Undergraduate Liberal Education Research Articles

The elephant in the room: constraints and consequences of a four-year undergraduate engineering degree

Engineering is the only profession for which candidates can be licensed with only an undergraduate degree. This attracts students seeking training for occupation more than education, encourages heavy non-discretionary course requirements, and relegates engineering to lower status that other professions requiring training following an undergraduate liberal education. This focus on instrumental reasoning further isolates engineering from other more self-reflexive professions.

Changing the Conversation about Higher Education ed. by J. Robert Thompson Jr. (review)

Reviewed by: Changing the Conversation about Higher Education ed. by J. Robert Thompson Jr. Diane Wood J. Robert Thompson Jr. (Ed.). Changing the Conversation about Higher Education. New York: Rowman & Littlefield, 2013. 238 pp. Cloth: $32.95. ISBN-13: 978-1475801859. In Changing the Conversation about Higher Education, Robert Thompson’s (Duke University) goal was to open up a larger discussion in higher education from the “critique,” to directly focus on “systematic improvement” within undergraduate education programs—specifically, “teaching” and “learning.” The initial impetus for discussion was the results of a research project funded by the Teagle and Spencer Foundations, in which 13 institutions participated. The original underpinning for the study was derived from the work described in Derek Bok’s Our Underachieving Colleges (2006) and Richard Arum and Josipa Roksa’s Academically Adrift: Limited Learning on College Campuses (2011) (p. xi). Bok’s assertions in Our Underachieving Colleges about “improvements in student learning,” “faculty” and “institutional culture” were central to the work that the Teagle and Spencer Foundations set out to accomplish. In response, both foundations came together to “co-sponsor a $1.4 million multi-university collaborative research project,” with the goal of “establish[ing] a culture of experimentation and evidence” specific to undergraduate liberal education programs in research institutions (p. ix). They selected 13 research-based universities to participate in the study and established two areas as investigation targets: “writing” and “critical thinking” (p. ix). The initial goal of the Teagle and Spencer Foundations was to investigate if there were changes on the selected campuses in the areas of “faculty” and “culture,” due primarily to the investigators’ understanding that no pedagogy changes were possible without changes in faculty and institutional culture. The research project focused on achieving two overarching goals for undergraduate liberal arts education programs: (a) “Establish a continuous cycle of experimentation and evaluation” and (b) “Improve the education practices by incorporating advances in our understanding about cognitive developing and processes.” The foundations sent invitations to administrators in research institutions who were members of the Association of American Universities. Twenty-eight submitted proposals, from which the foundations selected 13 participants. The major purpose was to “improve educational practices” by increasing the understanding of “cognitive development,” “the processes of learning,“ and effective models of pedagogical and “assessment practices” (pp. x, 4–7). [End Page 329] The four major findings that emerged from the 13 institutional projects established the framework for analysis of the study. These themes were also used to develop the four sections of the text: ”Effective Teaching and Learning Practices,” “Approaches to Assessment,” “The Role of University Centers in Fostering Professional Learning Communities”, and ”Next Steps in the Continuing Efforts to Transform the Culture of Undergraduate Education” (p. xi). Each section provided an introduction to the work represented in the following chapters. In Part 1, “Effective Teaching and Learning Practices,” Robert Thompson identifies an underlying theme consistently woven throughout the book, which is “learning as transformation” (p. xi). He extrapolates from the research: “Learning is no longer understood as simply ‘acquisition of knowledge,’ but as ‘construction of understanding and meaning’” (p. xi). He concludes by discussing the current movement in undergraduate education, beginning with the traditional model (“acquisition of content knowledge”) and continuing with the more up-to-date model, which engages learners in specific subject areas by using alternative learning strategies. The ultimate goal of this current shift is to increase metacognition for all learners (p. xi). In Chapter 1, “From Bottlenecks to Epistemology in History: Changing the Conversation about the Teaching of History in Colleges and Universities,” Leah Shopkow, David Pace, Joan Middendorf, and Arlene Diaz (Indiana University) conducted interviews with faculty members at their institution, thus identifying several “bottlenecks” that delayed teaching and learning in history courses. They presented alternative assessment strategies, with the ultimate goal of breaking through the bottlenecks that history students may experience. The authors contend that the goal for faculty teaching in history programs should be about mentoring and teaching students toward critically analyzing and formulating ideas from a historian’s perspective. Their data study reports on two critical areas. First, the bottlenecks’ interconnecting points revealed the locations where faculty were not teaching “the knowledge base” of historical...

