Liberal Education in a Global Century

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Liberal Education in a Global Century
The Junior Faculty Development Program March 21,
2007

• Caryn McTighe Musil, Senior Vice President
• Office of Diversity, Equity Global
  Initiatives
• Association of
  American Colleges Universities (AACU)

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Association of American Colleges and Universities
(AACU)

• Founded in 1915
• Focuses on the quality, vitality, and public
  standing of undergraduate education
• Committed to advancing liberal education to all
  students, regardless of academic specialization
• 1100 colleges and universities are members

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Liberal Education

• A philosophy of education that empowers
  individuals, liberates the mind, cultivates
  intellectual judgments, and fosters ethical and
  social responsibility
• By its nature, liberal learning is global and
  pluralistic. It embraces the diversity of ideas
  and experiences that characterize the social,
  natural, and intellectual world.

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Greater Expectations A New Vision for Learning
as a Nation Goes to College (AACU, 2002)

• To thrive in a complex, fast changing,
  interdependent but stratified world, college
  students in the 21st century need to be
• Empowered
• Informed
• Responsible

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The Challenge to Higher Education

• Our world cannot survive one-fourth rich and
  three-fourths poor, half democratic and half
  authoritarian with oases of human development
  surrounded by deserts of human deprivation.
• United Nations Human Development Report, 1994

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Emerging Consensus

• What colleges and universities agree are common
  capabilities needed in 21st century college
  graduates

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The Essential Learning Outcomes for a Global
Century

• Beginning in school, and continuing at
  successively higher levels across their college
  studies, students should prepare for
  twenty-first-century challenges by gaining
• Knowledge of Human Cultures and the Physical and
  Natural World
• Intellectual and Practical Skills
• Personal and Social Responsibility
• Integrative Learning

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Essential Learning, One

• Knowledge of Human Cultures and the Physical and
  Natural World
• Through study in the sciences and mathematics,
  social sciences, humanities, histories,
  languages, and the arts
• Focused by engagement with big questions, both
  contemporary and enduring

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Essential Learning Two

• Intellectual and Practical Skills, including
• Inquiry and analysis
• Critical and creative thinking
• Written and oral communication
• Quantitative literacy
• Information literacy
• Teamwork and problem solving
• Practiced extensively, across the curriculum, in
  the context of progressively more challenging
  problems, projects, and standards for performance

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Essential Learning Three

• Personal and Social Responsibility
• Civic knowledge and engagementlocal and global
• Intercultural knowledge and competence
• Ethical reasoning and action
• Foundations and skills for lifelong learning
• Anchored through active involvement with diverse
  communities and real-world challenges

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Essential Learning Four

• Integrative Learning, including
• Synthesis and advanced accomplishment across
  general and specialized studies
• Demonstrated through the application of
  knowledge, skills, and responsibilities to new
  settings and complex problems

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Business Leaders Respond

• What business leaders think of the value of these
  four pillars of undergraduate education.

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Hart Survey Research of What Business Leaders
Value Most

• Integrative learning
• -The ability to apply knowledge and skills to
  real-world settings through internships or other
  hands-on experiences (73 more emphasis)

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Hart Survey Research, 2

• Knowledge of human cultures and the physical and
  natural world
• - Concepts and new developments in science and
  technology (82)
• - Global issues and developments and their
  implications for the future (72)
• - The role of the United States in the world
  (60)
• - Cultural values and traditions in America and
  other countries (53)

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Hart Survey Research, 3

• Intellectual and practical skills
• -Teamwork skills and the ability to collaborate
  with others in diverse group settings (76)
• -The ability to communicate orally and in writing
  (73)
• -Critical thinking and analytical reasoning
  skills (73)
• - The ability to locate, organize, and evaluate
  information from multiple sources (70)
• - The ability to be innovative and think
  creatively (70)
• - The ability to solve complex problems (64)
• - The ability to work with numbers and understand
  statistics (60)

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Hart Survey Research, 4

• Personal and Social Responsibility
• - Teamwork skills and the ability to collaborate
  with others in diverse group settings (76)
• - Global issues and developments and their
  implications for the future (72)
• - A sense of integrity and ethics (56)
• - Cultural values and traditions in America and
  other countries (53)

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What Students Expect from College

• Students present a different view of their
  expectations of what colleges should provide.
• The divergence is a significant challenge.

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Top Tier outcomes of college education from
student focus groups

• Maturity and ability to succeed on ones own
• Time-management skills
• Strong work habits
• Self-discipline
• Teamwork skills and ability to
• get along with different types of people

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Middle Tier Outcomes that Students Seek

• Tangible business skills and specific
  expertise in field of focus
• Critical thinking skills
• Communication skills
• Problem-solving skills and analytical
  ability
• Exposure to business world
• Leadership skills

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Least Important Outcomes

• Values, principles, ethics
• Tolerance and respect for different cultural
  backgrounds
• Competency in computer skills
• Expanded cultural and global awareness and
  sensitivity
• Civic responsibility and orientation toward
  public service

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The Learning Power in Outcomes Named in the
Bottom Tier

• There is mounting evidence that global,
  diversity, and civic learning combine to
  accelerate many of the capabilities that are
  necessary for a global century

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Engaged Learning Across Differences andCivic
Learning For the Common Good

• Critical thinking
• (through others) intellectual skills
• Connecting
• (to others) intercultural skills
• Caring
• (about others) moral discernment
• Collaborating
• (with others) civic practice

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Engaged Learning Across DifferencesandCivic
Learning for the Common Good

• Require moving through the self to others
• Require understanding interdependencies
• Require dialogue
• Require mindfulness
• Require ethical sense of obligation and
  responsibility
• Require practice and action in concert with others

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Liberal Education and Americas Promise (LEAP)

• AACUs LEAP initiative seeks to provide for all
  students the life-enhancing, socially responsible
  education that was once available only to the
  fortunate few.
• In todays knowledge-fueled world, ensuring the
  most empowering forms of learning for all
  students should be our top educational priority.

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LEAPs Principles of Excellence

• Aim High and Make Excellence Inclusive
• Give Students a Compass
• Teach the Arts of Inquiry and Innovation
• Engage the Big Questions
• Connect Knowledge with Choices Action
• Foster Civic, Intercultural, Ethical Learning
• Assess Students Ability to Apply Learning to
  Complex Problems