Designing a Liberal Arts Curriculum that Develops the Capacity for Effective Practice

A new agenda has been coalescing for residential liberal arts education in the United States. At its core are various forms of experiential learning that had long been relegated to the margins of institutions in which pure intellectual achievement was largely separated from, and prized above, practical application of knowledge. Recent years have brought growing student interest in opportunities to engage in experiential learning, including community service, internships, student-faculty research partnerships, study abroad, or co-operative education. All types of colleges and universities have been investing in these programs and in curricular modifications intended to begin integrating them into a coherent educational program. With support from several major associations, foundations, and research collaborations, this twenty-first century reframing of the aims of education has included a persistent call for better evaluative data to gauge the extent to which college students are actually meeting learning goals that faculty are being encouraged to specify more fully.

Designing a Liberal Arts Curriculum that Develops the Capacity for Effective Practice

A new agenda has been coalescing for residential liberal arts education in the United States. At its core are various forms of experiential learning that had long been relegated to the margins of institutions in which pure intellectual achievement was largely separated from, and prized above, practical application of knowledge. Recent years have brought growing student interest in opportunities to engage in experiential learning, including community service, internships, student-faculty research partnerships, study abroad, or co-operative education. All types of colleges and universities have been investing in these programs and in curricular modifications intended to begin integrating them into a coherent educational program. With support from several major associations, foundations, and research collaborations, this twenty-first century reframing of the aims of education has included a persistent call for better evaluative data to gauge the extent to which college students are actually meeting learning goals that faculty are being encouraged to specify more fully.

Liberal Education, Effective Practice, and Diversity

This session will be based on three presentations that focus on the relationship between liberal education, effective practice and diversity from different perspectives. George Kuh will present data indicating that the educational benefits of "high impact" learning experiences (such as experiential education and undergraduate research), which are significant for all students, are often greater for students from underserved and minority backgrounds than for their majority counterparts. Armando Bengochea will discuss the ways in which an emphasis on effective practice can enhance the educational experiences of students of color within a liberal arts curriculum. Steve Stemler will report on research showing that including practice-oriented criteria in assessments of student achievements and capabilities can assist colleges and universities in identifying and educating minority students with high potential to succeed both in college and beyond college.

Effective Practice and Experiential Education

The central challenge to educators in the liberal arts as in all areas of study is transfer of learning i.e. how can we design learning environments and instruction to that students will be able to use what they learn in appropriate new contexts? Alfred North Whitehead described this as the problem of ‘inert knowledge’ nearly a century ago and Dewey noted that instruction which helps students reproduce what is studied on exams might not produce the depth of understanding that allows for recognizing the relevance of what is known to a particular situation and the ability to apply it. Knowledge that is not conditionalized (i.e. in which the learner does not know when where and why it is to be used) is inert.