Why is liberal education so incoherent? An anthropological perspective

Purpose – This paper's purpose is to account for liberal education's characteristic incoherence. Design/methodology/approach – Its approach is to sketch a dilemma created by cultures being inherently conservative, while nations, in order to be internationally competitive, need to be innovative. The definitional and systemic bases of culture's conservatism offer no point of attack; but a third base is enculturation, which does. Findings – Shortly after puberty, society's more promising young people are strongly urged to leave home for an extended period, and be exposed to ways of acting and thinking that often clash with how they have been brought up. They are encouraged to explore new subjects and indulge their curiosity; they are encouraged to “think outside the box” of their own enculturation. The incoherence of liberal education leaves them not with a sense of closure, but in a state of constructive confusion conducive to innovation in all aspects of life. Liberal education thus serves the social function of countering the anti-innovative tendency of culture. Practical implications – Attempts to impose coherence on undergraduate educational experience by “tying things all together” for students are ill-advised. Originality/value – Seeing incoherence as a desirable rather than deplorable feature of undergraduate liberal education can help us facilitate rather than inadvertently inhibit innovative thought and action in the rising generation.

What Good Is a Liberal Education?

As my defense of liberal education will be somewhat unusual, drawing as it does on the insights of Karl Marx, Sigmund Freud, and Herbert Marcuse rather than on Cardinal Newman and John Dewey, it might be useful for me to begin with a reminder of some of the more familiar defenses of liberal education. After reviewing three rationales for undergraduate liberal education, I will turn to what I consider the real justifi cation for the study of our cultural and intellectual tradition. The fi rst of the three defenses of liberal education is the oldest and perhaps the most traditional: liberal education as the appropriate education for a gentleman. (Not, please note, for a gentlewoman—that consisted of skill with the needle, a bit of music, and the elements of oeconomics, which is to say the management of a household.) A study of the classics, it was thought, would give men of high estate the proper fi nish, or patina, that would allow them to move gracefully in polite circles. A command of Greek and Latin, like a well-turned leg and a well-fi lled codpiece, was an evidence of good bloodlines. It was even suggested that familiarity with ancient tongues and literatures might deepen a young man’s understanding of human affairs, although that was, to be sure, more of a tutor’s hope than a realistic expectation. The fundamental presupposition of this conception of liberal ed-

Holding on to Higher Education's Highest Calling in Hard Times

The unanticipated and unwelcome detour precipitated by the economic recession comes at a time of vulnerability for American higher education. Questions of educational purpose have been raised with increasing urgency over the last quarter century, and they have catalyzed promising new thinking and new experimentation. Recent years have seen encouraging progress in shaping an agenda for undergraduate liberal education that will more effectively produce graduates who are prepared to grapple, imaginatively and responsibly, with complex challenges they will face throughout their lives. Yet progress in disseminating these ideas has been painfully slow. We can hope that the current economic crisis may be the impetus institutions of higher learning have needed to become experiential learning organizations.

Minority Student Retention: The Best of the Journal of College: Research, Theory, and Practice (review)

