The Effects of Liberal Arts Experiences on Liberal Arts Outcomes

Despite scholars’ praise of liberal arts education as a model form, very little research has examined the actual impact of liberal arts education on learning outcomes. The elaborate rhetoric and anecdotal support, long used to advance liberal arts education as the premier type of education with value for all, is no longer sufficient. The practices and conditions that lead to outcomes of a liberally educated student remain an empirical black box. Guided by the work of Pascarella et al. [2005, Liberal arts colleges and liberal arts education: New evidence on impacts. ASHE Higher Education Report, 31(3)], this study examined the extent to which an institutional ethos, that values student–student and student–faculty interaction within a supportive environment characterized by high expectations for developing the intellectual arts, manifests in the lived experiences of students and predicts the development of outcomes theoretically associated with the liberal arts. Specifically, we investigated the construct and predictive validity of the liberal arts experience scale relative to liberal arts outcomes. Using data from the first phase of the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education, net of student background characteristics and institution attended, we found liberal arts experiences had a positive effect on four of six liberal arts outcomes, including intercultural effectiveness, inclination to inquire and lifelong learning, well-being, and leadership.

"文理艺大综合"构成要义及实施

教育部十五规划课题全国教育科学十五规划项目“文理艺多学科交叉综合课程设置和审美化教学操作研究”提出的将科学逻辑、审美动力、实践活动相结合的综合课程设计模式是综合课程与教学的一种新的思路。     

The Liberal Arts in Russia

The article analyzes the applicability of the liberal arts education model to Russian higher education. We describe the distinguishing traits of the model from the points of view of administrators and teachers. We focus on the challenges that the Russian system would face if individual features were thoughtlessly borrowed from this Western system without considering the local context.     

Kinesiology in the Liberal Arts

Until recently, physical education and the liberal arts have taken divergent courses. The resurgence of the field as a cross-disciplinary study of human movement may revitalize the position of kinesiology in the liberal arts college. This paper assesses the nature of the liberal arts in higher education and suggests ways a kinesiology curriculum may be honed to the specifications of that model. The question of curricular centrality is a vital issue, particularly in times of recessionary budgets. Until a program of study reflects the knowledge objectives and imparts the skills dear to its parent institution, it will remain endangered. As the American Academy of Physical Education and others succeed in pushing open the window of opportunity, we may be greeted by a fresh breeze of intellectual integrity; institutions, each espousing their unique goals, may seek common ground and mutual growth.     

Computer Science in Liberal Arts Colleges

When a liberal arts college decides to include computer science as one of its academic disciplines, a number of questions arise. What is an appropriate curriculum? What sort of laboratory support does this new discipline need? How does a small liberal arts school attract, retain, and evaluate faculty in this area? Do computer science faculty become a separate department or remain joined with mathematics or some other discipline? In short, what must be done to put computer science on equal footing with mathematics and other scientific disciplines? This paper addresses these questions.     

人文科学方法论

在现代人文科学研究的范式中,非常强调以不同学科的手段,以各种材料去证明和对对象的言说。传统的研究大都以文字为依据,形成了“书写文化”的话语表述。今天在反思原则之下,研究者一方面反叛“书写权力”,另一方面以各种不同的证据“说话”,形成了方法论的转型,而这一学理轨迹有必要在大学教育中传达和传授。     

The Future of the Liberal Arts

For the past year, we have been co-facilitating Theatre of the Oppressed (TO) workshops across Pittsburgh, tailored specifically toward local educators and educational activists. The overarching intentions of these workshops were twofold: (a) to cultivate educators’ understanding of and response to how power and privilege operate in educational systems; and (b) to provide useful tools for educators to continue these conversations and dismantle systems of oppression in their places of practice. As a collective of facilitators and in our workshops, we attempt to create, even if briefly, a beloved community where participants are invited to bring their full, human selves and engage in nuanced reflection in the hopes of creating a more compassionate, just, and equitable society. Like our workshops, the purpose of this article is both practical and theoretical: (a) to provide tangible tools to those readers interested in facilitating TO workshops for educators; and (b) to contribute to our understanding of how TO can serve to cultivate educators’ analysis of oppression.     

