Education Commons^™

Born Again (New Life And Hope For Liberal Arts Education), William A. Cook, James C. Gonyea

Perspectives (1969-1979)

Linwood Orange established the value of Liberal Arts study as the basis for entry into a variety of career areas: legal, medical, governmental, and commercial.¹ Orange surveyed 400 businesses and industries to determine the kinds of positions liberal arts majors and, specifically, English majors held in those corporations. In addition, his questionnaire provided information on courses that would benefit liberal arts students should they hope to pursue careers in the commerce or governmental area. Fundamental to all employment indicated by this survey were ten (10) basic skills or competencies that seemed to be inherent in liberal arts study and …

Interdisciplinary Study: The Ideal And The Real, W. J. Reeves

Perspectives (1969-1979)

This study will examine the various interdisciplinary programs in operation in major universities, focusing on the methods of organization and detailing the problems of existence of such programs.

There are many ways to organize interdisciplinary programs, but the following methods appear most often:

1. Significant Time Periods

2. Area Studies

3 . Humanities and the Professions

4. Topics

A description of these methods is necessary.

General Education For Living And The Value Of Work: Are They Compatible?, Noojin Walker

Perspectives (1969-1979)

Almost ten years ago the United States Commissioner of Education, Sidney Marland, introduced into the educational vocabulary a new expression - career education. Since then we, in higher education and especially liberal arts and general education, have given little thought to the concept. Because all of us know that vocationalism has no place in a liberal arts education. Consequently, career education also has no place. Yet over the last few years I have observed what appears to be an erosion. Some faculty have moved from hostility to indifference, to cautious support, and, in some cases, to active support of the …

Interdisciplinary Perspectives Vol. 8 No. 3

Perspectives (1969-1979)

No abstract provided.

Agls And General Education - Reflections By The President, A. J. Carlson

Perspectives (1969-1979)

The Association for General and Liberal Studies serves as "a forum for professional people concerned with undergraduate general and liberal education in each of the several divisions of the curriculum." At least, that is what the Bylaws indicate. But as I talk to people about the organization several more specific questions keep emerging: " What exactly is AGLS anyway?" "Why should I spend $10 a year to support AGLS?" " What is Interdisciplinary Perspectives?" These questions suggest that the Association has as its first problem - to use the current jargon - a very large "communication gap."

Perspectives For Moral Education In Higher Education, William P. Frost

Perspectives (1969-1979)

Much of the literature on moral education is of a psychological nature with an emphasis on the individual's responsibility to the challenges of the social environment. The valuable is perceived in terms of (1) the development of the person as (2) a member of society. These publications fail to identify perspectives according to which living and growing become meaningful. Paul Kurtz recognizes this shortcoming.

Many people in post-modern society -young and old - lack direction in their lives, a meaning or purpose. Often it is the " liberated" individuals who seem most vulnerable to a confusion of values and to …

Preliminary Program: Association For General And Liberal Studies 17th Annual National Conference

Perspectives (1969-1979)

Preliminary Program

Association for General and Liberal Studies

17^th Annual National Conference

Weber State College - Ogden, Utah 84408

October 27, 28, And 29, 1977

"General Education: Diversity by Design"

The Editor's Page, George F. Estey

Perspectives (1969-1979)

Editor's Page from Interdisciplinary Perspectives Vol. 8 No. 3

Toward A New Synthesis In The Post-Disciplinary Era, Hoke L. Smith

Perspectives (1969-1979)

When we discuss the relationship between general education and work, our own semantic myths can easily trap us. General education, liberal education, and career education are labels which we have used to categorize bundles of learning experiences. Although frequently useful to simplify thought, the educational concepts behind these labels often represent illusory rather than actual goals and their meaning assumes a protoplasmic character, visible but elusive, constantly shifting in shape. Current attempts to define and clarify the relationships among general, career, and liberal education are hindered by the rapid educational evolution now occurring, as American postsecondary education moves from the …

The Editor's Page, George F. Estey

Perspectives (1969-1979)

Editor's Page for Interdisciplinary Perspectives Vol. 9 No. 1

Improving Humanities Education: Philosophy And Design, Ronald W. Carstens

Perspectives (1969-1979)

Both the Hebrew notion of the fall and the Greek concept of hubris have taught us that human endeavors are essentially acts of pride and possibly acts of arrogance. I suppose that a paper entitled "Improving Humanities Education" would be judged to be as at least impertinent in as much as it suggests that the teaching of the humanities can or ought to be improved. But I believe it is possible to improve the way that body of human intellectual and artistic study of man as man we call the humanities is addressed and actualized in the formal process of …