In this section, Fallis discusses four ideas that have shaped the evolution of the “Anglo-American” university (i.e., those in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Canada), and which are being challenged by politico-economic forces which he explains in Part 2. They are (a) the idea of undergraduate liberal education, (b) the idea of professional schools, (c) the idea of graduate education, research, and pure science, and (d) the idea of undergraduate accessibility and applied science. The “multiversity” is a combination of all of these ideas; it is thus a creature of modernity, and its prominence results from the ascendance of the welfare state.I think this firstsection is the strongest part of the book. Not only does Fallis do a nice job of identifying the “bundle of ideas” that led to what we know as a multiversity, but he does so in a very engaging and easily accessible style. Indeed, the whole book is like this. While supporting the arguments with a wide range of literature from multiple fieldsand addressing very complicated phenomena (e.g., the economics of higher educa-tion and international trade agreements), Fallis’s writing is always accessible to even a minimally college-educated audience, thus being true to one of his key arguments that academics must make their work accessible to the general (albeit educated) public.In Part 2, “The Character of Our Age,” Fallis addresses fivepolitico-economic forces that have made the multiversity a crucial institution of our times but which also threaten its core ideas and put it at risk of undermining democracy. These forces are (a) the constraining of the welfare state’s commitment to higher education as a public good, (b) the predominance of information technology in redefiningresearch and teaching, (c) the emer-gence of postmodern thought in questioning the tenets of modernity—which are, after all, the tenets of the university; (d) the commercialization of knowledge and research, and (e) the globalization and internationalization of the university.I found his arguments about the welfare state, commercialism, globalism, and information tech-nology a balanced account of the benefits and con-sequences of these forces. He does, however, align himself with their critics. These politico-economic forces do lead to a new idea of the multiversity; but that idea sees the multiversity as (and perhaps only as) an instrument of the economy. The result is to convert higher education into a private good, force universities to seek alternative sources of funding, lead them away from a commitment to democracy and disinterested inquiry, and make them pander to the private interests of their new funders.Fallis, however, is less convincing when he dis-cusses the preeminence of what he calls postmod-ern thought, which he argues leads to a relativism that threatens the university’s core values of reason and democracy. What he calls postmodern thought certainly questions and historicizes the presump-tiveness of the tenets of modernity, but one need not conclude from this questioning that one is left with no commitments to reason (which might now be understood diversely and, thus, democratically, rather than authoritatively), or even to democracy itself, which might now be expanded to include other individuals and discourses traditionally left out of the discussion of what constitutes “reason.” Despite this concern, this part of the book takes a hard but meliorist look at the problems constrain-ing the traditional ideas of the university.Part 3,“Renewing the Social Contract,” seemed the weakest for me, although it is where Fallis pro-poses his solution to what ails the university. He argues that the university and its faculty should be-gin to see themselves as instrumental to democracy and to the liberal education that will guarantee it. Some of his specificconclusions include: (a) The university must take an active role in addressing the key social issues and in sponsoring debate about them; (b) Professors must begin to see themselves as public intellectuals, and (c) Under-graduate students must be given the opportunity to obtain a minor in liberal education.I find such arguments merely derivatives of those made by many others which essentially adhere to Newman’s idea of the university and so rather uninteresting, perhaps even naive. But Fallis recognizes the problem ailing the university as inherently a power struggle over ideas, and in this vein he is quite right in arguing for particular ideas of the university. I may not agree with his ideas, but I think it is crucial to have them and to question them, for I think he would agree with me that the crux of the problem in the university is that we have stopped espousing and questioning ideas in the face of seemingly overwhelming global forces. As a result, we blindly pursue the directions expected of us by these forces, thus making our being in the academy rather meaningless.

Biochemistry/Molecular Biology and undergraduate liberal education

In November of 2006, ASBMB received a grant from the Teagle Foundation. The Foundation hopes to engage disciplinary societies in assessing the relationship of the goals of undergraduate concentration in their discipline to those of liberal education. This grant provides an opportunity for ASBMB to examine undergraduate programs in biochemistry and molecular biology and evaluate the success of their graduates. The Teagle Working Group has conducted interviews and surveys. Results so far confirm that graduate faculty and employers value research experience above all other types of preparation. The chairs’ survey indicates that about half of departments are working with the ASBMB guidelines, while the other half were unaware of these recommendations. Since the introduction of the guidelines, about one‐third of departments have added specific coursework and more undergraduate research; under 20% have added skills‐based requirements, and the same number reported a movement away from lecture‐based teaching. About one‐quarter have paid more attention to assessment of student learning. We will highlight examples of courses that emphasize skills rather than content. Following the education award presentation, we will hold an open‐mike session on undergraduate education in BMB fields: the relevance of ASBMB guidelines, how to assess students’ success, and the interaction with other goals of a liberal education.