大文科背景下的文科能力过程复合化应用人才培养

随着我国经济社会建设的步伐以及现代科技、文化教育的快速发展,传统的中文专业人才培养体系明显地显露出鲜明特色的缺失和实用性的不足。本文结合绵阳师范学院文学与对外汉语学院构建"大文科"体系,积极探索新时期中文专业人才培养的新模式,实践全能过程化复合化应用人才培养的人才培养模式,通过"学生能力培养过程化"、"培养人才过程复合化"、"人才培养目标复合应用化"的培养工作思路,找到了人才培养改革的方向、实现了学科资源的整合、提高了人才培养的质量、适应了经济社会的发展。     

作为“位育”的通识教育:潘光旦的本土化视角

本文从通识教育本土化的问题出发,梳理了潘光旦在20世纪上半叶关于中国大学教育的反思以及作为这种反思的结果,即在中国展开通识教育的思想。潘光旦关于通识教育的目的、功能和方法等方面的主张,服从于其“中和位育”的核心社会学理论,对今天在中国大陆展开的通识教育实践活动依然具有有益的理论意义和参考价值。     

浅谈文科实验室建设

阐述了文科实验室建设的重要性,对该校文科实验室建设中所取得的经验进行了总结,提出了今后工作中需要解决的几个问题。     

论文科研究生的理论意识

阐述了理论意识的表现形式,即具有系统的知识体系、独特的思维方式和特定的价值取向。认为目前我国文科研究生理论意识的缺失主要表现在注重事实呈现、经验描述和感性思维,而忽视理论渗透、概念构建和理性概括。指出激发理论兴趣、产生理论共鸣、开展理论批判和进行理论思维是培养文科研究生理论意识的有效路径。     

文科实验室面临的机遇与挑战

文科实验室是时代的产物.长期以来人们对文科实验室建设的重要性认识不足,致使文科实验室的发展面临巨大困难.要使文科实验室沿着正确的道路健康发展,必须彻底抛弃文科不需要实验室的旧观念,正确认识文理科实验的差别,承认文科实验具有不同于理科实验的特殊性,以科学的管理方式管理、扶持文科实验室建设.     

论文科研究生的科研式实习

在总结中南大学湘潭文科实习基地研究生实习经验的基础上,对文科研究生科研式实习这一新的实习模式的依据、特点、面临的问题以及发展方向进行了讨论。     

试论综合文科教育的基本特征

综合科教育是一种在科领域为探索复合型人才培养模式的教育实验。本认为，这一实验应始终以全面提高学生的人素质为目的，充分体现现代教育的主体性、开放性和超前性，具有鲜明的时代特征。     

Humanitas,Metaphysics and Modern Liberal Arts

There is a new myth of the heterogeneous that is reducing the concept of humanity to a sinful enlightenment. In this article I investigate the contribution that a renewed understanding of liberal arts education might offer for the idea of a humanist education and for the concept of humanity; and this at a time when not only the concept of humanity per se, and of a humanist education in particular are suspected of Western imperialism and rational logocentrism, but also, in England at least, when the tuition fees of humanities students have trebled. I argue that within a concept of modern metaphysics first principles are re-formed to have their universality in instability and struggle. This instability and struggle is the modern culture of rational education, and speaks of a non-abstract comprehension of two of modernity’s most contested terms: freedom and humanity.     

美国人文教育的理念和实践

我们所广泛使用的"大学"的概念是从西方引入的,而人文教育理念在西方的高等教育历史中则占有非常重要的一席之地.本文介绍与分析了人文教育的理念、传统及其目前在美国大学的实践.在中国高等教育正在进行全面改革之时,了解这种以培养全面素养为手段,以帮助学生进行作为个体以及公民的自我实现为目的的教育哲学,可以为中国的高等教育改革提供新的思想与经验.