Learning something new--particularly something that might change your mind-- is much more difficult than most teachers think. Because people think with their emotions and are influenced by their communities and social groups, humans tend to ignore new information unless it fits their existing worldview. Thus facts alone, even if discussed in…

Liberal education has been, since the creation of the republic, America's "signature" higher learning curriculum. There have been three enduring purposes for a liberal education: (1) developing the powers of the mind; (2) cultivating an examined sense of responsibility to self and others; and (3) acquiring empowering knowledge--the kind…

This article describes how James Herbert's career transition to working on the Educational EQuality Project for the College Board and the National Endowment for the Humanities confirmed his belief that a liberal education in honors was good preparation for life. He proposes that his work experience may be illuminating to those who are now…

The liberal arts, first described in Republican Rome, have been a component of higher education since the advent of the medieval university in the eleventh century. Despite such historical lineage, the value of a liberal arts education is continuously and publicly called into question, and this is a special problem for honors programs, most of…

A major discovery, or rediscovery, of this time is that an education that matters--an education that enhances capacities and expands outlooks--is one that engages the whole student. Research in learning has shown that making sense of the world and learning to use knowledge and skills in responsible and engaged ways--long the developmental goals of…

This article makes the case for a new framing of liberal education based on several decades of research emerging from the learning and developmental sciences. This work suggests that general knowledge stems from acquiring both the habits of mind and repertoires of practice that develop from participation in knowledge-building communities. Such…

Think of the United States Military Academy and the typical images are of duty, character, leadership, and possibly even regimented conformity. Intellectual liberation, integrative innovation, and holistic development--hallmarks of a liberal education--are not always associated with the public's perception of the West Point experience. Yet,…

A college education has never been so necessary, or so expensive. It is incumbent upon us, the educators, to do it the best we can. The products of our work are not the buildings on our campuses but our students who go out into this complicated and exciting world to serve as its leaders, its citizens, and its workers. The Bates College general…

In this article, the author talks about big questions of meaning and value that young people pose and how to respond to their concerns about big questions. He relates the story of his granddaughter, Charlotte, who, at the age of one, would climb up on the stairs not from choice or whim, but "because they're there." For her, it was not play, but…

An alternative general education program for freshmen at Albertus Magnus College is described. The program, an interdisciplinary student-centered introduction to general education, is composed of two parts that the student takes concurrently: (1) a year-long seminar in thought and expression, and (2) a sequence of four (usually 7-week) courses in…

A University of Maryland program of required upper-level undergraduate courses designed to foster intellectual maturity consists of a selection of general education courses reflecting the interests of individual faculty members and using more sophisticated intellectual skills than most distribution courses. (MSE)

One of the most remarkable things about the human consciousness is that each of us has the capacity to observe our thoughts and feelings as they arise in our consciousness. Why shouldn?t cultivating this ability to observe one?s own mind in action,becoming more self aware or simply more "conscious" be one of the central purposes of education? Even…

A participant in a conference on interdisciplinary general education at the college level highlights some of the issues addressed there: institutional limitations and opportunities; interdisciplinarity versus the power of deep disciplinary inquiry; cross-disciplinary linkages versus interdisciplinary inquiry; and the role of student development…

Issues pertaining to a liberal education are examined, and information is included on 14 programs in liberal education that were were part of the U.S. Department of Education's National Project IV. The goals of liberal education and ways of achieving goals covered. A transcript of a discussion on liberal education in the 1980s is provided. Zelda…

One of the best ways to make student learning come alive on college campuses is to improve collaboration between students and the academic affairs staff. The general-education program, where philosophy and curriculum align most closely with the student-affairs concern for the whole student, is an appropriate place to start. (MSE)