Cooperative Education - General Education: A New Synthesis?, John J. Romano

Perspectives (1969-1979)

When I first proposed this paper some months ago I had a number of specific purposes in mind. First, I'd grown interested in the development of a concept in American higher education which has been termed cooperative education. Secondly, I wondered about the linkages between cooperative education and what traditionally we have called general or liberal education. Thirdly, I wondered if the linkages between these two concepts were of recent origin or have they existed for a long time without formal recognition. Fourthly, I wondered if this " new synthesis" was something that could have a significant impact on the …

Interdisciplinary Perspectives Vol. 9 No. 1

Perspectives (1969-1979)

No abstract provided.

The Exploratory Year: A New Approach To The Four-Year Experience At Whittier College, Michael J. Mcbride

Perspectives (1969-1979)

Most students begin college with little idea about the field of study they will eventually pursue. Some have made a decision in this area , but often have only a vague notion of what is implied in such a decision. Yet, in both cases, the general pattern of liberal arts colleges is to put such students into a general studies program for two years consisting of required or strongly recommended courses. While students may gain a broad educational background, those with little idea about their future area of concentration must base a decision regarding the " major" on a brief …

Philosophy As Humanistic Model, Gary R. Sudano

Perspectives (1969-1979)

Science and philosophy both reach "straight into experience and arrange it with new meaning."² The novice in philosophy is struck by its attempts to provide answers to the essential questions of life. Indeed, he often becomes impatient with philosophical theories which seem to backtrack and are analytic rather than speculative, and philosophy instructors are careful to balance critical activities with answer-generating activities in the classroom. In most cases the student tends to pass lightly over the former in order to get to the meat of the latter. This is the first at traction of philosophy for students, if there …

Opinion Writing For Publication, Richard P. Bailey

Perspectives (1969-1979)

So, when the "writing crisis" hit the pedagogical fan, I was ready with an "innovative" method (so dear to the hearts of educators) for teaching writing. What had lurked in my mind for years pushed its way from subconscious to conscious - i.e ., the only completely satisfying reward for good writing is publication. Students who are given a better reason for writing than the bored approval of a graduate student and/or an arbitrary grade by a young instructor marking papers and time until a section of English Lit. 5,000 opens - students with appetites whetted by the dream of …

The Woof And The Warp, S. R. Wiersteiner

Perspectives (1969-1979)

What is the mission of the university: To prepare for life, or to prepare for a career? If one follows the secular press and pursues the various journals concerned with higher education, one is struck with the " either/or" nature of the articles and comments concerning the goal of a university. But should it be an " either/or" question? Can the preparation for life's work be divorced from the preparation to enjoy that life to its fullest? The whole cloth is not made from only the woof, it must also include the warp.

The Editor's Page, George F. Estey

Perspectives (1969-1979)

The Editor's Page for Interdisciplinary Perspectives Vol. 9 No. 2

The Human Experience, Dimensions Of Love: An Experiment In Interdisciplinary Studies, Patricia Ernenwein Zevin, Gene Sager, Brenda Montiel

Perspectives (1969-1979)

Dedicated to the support of interdisciplinary studies as intellectually sound and academically necessary, this paper is an expanded version of the presentation made by the authors during the 17th Annual Conference of the Association of General and Liberal Studies (October 27-29, 1977, Ogden, Utah). The subject of the conference, "General Education: Diversity by Design," seemed to the Interdisciplinary Studies team at Palomar College (including, in addition to the authors, Donna Tryon, Art, Richard Peacock, Film, and Don Piche, Philosophy) to be particularly appropriate to efforts there to establish a series of interdisciplinary courses in a thematic, team-taught design focusing on …

Interdisciplinary Perspectives Vol. 9 No. 2

Perspectives (1969-1979)

No abstract provided.

