A Reliable Compass: Liberal Arts and the General Education

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A Reliable Compass Liberal Arts and the General
Education

• Sarah Ann Hones
• Director, Advising and Academic Support, Southern
  Oregon University honess_at_sou.edu
• Karen Sullivan-Vance
• Director, Academic Advising and Learning Center,
  Western Oregon University sullivak_at_wou.edu

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Abstract

• How often have you heard the declaration, I want
  to get my general education stuff done so I can
  start the courses that really interest me, or
  Why do I have to take courses that dont matter
  to my major?
• How do advisors explain and justify general
  education course work, steeped in a Liberal Arts
  tradition, to stakeholders who want accelerated
  baccalaureates or career-specific course work?

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Presentation Overview

• Developing a complete and coherent education plan
• Research and practice in advising the general
  education, steeped in the Liberal Arts tradition
• Exploring the relevance of the general education
  curriculum in building an education
• Best practices
• Resources

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What about the general education?

• General education skills may be taught or
  developed as part of courses in the major, in
  separate courses, or through decentralized
  distribution. However, the skills and knowledge
  derived from general education and the major
  should be integrated because general education
  and study in depth, together, comprise a quality
  undergraduate education. (Middle States
  Association of Colleges and Schools, 2002, p. 37)

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• AACU (American Association of Colleges and
  Universities) lists the general education as one
  of the dominant characteristics in a liberal
  education.

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• Good practice in undergraduate education
• encourages contact between students and faculty,
• develops reciprocity and cooperation among
  students,
• encourages active learning,

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• gives prompt feedback,
• emphasizes time on task,
• communicates high expectations, and
• respects diverse talents and ways of learning.
• Chickering and Gamson, 1987

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Trends

• Who recognizes the menu or buffet approach in
  general education? (Ruppert, 2006)
• Harry Lewis suggests that general education is a
  restaurant menu, where what is eaten is not
  important, if one eats enough.
• Marginalization of the general education to high
  school work.

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Liberal Arts

• is a liberal arts education something that is
  defined, planned and intentionally designed, or
  is it whatever we proclaim it to be after we see
  what we get? (Spears et al. 2003. page 3)

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Connection and Integration of Learning

• For a significant faction of our students,
  course taking in the arts and sciences has become
  an experience of fragmentation rather than
  integration. (Schneider, 2004)

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Connection and Integration of Learning

• the advising process offers us perhaps the best
  opportunity for helping our students become more
  intentional about their own educations, as well
  as for helping them to recognize the value of the
  liberal learning outcomes we seek to advance.
  (Laff, 2006, page 36)

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Connection and Integration of Learning

• Many students graduate with neither the content
  nor the process of a broad-based education and
  without the skills they need for independent,
  self-guided learning. (Schein, et al, 2004, page
  17)

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Helping Students Develop as Scholars

• Themes for the Liberal Arts
• Cultivating Inquiry Skills and Intellectual
  Judgment
• Social Responsibility and Civic Engagement
• Integration and Culminating Studies
• (Geary Schneider,
  2004)

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• general education ought to help us to
  understand the past and our own connection with
  the past.
• Robert M. Hutchins
• Former President
• University of Chicago

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• They (students) need to be exposed to faculty
  who have a panoramic view of learning, who can
  pull the essential ideas from a range of
  disciplines together, who can, at least
  temporarily, push students out of their tiny
  niche and help them view the larger world of
  which their specialty is but a partStudents need
  to see connections between different branches of
  learning. (Reinsmith, 2006)

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• Students are not encouraged to make connections
  to their own lives or other subjects, with the
  frequent result that information is left floating
  in a void and promptly forgotten after the
  testing takes place. (Gary Rupert)

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• An education that takes in a broad range of
  subjects, that goes beyond the immediate and
  narrowly instrumental, that seeks the truth as
  valuable in itself and in our long-term interest,
  is the education most suitable for citizens of
  free society.
• David C. Paris

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Resources

• AACU. The Academy in Transition. The Living
  Arts Comparative and Historical Reflections on
  Liberal Education, page 9.
• Chickering, A.W., Gamson, Z.F., Good practice in
  undergraduate education, Association of Colleges
  and Universities, 1987.
• Geary Schneider, C. Practicing Liberal
  Education Formative Themes in the Re-invention
  of Liberal Learning. American Association of
  Colleges and Universities, http//209.29.150.40/pu
  blications/practicing_liberal_education.cfm.
  Retrieved 6/2/2004
• Laff, N.S. Teachable moments Advising as
  liberal learning. Liberal Education, spring
  2006, 92(2), 36-41

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Resources

• Lewis, H.R. A core curriculum for tomorrows
  citizens. Chronicle of Higher Education,
  September 7, 2007, B20.
• Middle States Association of Colleges and
  Schools, 2002. Characteristics of excellence in
  higher education. Philadelphia, PA Middle
  States Commission on Higher Education
• Paris, D.C. The academys lament and the
  traditional liberal arts. LiberalArtsOnline,
  7(3), May 2007. http//liberalarts.wabash.edu/dis
  play/Story_print,cfm?news_)ID_467 Retrieved
  5/10/07
• Reinsmith, W.A. The Forests, not the tree(s)
  The plight of the generalist. Liberal Education,
  Vol.92, No.1, winter 2006, p. 60.

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Resources

• Ruppert, G. Moving the liberal to connective
  education. Liberalartsonline, 6(2) February
  2006. http//liberalarts.wabash.edu/cila/displayS
  tory_print.cfm?news_ID3275 printed 7/17/06
• Schein, H.K., Laff, N.S., Allen, D.R., Bechtel,
  D.S., and Trimble, R.W. Giving advice to
  students A road map for college professionals.
  NACADA Monograph No. 11, 2004, p. 17.
• Schneider, CV.G. Changing practice in liberal
  education What future faculty need to know.
  Peer Review. Vol. 6, No. 3, Spring 2004, page 5.
  www.aacu.org/peerreview
• Spears, K. with others. Learning communities in
  liberal arts colleges. National Learning
  Communities Project Monograph Series. Olympia,
  WA The Evergreen State College, Washington
  Center for Improving the Quality of Undergraduate
  Education, in cooperation with the American
  Association of Higher Education, 2003.