Liberal Studies Commons^™

The Editor's Page, George F. Estey

Perspectives (1969-1979)

Editor's Page for Interdisciplinary Perspectives Vol. 10 No. 1

A Program For The Development Of Liberal Studies In Science, James L. Goatley

Perspectives (1969-1979)

Most academic disciplines have a clear relationship between the research that is done and the content of courses that are taught. In the area of general education and liberal studies, however, the reciprocal relationships between teaching and scholarly investigation are much less well understood. On this paper general education refers to courses that are taught and liberal studies to the scholarship related to this course work.) The author believes that there is difficulty because the domains of general education and related liberal studies have been poorly articulated. The problem is particularly acute in general education and liberal studies in science. …

Humanistic Biology: A General Education Approach, Alwynelle S. Ahl, Lawrence R. Krupka, Helen B. Hiscoe, Andrew Mcclary

Perspectives (1969-1979)

Editor's Note: The following articles are printed here as they should have appeared in Volume 9, Number 3. My apologies have already gone to the authors. I now extend them to our patient readers. Both printer and compositor assure me that such errors as appeared earlier will not happen again.

Introduction

In modern man's attempt to understand human nature, two major modes of perceiving human experience, the humanistic and scientific, have often been in conflict. C.P. Snow labelled this dichotomy "the two cultures." As the power of science and accompanying technology have grown in the past forty years, the distance …

Perceptions Of College And The Pursuit Of Liberal Education, Victor L. Worsfold

Perspectives (1969-1979)

In their recent book, Revolving College Doors,² Robert G. Cope and William Hannah have argued that "it is the fit between student and college that accounts for most of the transferring, stopping out and dropping out"³ amongst our present student body. This idea when taken to be correct, gives the lie to what is usually averred to explain the rapidly increasing phenomenon of attrition amongst those wishing to attend college, namely, financial stringency. Cope and Hannah would have us believe that "lack of money is a socially acceptable reason to discontinue attending school regardless of actual financial …

Aesthetic Game-Rules For The Arts In General Education, Gary R. Sudano

Perspectives (1969-1979)

Aesthetics is commonly known as the philosophical study of the nature and function of art. As such, it is considered to be a theoretical enterprise of interest to some philosophers and, perhaps, to some arts historians. But, as such, it is not thought to have a great deal of relevance or usefulness to teachers and students in general education arts courses. That this is not the case is the first point of this paper. The second point is that while aesthetics is sometimes a weary and cumbersome subject, there are several important principles to be gleaned from its literature which …

Moving A Liberal Education Program From Adoption To Implementation: New Forces And New Issues, L. Jackson Newell

Perspectives (1969-1979)

At the Boston meeting of the Association of General and Liberal Studies in 1976, I had the privilege of reporting on the two-year process by which the University of Utah assessed its general education program, planned major revisions in it, and saw them adopted by the University Senate. It is now my task to report on the less glamorous, but probably more crucial, process by which a formally adopted program is implemented. The research of John Pratt and Tyrrell Burgess,¹ which has assessed major educational policy changes in Great Britain , suggests that scholars and educational policy makers generally …

The Editor's Page, George F. Estey

Perspectives (1969-1979)

Editor's Page for Interdisciplinary Perspective Vol. 10 No. 2 & 3

Some Thoughts On Interdisciplinary Studies, Sidney F. Parham, Peter W. Graham

Perspectives (1969-1979)

The vogue for interdisciplinary courses has led our more crusty and conservative colleagues to complain that such programs represent a mere repackaging of traditional courses, a process that diminishes the value the student receives from traditional courses without broadening or integrating his knowledge. Too often this criticism is just. We should like to argue that a genuinely interdisciplinary approach does not repackage but restructures knowledge in such a way that students are led to consider the nature of knowledge itself and thus, we hope, to think about their own thinking. Such reflection seems to us a decidedly traditional goal of …

Lifelong Learning And The World Of Work, Ivan Charner

Perspectives (1969-1979)

This editorial answers three basic questions about the relief education program. Why the program is important?, how the program operates? and who participates in the program? A similar editorial could be written today about the growing number of learning opportunities available to workers and the growing number of participants in such programs. This essay represents such an effort. Although in more breadth and in more detail than the 1933 editorial, I will focus on the same basic questions. First, why should lifelong learning for workers be advanced? Second, how have opportunities for learning been made available to working adults? and …

Interdisciplinary Perspectives Vol. 10 No. 1

Perspectives (1969-1979)

No abstract provided.

Tapping The Potentials Of Interdisciplinary Studies In A Freshman Core Program, William A. Sadler Jr.

Perspectives (1969-1979)

This article will discuss an innovative Interdisciplinary Freshman Core Program that has been developing for five years at a small liberal arts college in the New York metropolitan area. The significance of this program extends beyond the campus of Bloomfield College, for it exemplifies one way to meet productively some of the serious issues now confronting higher education across the country. Before examining this program, let me introduce you to this College in terms of its precarious position at the start of its second hundred years of existence.

"Liberal Arts; Past, Present And Future", Dwight L. Ling

Perspectives (1969-1979)

The Greek poet Pindar stated that the wise man is one who knows by nature, while those who know merely because they have been taught are to be scorned. The suggestion that there is intuitive knowledge or an elevated type of common sense is not new; however, I would argue that we must study and ponder the wisdom of the past if we would be wise today or in the future. Many liberal arts colleges have detracted from this wisdom by dropping classical studies and catering to the whims of an ahistorical generation of students. To gain the insights that …

The Liberating Function Of Philosophy In Education, Leonard M. Fleck

Perspectives (1969-1979)

"But wherever ideas are effective, there is freedom"¹

The primary intent of this paper is not to advance or defend any novel philosophical theses. Rather, the purpose is to provide what I will call a "philosophic service" for undergraduate teachers of philosophy. More specifically, I am concerned both with the continued decline of interest in the liberal arts (philosophy in particular) among undergraduates and with the apparent inability of many teachers of the liberal arts to articulate satisfactorily a rationale for the pursuit of the liberal arts. In this paper I cannot analyze all the complex economic and socio-cultural …

Interdisciplinary Perspectives Vol. 10 No. 2 & 3

Perspectives (1969-1979)

No abstract provided.

Interdisciplinary Perspectives Vol. 9 No. 3

Perspectives (1969-1979)

No abstract provided.

Some Thoughts On Interdisciplinary Studies, Sidney F. Parham, Peter W. Graham

Perspectives (1969-1979)

The vogue for interdisciplinary courses has led our more crusty and conservative colleagues to complain that such programs represent a mere repackaging of traditional courses, a process that diminishes the value the student receives from traditional courses without broadening or integrating his knowledge. Too often this criticism is just. We should like to argue that a genuinely interdisciplinary approach does not repackage but restructures knowledge in such a way that students are led to consider the nature of knowledge itself and thus, we hope, to think about their own thinking. Such reflection seems to us a decidely traditional goal of …

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 And Interdisciplinary Studies In The Arts, Dennis J. Sporre

Perspectives (1969-1979)

The conservatory approach to education in the arts is commonplace. Even in land-grant institutions which purportedly espouse a liberal arts or general education (there are differences between the two) the tendency in arts instruction has been to shape the curriculum into more and more specificity, so that even at the undergraduate level the student is given an option to choose, within his major, rather narrow specializations. The resultant increase in specialty courses and their need for staffing constantly refires the age-old arguments relating to general and liberal education and how, within various matrixes, general students or non-majors can be accommodated. …

The Editor's Page, George F. Estey

Perspectives (1969-1979)

Editor's Page for Interdisciplinary Perspective