are at a higher risk for food insecurity. Given increasing enrollment of marginalized students and diversifying student bodies across all institutions, including private universities, we argue higher education needs to recognize, assess, and act on student food insecurity.

The Effects of Course Modality on Student Satisfaction and Academic Outcomes at a Liberal Arts College During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Using student self-reports on a survey and objective records of academic achievement, I examined the effects of course modality on student satisfaction and academic outcomes at a selective liberal arts college in spring 2021. I compared three groups of undergraduates (N = 729) based on their predominant course modality: Online-Class Group, Residential Blended Learning Group, and Residential In-Person-Class Group. After controlling for gender, race/ethnicity, class level, and socioeconomic status, course modality demonstrated significant main effects on all three satisfaction variables and sense of connection a student felt to the institution. The Online-Class Group reported the lowest satisfaction with level of academic challenge, quality of teaching, and overall quality of academic experiences; it also reported the weakest sense of connection. The Residential Blended Learning Group differed from the Residential In-Person-Class Group on one variable: satisfaction with quality of teaching, on which the former reported lower satisfaction. Course modality did not affect a student’s grade point average; although it interacted with gender in its effect on the number of course units a student passed, no subgroup difference by course modality and gender was significant. This study indicates that online classes and blended learning, especially the latter, have potential at liberal arts colleges.

Research on the Teaching Reform of “Curriculum Ideology and Politics” for English Majors under the Background of the “New Liberal Arts Construction”

In recent years, curriculum ideological and political education has become a hot topic in educational reform. The concept of curriculum ideological and political education provides a new convergence point for the integration of subject teaching and ideological and political education. Its purpose is to infiltrate the core content of ideological and political education in subject teaching, organically integrate ideological and political curriculum teaching with the subjects, and implement the fundamental task of cultivating students’ morality. In the process of English teaching, cultivating students’ firm political stance is particularly important, especially in cultural comparison and dissemination, nurturing students to “tell a good Chinese story”, spreading excellent traditional Chinese culture, and demonstrating cultural confidence. Further exploration is needed. In the context of the integrated reform of ideological and political education in universities, middle and primary schools, the research on curriculum ideological and political education in subject teaching is not yet in-depth and extensive. Based on the curriculum standards for morality and the rule of law, as well as the correlation between students’ core literacy and socialist core values, this article proposes the necessity of integrating ideological and political education into English majors, and actively explores effective strategies and approaches in order to provide useful ideas and references for the ideological and political education reform of English majors.

Augustine on music as the harmonious language of spirituality: An apophatic theological study

This article arose from the study of apophatic theology also known as the via-negativa. Apophatic theology, by definition, refrains from stating what and who God is instead of focusing on what God is not. It renders religious language as a sign-system inadequate in describing God, his nature, and human numinous experiences. Yet, language is the fundamental modelling system that stimulates our everyday phenomenological, spiritual, and religious developments. This article is demonstrating how the apophatic theological view attempted to solve or investigate the inadequacy of religious language or the lack of God’s language. The research drew from contemporary scholarship on Augustine’s use of apophatic theology in developing its hypothesis of the importance of music as a transcendental language. Moreover, through music and prayer, language becomes an intermediary beyond the physical to the metaphysical. In this instance, Augustine of Hippo, coming to terms with the inadequacy of religious language, considered music a succinct communicative tool in his theology and divine pedagogy. So, due to the challenges of language, the purpose of this article is using Augustine and his view of music within the Sitz im Leben of his spiritual development to solve a theological problem. In this article, the following will be discussed: (1) Augustine’s Confessions as a dialogue where he speaks to God through Scriptures and hymns; (2) Augustine’s earlier philosophical theory of music; (3) and Augustine’s use of apophatic theology in our spiritual development. The importance of this research will help us understand God’s immanence (over his ineffable) through our use and understanding of music as a harmonious language consisting of unchanging mathematical properties. Furthermore, the truthfulness of music as a harmonious language about God’s mystery can be better understood.Contribution: Through Augustine’s apophatic theology, this study contributes to our understanding and revitalisation of spirituality using music as an alternative form of harmonious language of the spirit. Moreover, it considers music a universal language that transcends all senses and other modes of cognitive activities. By establishing a basic principle of what makes us spiritual, we can transform our cognitive abilities and become better spiritual beings. Furthermore, this study examined the harmonic nature of music in the seven liberal arts as a significant mathematical aspect of the cosmos.