Biochemistry and undergraduate liberal education

Biochemistry and undergraduate liberal education

Leadership Studies and Liberal Education

This article explores leadership studies as a complementary and integrating discipline in undergraduate liberal education curricula. A significant historical purpose of liberal education was to liberate and prepare its graduates to be active and capable participants and leaders in social, economic, religious, and political realms. This historical purpose has become resurgent in recent critical examinations of liberal education. Some now argue that the undergraduate liberal education should return, in part, to preparing citizens for leadership responsibilities necessary to strengthen our communities, nation, and democratic institutions. There appears to be a symbiotic relationship between liberal education and leadership studies. The knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary for effective leadership appear to be closely aligned with the desired learning outcomes of a liberal arts education, regardless of major. This article concludes that leadership studies may be an important and beneficial component of undergraduate liberal education curricula.

Liberal education and the criminal justice major

New perspectives on the impact of college on students, on linking general education, the major, electives and extra-classroom experiences toward the goal of “integrated learning,” and renewed emphasis on the importance of producing liberally educated college graduates, present opportunities for criminal justice educators to make their field a keystone in the architecture of a liberal education. In this essay, I argue that the multidisciplinary perspectives that characterize the field of criminal justice, as well as its core intellectual concerns, make criminal justice well-suited to serve as the infrastructure for a high-quality undergraduate liberal education program.

A new opportunity for general education

Renewed interest in general education has provided colleges and universities with an opportunity to reassess the goals of undergraduate liberal education. Before rushing ahead educators must carefully decide what is to be taught, how it will be taught, and to whom it will be taught. Distribution requirements assure no unity. A team teaching structure with an interdisciplinary orientation synergistically transforms the curriculum and which also considers the needs of different student populations is proposed in this article. This plan is administratively and financially expedient and urges that colleges be willng, at least at the freshman level, to delay specialization and preprofessional training.

Geography in Undergraduate Liberal Education. A Report of the Geography in Liberal Education Project. Washington, D.C., Association of American Geographers, 1965, v-66 p.

Geography in Undergraduate Liberal Education. A Report of the Geography in Liberal Education Project. Washington, D.C., Association of American Geographers, 1965, v-66 p.. Un article de la revue Cahiers de géographie du Québec (Volume 9, numéro 18, 1965, p. 159-301) diffusée par la plateforme Érudit.

Geography in Undergraduate Liberal Education

Geography in Undergraduate Liberal Education

Wisconsin's Experimental College

It THIS article I am quoting largely from my annual report to the Faculty of the College of Letters and Science of the University of Wisconsin, the sponsors of our work, who in approving the establishment of the Experimental College said, An Experimental College shall be set up within the College of Letters and Science. The purpose of the new College will be to formulate and to test under experimental conditions, suggestions for the improvement of methods of teaching, the content of study, and the determining conditions of undergraduate liberal education. The discussion I am presenting falls under four headings: the course of study, the method of teaching, the community life of the college, and the continuance of the experiment. Without further introduction I begin with the first of these four topics. A course of study has been made and shaped when two things have been done: first, a of must have been defined; and second, a body of literature must have been selected and presented which will stimulate that interest. In the plan for the Experimental College the range of interest is the attempt to begin acquaintance with and understanding of the work of the human mind, as it creates and fashions the civilizations in the midst of which men live. To this end our literature has been, in the two years, chosen in the freshman year from two different fields. Our students have read books which reveal and interpret the Athens of Pericles and Plato in the fifth and fourth centuries B. C. We have tried in the sophomore year to select and arrange material bearing upon the nineteenth century in America. In both cases, we have interpreted the literature as expressing the attempt of a civilization to deal with its own situation. We have wanted our students to see how human appreciation and intelligence attempt to express and to direct human action, and how both succeed and fail in their characteristic activities. The organization and selection of the Greek material has quite naturally