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Liberal Education and General Education:

Liberal Education and General Education: Educating 21 st Century Students for a World Shared in Common. General Education and University Curriculum Reform: An International Conference in Hong Kong June 12, 2012 Carol Geary Schneider. Overview.

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Liberal Education and General Education:

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  1. Liberal Education and General Education: Educating 21st Century Students for a World Shared in Common General Education and University Curriculum Reform: An International Conference in Hong Kong June 12, 2012 Carol Geary Schneider

  2. Overview • Clarifying Our Terms: Liberal Education, General Education, Excellent University Education • General Education and the Aims of Education • Connecting Learning with Wider Society • Principles of Excellence for General and University Education • Aligning Principles with Practices – Preparing Students for a World Shared in Common

  3. Clarifying Our Terms • Liberal Education • General Education • Excellent University Education Across General Education and Major Programs

  4. General Education and the Aims of Education Asking What All Students Need to Learn – Goals for General Learning – Raises Issues of Institutional Mission and Purpose – and Then Leads Directly to the Connections Between Learning and the Wider Society

  5. Connecting Learning With the Wider Society • The Economy? • Global Engagement and Community? • Civil Society? • Personal Integrity and Development? • A World of Rapid and Fast-Paced Change? What Will Students Need for Success in

  6. The Twenty-First Century University • The Curriculum in Transition: • Rethinking educational purposes and practices to better prepare students for • Innovation in the Economy • Global Interdependence • Healthy, Humane, and Just Societies

  7. The Curriculum in Transition: General Education as Foundational – 20th Century

  8. The Curriculum in Transition: General Education and Connections With the Major – 21st Century

  9. Connecting Learning With the Wider Society (cont.) • Economic Challenges • Civic and Global Challenges

  10. University Learning for the 21st Century Economy • Employers are demanding more – much more • They want and seek many more university-educated workers • They also seek much higher and broader levels of learning in those they employ, retain, and promote

  11. Economic Pressures: Volatility and Complexity • Rapid scientific and technological innovations are changing the workplace and demanding more of all employees • Global interdependence and complex cross-cultural interactions increasingly define modern society and the workplace and call for new levels of knowledge and capacity

  12. Employers Are Raising the Bar • 91% of employers say that they are “asking employees to take on more responsibilities and to use a broader set of skills than in the past” • 88% of employers say that “the challenges their employees face are more complex than they were in the past.” • 88% of employers agree that “to succeed in their companies, employees needs higher levels of learning and knowledge than they did in the past.” Source: “Raising the Bar: Employers’ Views on College Learning in the Wake of the Economic Downturn” (AAC&U and Hart Research Associates, 2010)

  13. The Growing Demand for Higher Order Skills Source: Council on Competitiveness, Competitiveness Index

  14. Economic Pressures: Innovation and Measured Risk-Taking • In a globalized knowledge economy, the capacity to drive INNOVATION is the key strategic advantage

  15. To Drive Innovation, Employers Seek Employees Who Can “Think Outside the Box”

  16. Employers Want to Find That “360° Perspective” Hart Research Associates

  17. Employers Do Not Want People Who Can Only See Things From One Point of View “You cannot retreat to a cave and work in isolation until you like the solution.” – Frank Levinson, Managing Director, Small World Group, Singapore

  18. Thinking Across Disciplines “[T]he reason that Apple is able to create products like the iPad is that we’ve always tried to be at the intersection of technology and liberal arts, to be able to get the best of both…And it’s the combination of these two things that I think has let us make the kind of creative products like the iPad.”Steve Jobs, Co-Founder, Apple Inc.

  19. Connecting Learning With the Wider Society (cont.) • Economic Challenges • Civic and Global Challenges

  20. AS IN THE ECONOMY, THE GLOBAL CHALLENGES WE FACE ARE DAUNTING

  21. Global Challenges • Poverty, War, Suffering…Sustenance and Human Dignity • Illiteracy and Its Effects…Education and Opportunity • Energy and the Environment…Sustainability,Research, and Innovation • Terrorism and Fear… Law, Justice, Self-Determination

  22. We Must Graduate Students Who Are PreparedandInspired to Take Responsibility for Solving Global Problems – At Home and Abroad

  23. A Crucible Moment (AAC&U, 2012) Recommends Civic Learning as a Priority Both in General Education and in Major Programswww.aacu.org/civic_learning/crucible/documents/crucible_508F.pdf

  24. From a Decade of Analysis, the Key Elements for a 21st Century Curriculum Are Now in Hand • Essential Aims and Outcomes • Practices That Foster Achievement and Completion • Practices That Move Global and Social Responsibility Back to the Center • Assessments That Raise—as well as Reveal—the Level of Students’ Learning