Conversation as Political Education

By constructing and analyzing a dialogue about dialogue among Plato, Mill, and Oakeshott, this paper considers conversation in the liberal arts and political theory classrooms as a form of political education that prepares students for the responsibilities of citizenship. An education in and through conversation can cultivate a disposition that is willing and able to engage with others. With less at stake in the classroom, the skills that are necessary for politics—the frankness, good will (and self-control), knowledge, listening, and respect for particularity—can be developed and practiced. This paper advocates a respect for particularity in conversation over an optimism regarding progress toward truth, arguing that our contemporary polarized politics needs conversation that respects difference now more than ever.

Franco Moretti’s Interdisciplinary Approach and its Influence on Foreign Literature Studies in China

Western literary theorist Franco Moretti’s researches are featured with interdisciplinarity. His approach began with the conceptual model of “world literature”, followed by the methodology of “distant reading”, and ended with the practice of “computational criticism”. This paper aims to explore the dynamic interaction between Darwin’s evolutionary theory and Wallerstein’s world-systems analysis, as well as the interplay between close reading and distant reading, and the dialogue between traditional criticism and computational criticism. With the popularization of the Internet, the revolution of information technology and the wave of globalization, the categorization of disciplines with distinct barriers can no longer meet the complexity of modernization, and the call for interdisciplinary integration is constantly heard. Nevertheless, interdisciplinary research is in urgent need of theoretical framework and practical guidance for reference. This paper seeks to contribute to the interdisciplinary study of foreign literature in China within the purview of “new liberal arts”.

A Study on the Relationship between Social Support and Subjective Well being of Vocational College Students

The objective of this research is to examine the correlation between social support and subjective well-being among vocational college students using empirical surveys. The intention is to provide a foundation for increasing their mental health and improving their subjective well-being. A total of 375 students from vocational colleges were chosen as participants, and their levels of social support and subjective well-being were assessed by the administration of a questionnaire. The findings indicated a substantial positive correlation between subjective well-being and objective support, subjective support, usage of support, and the overall social support score. (2) Female vocational college students exhibit a notably greater degree of assistance use compared to their male counterparts. There exists a notable disparity in survival rates between students pursuing liberal arts and those studying science in terms of subjective well-being, with science students exhibiting much greater levels of subjective well-being compared to liberal arts students. There are notable variations seen across different grades in terms of objective support, subjective support, usage of support, overall social support score, and subjective well-being. Following the LSD post-test analysis, it was determined that freshman students exhibited significantly lower levels of objective support, subjective support, total social support score, and subjective well-being score compared to students in other grades. On the other hand, sophomore students scored significantly higher than students in other grades in terms of utilization of support. (3) A multiple regression analysis revealed that objective support, subjective support, and usage of support positively predict subjective well-being. This research examines the correlation between social support and subjective well-being and offers empirical evidence and theoretical direction to enhance the subjective well-being of vocational college students via more focused coaching.

The Effects of Blended learning on University Students’ Critical Thinking Dispositions in College English Course

This research aims to introduce and examine the effects of blended learning environment on learners’ critical thinking dispositions for undergraduate students of business major at North China University of Science and Technology (NCSTU) in China. The participants are 28 freshmen from College English Course. The research tools are Critical Thinking Dispositions Inventory Chinese Version and Blended Learning Environment Questionnaire. The findings show that blended learning environment is beneficial for improving Chinese students’ critical thinking dispositions (CTD). The students are willing to take part in the learning activities both online and offline. They find out it is most difficult part is to understand the teacher’s English instructions. Majority of students’ CTD is positive after one semester learning in the blended learning environment. Open-mindedness, self- confidence, and inquisitiveness of CTD are significantly correlated with students’ gender, English scores of college entrance exam, and science and liberal arts respectively

Exploring the Interplay Between Reading Proficiency, the Dimensions of Adult Reading Motivation, and the Academic Achievement of a Diverse Cohort of EFL College Learners

This article investigates the role of reading proficiency and reading motivation in the academic achievement of a cohort of college students enrolled in a Middle Eastern university that follows the American model of liberal arts education. Forty-eight (n = 48) students from diverse academic majors completed the adults reading motivation scale, following which we tested their reading proficiency and determined their academic achievement as a composite score based on midterm and final examinations, a course project, and class participation. Results revealed that reading proficiency and overall reading motivation are positively linked to academic achievement. However, while the reading motivational dimension of self-efficacy emerged as a significant factor in academic achievement, the dimensions of reading as part of self, reading for recognition, and reading to do well in other realms did not reach statistical significance as determinants of academic achievement. The study implications and suggestions for further research are discussed.