Commentary On - "The Exploratory Year: A New Approach To The Four Year Experience At Whittier College", Eugene Wine

Perspectives (1969-1979)

I read with interest Michael McBride's article on the exploratory year at Whittier College. While I am sure that Whittier is satisfied with it and that it contains a number of innovative ideas, such as the "initial module" in various disciplines, I want to speak to the three assumptions upon which Professor McBride and his colleagues rejected any common interdisciplinary general education course for Whittier. I do so because the assumptions are so widely held and because Professor McBride states them so succinctly. I also speak to them as an admitted partisan of a common transdisciplinary general education core course …

Convention Report: Focusing On General Education At Chicago Aahe, Peyton Richter

Perspectives (1969-1979)

The spotlight during discussions of general education at the AAHE 1978 National Conference on Higher Education in Chicago (March 19-22) played back and forth upon Harvard's Dean Henry Rosovsky and the Harvard Report on the Core Curriculum. A modest but confident pragmatist, Rosovsky, as a panelist at a major session of the conference, began by reminding us that welcoming college graduates each year to the company of educated men and women makes sense only if we know what an educated person is. He and his committee, after much discussion and deliberation, had decided that an educated person: (1) must be …

Innovative Adult General Education: The Detroit Experiment, David W. Hartman, Richard T. Bohan, Otto Feinstein, Sandra Loehr, Linda Michalowski, F. Richard Place

Perspectives (1969-1979)

Increasingly, universities have confronted a changing population of undergraduate students. They find themselves under considerable scrutiny, from legislators, taxpayers and potential students. Concurrently, the impetus to re-appraise the mission of undergraduate education, so as to insure its accommodation in our changing society, is in need of refocusing. The issue of who comes to the university, and for what end, stands foresquare in the face of faculties, administrators and elected guardians of higher education, now more than ever before. Again we are charged with providing curricula and format that are relevant enough to retain the attention of today's new student, that …

Student Ratings Of Instruction: The Developmentalist Viewpoint, Lawrence J. Israel

Perspectives (1969-1979)

A recent review of studies concerning student ratings of instruction¹ indicates some probabilities that may be related to the intellectual and moral development of the college student. The studies indicate that the following apply:

1. Most rating forms measure the amount of rapport the instructor establishes.

2. The dimension of teaching skill is strongly influenced by teacher characteristics.

3. Teacher characteristics are more influential than course characteristics in skill ratings.

4. There is probably a weak positive correlation between instructor rank and student ratings.

5. The inconsistency of results in such studies may be the most singular element of …

Boston University's College Of Basic Studies: A Non-Traditional Approach Which Successfully Serves Marginal Applicants, Charles P. Fogg, Gene M. Smith

Perspectives (1969-1979)

The authors are pleased to acknowledge the generous support of the Esso Education Foundation and the George A. Ramlose Foundation; as well as, the vital institutional support and encouragement of Judson Rea Butler, the founding dean of the College, Horatio M. LaFauci , under whose leadership the College flourished for 14 years, Brendan F. Gilbane the current dean and Dean B. Doner the Academic Vice President of Boston University.

The College of Basic Studies (CBS) offers a successful, 2-year, post secondary educational program designed specifically to serve low-achieving students. It admits applicants who are denied admission into 4-year programs at …

The Little College At Bowling Green: Developing Critical Thinking Skills In A General Education Context, James L. Litwin, Richard C. Giardina, M. Neil Browne

Perspectives (1969-1979)

For the past five years , the Little College at Bowling Green State University has been experimenting with various approaches to developing the critical thinking skills of incoming freshmen . Data resulting from evaluative research completed demonstrate that students can be helped to achieve significant gains in their ability to think critically. They also suggest differences in the viability of alternative curricular approaches to achieve this goal. The paper itself profiles many of the problems and issues pertinent to "experimenting" programs, including assumptions about the goals of general education, faculty recruitment, pedagogy, and evaluation . At present , the Little …

General Education As An Alternative To Liberal Education: Some Dissenting Views, M. Neil Browne, Lisa Licata

Perspectives (1969-1979)

At a time in the development of higher education when colleges and universities are competing for students by appealing almost solely to student requests for job-related training, a discussion of alternative approaches to pre-professional training may appear anachronistic. However, this ascendent vocationalism has actually contributed to an expanding dialogue on the meaning of general education. Those of us disburbed by the deemphasis of general education on most campuses have become increasingly self-conscious about the content and quality of our general education offerings. If we are going to maintain a flourishing general education component in higher education, we must present a …

Perspectives Vol. 7 No. 3

Perspectives (1969-1979)

No abstract provided.

Perspectives Vol. 8 No. 1

Perspectives (1969-1979)

No abstract provided.

Capstone 75: Interdisciplinary Turmoil And Triumph At The College Of Basic Studies, Boston University, William E. Davis Jr., George F. Estey

Perspectives (1969-1979)

We here report on an integrative interdisciplinary effort at the College of Basic Studies of Boston University. We are persuaded that the kind of project examined here is well within the grasp of all general liberal programs, whereas a total program of interdisciplinary studies probably is not achievable, for a host of professional and departmental reasons.