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.

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.     

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.     

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.     

大学文科研究性教学中的考试问题

本文从教学改革研究的视角,集中探讨了大学文科“研究性教学”中的考试问题。认为考试是大学教学工作的关键环节,是检验高校人才培养质量的重要手段,也是制约研究性教学推进的主要因素。在推行研究性教学改革的过程中,我们必须处理好研究性教学与考试之间的关系,在考试理念、考试内容、考试形式等方面进行相应的改革。     

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。     

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。     

Philosophy: A Special Place in the Liberal Arts

Abstract

A comprehensive model of the dynamics of one-on-one teaching is described. Adoption of specific teaching styles is influenced by the learning styles of students; the interest in faculty to build interpersonal relationships with learners; teacher need to control the task; the capability of students; and situational constraints. In clinical settings, thesis work, and other areas, faculty preferred the use of Personal Model, Facilitator, and Delegator teaching styles. Relative to classroom teaching, these styles were used more frequently and the Expert and Formal Authority Styles were less prominent. This is consistent with the goals of one-on-one teaching to develop the ability of learners to work independently.     

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。     

关于文科高等数学教学的一些探点

本文通过分析文科学生的特点,讨论了文科高等数学课程开设的意义、文科高等数学教学目标和教学内容的设置原则,并提出了文科高等数学教学方法和手段创新、教材建设、师资队伍建设等相关问题的一些改革措施。     

大学文科教学实施创新教育的新思考

人文社会科学创新是科技创新的前提和保障，因此要高度重视并挖掘和发挥好大学文科创新教育因素。在实施创新教育教学过程着重抓住四个关键问题：突出学生的主体地位，创新教学内容和课程体系，构建创新教育教学模式，建立创新教育考核评价激励机制。     

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。     

Retooling Education: Testing and the Liberal Arts

The motivation and methodology for measuring intelligence have changed repeatedly in the modern history of large-scale student testing. Test makers have always sought to identify raw aptitude for cultivation, but they have never figured out how to promote excellence while preserving equality. They’ve settled for egalitarianism, which gives rise to “culturally fair” tests that substitute vagaries for knowledge, deprive students of any real appreciation for language, and trivialize education. Robert Jackson yearns for traditional oratorical approaches to schooling that venerate and imitate essential, time-tested masters. Unfortunately, he writes, such an education defies measurement with today’s multiple-choice instruments.