텍스트마이닝 기반 데이터분석을 통한 전문대학 교양교과에 대한 사회적 담론과 현황이해

Objectives The purposes of this study, we seek to gain a macroscopic understanding of the social discourse and current status of liberal arts subjects in colleges in order to improve the quality and strengthen the liberal arts education in colleges.
 Methods To this end, ‘Big data’ was collected using the keywords of ‘junior college+liberal arts’ subjects appearing on the portal site, and data analysis was conducted using the liberal arts subject schedule of junior colleges in the Chungcheong and Gangwon regions as ‘retained data’. Keyword analysis, TF-IDF weight analysis, and network centrality analysis were performed in the big data analysis platform(TEXTOM), and CONCOR analysis was performed using the UCINET6.0 program.
 Results First, as a result of keyword analysis, keywords such as credits, graduation, and completion appeared in portal-collected big data, and in the case of retained data, keywords such as life, English, ability, and understanding were mainly found. Second, keywords with high TF-IDF values a ppeared in the order of ‘credits’, ‘bachelor’s degree’, ‘degree’, and ‘graduation’ in the case of portal-collected big data, and there appeared to be no difference in the case of retained data. Third, as a result of keyword centrality analysis, it was found that in the case of portal big data, ‘credit’ was out of the ranking in closeness centrality, and in the case of retained data, ‘English’ was found to be out of the ranking. Fourth, the clusters formed through CONCOR analysis were found to form two clusters for portal big data and four clusters for retained data.
 Conclusions Big data on liberal arts subjects at colleges showed that social discourse is being formed at a very formal level, such as basic materials related to bachelor's degrees, and the data shows that the nature of liberal arts subjects based on vocational fundamentals is still strong in the composition of subjects.

Talent Training Mechanism of Carbon Peak and Carbon Neutralization in New Liberal Arts: A Chinese Perspective

China is currently the world's largest carbon emitter. New liberal arts, as an important discipline for cultivating humanistic literacy and social responsibility, is closely related to the achievement of carbon neutrality goals. By using the method of logical reasoning and deduction, seven talent training mechanisms were proposed including the optimization mechanism of the talent training goal, the interdisciplinary course integration mechanism, the education mechanism of the scientific research innovation platform, the social practice mechanism, the cultivating mechanism with a sense of social responsibility, the mechanism of international cooperation and school-enterprise cooperation and exchange mechanism, and the evaluation mechanism of talent training. These mechanisms may improve the comprehensive quality and ability level of students and provide talent guarantees for the achievement of China's “carbon peak and carbon neutralization” goal.

Independence and Interdependence: A Comparative Case Study of Individuals From Two Institutions in Mainland China and Hong Kong

<p style="text-align:justify">There has been a clear shift in higher education to prepare and empower the current students for a future quite different and more complex than that faced by previous generations. In particular, it is expected that they will possess comprehensive abilities to deal with challenges arising from new employment demands and beyond. While liberal arts education has a long history in the West, it has been increasingly implemented more recently in East Asia as one response to the need for educational reform. The research reported here is an empirical study of how liberal arts education has affected individuals from two institutions with distinctive interpretations of “liberal arts education” - University N, the first Sino-foreign joint university in mainland China, and University L, the only public liberal arts university in Hong Kong. Drawing on Bourdieu’s Theory of Practice, this study illustrates the interplay and balance among students’ practical concerns, their sense of social obligation fostered through liberal arts education elements and the wider social structure. Semi-structured interviews with senior students, fresh graduates, and educators were conducted to gather in-depth primary data. These reveal that, by providing interdisciplinary knowledge and transferable skill sets, a liberal arts education experience does enhance individuals’ personal agency and intellectual competencies in a professional context - they are trained to become independent thinkers and learners. Moreover, the “humanistic” aspect of liberal arts is also relevant: having engaged in various activities and programs, students in both universities are encouraged to care, cooperate, and make positive differences in their increasingly interconnected communities.</p>

Examining student and faculty attitudes in developing a social justice studies minor

Social justice in education is becoming a more prominent and necessary area of study in higher education. Facets of social justice align directly with values of liberal arts education, and students who are exposed to social justice pedagogy develop the knowledge and skills necessary to meet critical learning outcomes associated with the liberal arts. Given such demands to incorporate social justice pedagogy and practice into curriculum, the purpose of this study was to understand student and faculty attitudes and values regarding social justice education in order to guide the creation of this academic program at our college, as well as other institutions, particularly liberal arts colleges and/or predominately white institutions, that are interested in creating or enhancing their social justice education programs. Themes from focus groups with students and faculty revealed needs, desires, and concerns from the campus community regarding social justice education. Additionally, we created a social justice studies program for our institution using a strategic review of existing curriculum, resulting in a new academic minor built on existing courses that required no new faculty lines and little additional work on behalf of the faculty. Insights from this process are shared.