  25. The Essential Learning Outcomes • Knowledge of Human Cultures and the Physical and Natural World • Intellectual and Practical Skills • Personal and Social Responsibility • Integrative, Adaptive, and Applied Learning (See handout)

  26. Both Faculty and Employers Value the Essential Learning Outcomes; Employers Seek “More Emphasis” on These Capacities

  27. Helping Students Achieve Essential Learning Outcomes

  28. Four Principles of Excellence for General Education AND Majors • Engage the Big Questions • Teach the Arts of Inquiry and Innovation • Connect Knowledge with Choices and Action • Foster Civic, Intercultural, and Ethical Learning

  29. For Broad Knowledge – and that “Big Picture” Perspective 1. Engage the Big Questions Teach Through the Curriculum to Far-Reaching Issues – Contemporary and Enduring – in Science and Society, Cultures and Values, Global Interdependence, the Changing Economy, and Human Dignity and Freedom

  30. Introduce “Big Questions” in First Year General Education Programs e.g. What is a Good Society? Historical, Cross-Cultural, and Personal Reflections • Expect Advanced Students to Explore Their Own “Big Questions” BOTH in AdvancedGeneral Education Courses AND in Their Majors

  31. Practices That Work to Engage Students with Broad Knowledge and Big Questions/Big Picture • Common Intellectual Experiences • Writing and Research • Collaborative Assignments and Projects • Cluster Courses – Several Courses That Explore Common Topics Such as Technology and Social Conflict

  32. To Develop Intellectual and Practical Skills 2. Teach the Arts of Inquiry and InnovationImmerse All Students in Analysis, Discovery, Problem Solving, and Communication, Beginning in School and Advancing in the University

  33. Break Students of the Idea That They Have Come to the University Mainly to Learn “What is Already Known” • Emphasize the Societal and Economic Value of Research into Emerging Questions– • Preparation for jobs that are rapidly changing • Solutions to problems we are only starting to understand • Responsibility for a world—local and global— that we share in common

  34. Practices That Work to Help Students Master the “Arts of Inquiry” and Skills Related to Innovative Problem Solving • Research questions and assignments early and often In early AND advanced General Education In Major Programs Connecting “Big Questions” with Majors • Field-Based Research and Problem-Solving – With Employers and/or Community Partners • Culminating or Capstone Projects

  35. To Foster Integrative and Adaptive Learning 3. Connect Knowledge with Choices and Actions Prepare Students for Citizenship and Work through Engaged and Guided Learning on “Real-World” Problems

  36. Both the economy and society need graduates who are ready to apply their learning to new settings and problems—AND, who are competent in learning FROM experience • So, the goal is to connect both inquiry and knowledge with action—but, also, to give students rich opportunities to reflect on their “real-world” learning and to revise their assumptions in light of experience

  37. Practices That Work to Help Students Integrate Knowledge with Action • Internships and Practicums • Service Learning/Civic Problem-Solving • Research with Community Partners • Culminating or Capstone Projects That Blend Research and Real-World Problems

  38. To Help Students Take Responsibility for a World Shared in Common 4. Foster Civic, Intercultural, and Ethical LearningEmphasize Personal and Social Responsibility, in Every Field of Study

  39. Too often, faculty introduce ethical, intercultural (diversity) and ethical questions in general education, but spend little or no time on them in major programs • A 21st century education should prepare students to tackle difficult cultural, ethical, and societal issues, both through general studies and through major programs

  40. Practices That Work to Help Students Develop Intercultural Competence, Social Responsibility, and Ethical Judgment • Diversity studies and experiences, especially when “intergroup dialogue” is included Note: Frequency Matters! • Global studies and experiences • Guided ethical reflection—case studies; students’ own experiences

  41. General Education – Beginning, Middle, and Culminating Work

  42. High Impact Reports To Learn More About Practices That Work, See High-Impact Educational Practices: What They Are, Who Has Access to Them, and Why They Matter by George Kuh (AAC&U, 2008)https://secure.aacu.org/source/Orders/index.cfm

  43. Connecting Learning to the Wider Society Once We Ask What General Learning Students Need for Success, the Answers Lead Back to the Purposes and Design of the Entire Educational Experience in Helping Student Achieve “Essential Learning Outcomes”

  44. Thus, General Education Raises Issues that Matter to The Entire Educational Experience • General Studies • Majors • Campus Community • Campus AND Community And the Importance of the Connections Between Them.

  45. Working Together, We Can and Must Educate Students Who Will Work Together to Build and Sustain a Better Future

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