Student Perspectives on Employability Skills in Liberal Arts Programs: A Canadian Case

The purpose of the study was to gain further understandings of undergraduate students’ perspectives on employability skill development in the liberal arts programs, as well as the perceived influence of the identification of employability skills in course curricula on undergraduate students’ self-efficacy. Building on the results of a prior study on faculty perspectives in the liberal arts on employability skills, we also explored the ways students’ and faculty members’ perspectives were in alignment. Purposive sampling was used to select the undergraduate courses from three different undergraduate programs at the research site. Three relatively high enrolment courses were selected based on two key criteria: must be a second or third level undergraduate course and must be in a non-professional program in the liberal arts. Non-professional programs were considered programs where the students do not graduate with a specific professional designation or applied program. Two methods were used to collect the data for this project: an employability skill inventory and a survey distributed to students (N = 131). Course syllabi were also obtained to map employability skills. The findings of this study provide further insights with respect to the ways that employability matters to students and the ways in which students expect their instructors and institution to play a role in their employability development. Conclusions of this study underscore the need to consider bridging the disconnect between expectations of the students, the institution, and the faculty regarding employability development.

The impact of honors education on students’ academic and innovative achievements: a longitudinal study in China (2011–2021)

Honors education has ascended as an integral element within the sphere of global higher education, concentrating on fostering individuals who exhibit creativity and a history of innovative achievements. Despite its widespread adoption, there remains a scarcity of exhaustive longitudinal studies investigating its effects and associated variables. To address this shortcoming, this study deploys rigorous structural equation modeling (SEM) and linear regression analyses to meticulously examine a dataset comprising 319 students, who enrolled over a decade (2011–2021) in a prestigious honors college at a preeminent university in China. The primary objective is to discern the predictive efficacy of Chinese honors education selection criteria on students’ creative and academic accomplishments. This endeavor strives to clarify the complex interplay among students’ creative personalities, academic performance, creative achievements, and standardized college entrance exam scores. The findings emphasize that individuals who exhibit enhanced creative personality traits are predisposed to elevated levels of both innovation and academic attainment (β = 0.170, p = 0.017). Additionally, a significant inverse relationship is observed between general learning aptitude and subsequent academic performance (β = −0.008, p = 0.023), while students pursuing science disciplines demonstrate superior innovation outcomes compared to their liberal arts counterparts (β = 0.125, p = 0.048). Interestingly, neither gender nor general academic prowess exerts significant predictive power over collegiate innovation (β = −0.002, p = 0.134). These empirical insights equip policymakers and scholars with nuanced perspectives on the determinants shaping students’ refined educational experiences, thereby inciting critical discourse concerning the refinement of selection criteria and the imperative of nurturing students’ creative proclivities.

Study on the Construction of Teaching System and Transformation of Cultivation Path

Higher education has entered the stage of connotative development, and the mode of integration of industry and education has gradually become an important initiative to deepen education reform, improve the quality of talent training and promote the supply of industrial talents. This paper takes the teaching innovation of Residential Landscape Design as the base point, takes "social development" as the guidance, and puts forward the progressive teaching innovation of "one construction, two concerns, three explorations and four integrations" under the perspective of paying attention to the construction of the country and the development of the discipline. Concept. Under the background of the construction of new liberal arts, we intend to explore and reconstruct the curriculum system, teaching mode, teaching methods and teaching objectives; through the creation of the "exchange experience" teaching context, the teaching will be practically focused on the cultivation of problem awareness and students' discursive ability; and to construct the "theory-practice-skill-thinking-learning" teaching concept. The visualization teaching framework of "Theory-Practice-Skill-Thinking-Feedback" was constructed. At the same time, based on the trinity evaluation mode, the curriculum evaluation standards and evaluation system were further standardized, the multi-cognitive ability of students was comprehensively cultivated, and the innovative consciousness and practical ability of students were promoted to form a closed-loop teaching.

Top-Ranked Higher Education Institutions: An Investigation of the Sport Management Academic Discipline

The current exploratory study determined the prevalence of the sport management academic degree being offered in top-ranked institutions as based on U.S. News & World Report rankings. A focus on the differences of bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees being offered, or not offered, was placed on national universities and liberal arts colleges because of the prevalence of these institution types and their educational settings. Additionally, the study aimed to determine if relevant indicators predicted a sport management degree being offered at a top-ranked national university and liberal arts college. Results indicated significant differences, with sport management degrees being offered at a higher frequency in national universities than liberal arts colleges. However, the sport management degree was largely not offered by the majority of top-ranked institutions. Notably, ranking, enrollment, and public/private institutional status did not predict sport management degree offerings at a liberal arts college. However, a national university had an increased likelihood of offering a sport management degree as enrollment increased and ranking increased (i.e., moved closer to 150). Altogether, the project highlighted that while the sport management academic discipline has certainly grown since its inception, growth has not really occurred at top-ranked higher education institutions, especially liberal arts colleges.