Hong Kong Institute of Educational Research

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Hong Kong Institute of Educational
Research MCL6224 Issues in the Development
of Liberal Studies
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Levels of Development in Liberal Studies as a NSS
School Subject in HKSAR

• Development of Liberal Studies as an educational
  idea
• Development of Liberal Studies as a curriculum in
  NSS education in HKSAR
• Development of Liberal Studies as a pedagogical
  approach in NSS education in HKSAR
• Development of Liberal Studies as policy measure
  to be implemented in HK school organization
• Development of Liberal Studies as a school
  subject within the curricular structure within HK
  school organization
• Development of Liberal Studies as
  classroom-instruction practice in HK school
  organization

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MCL6224 Issue in the Development of Liberal
Lecture 1 Development of the Idea of Liberal
Education into the 21st Century
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Understanding the Meanings of Liberal Studies in
HKSAR

• The myth of Liberal Studies in language game of
  HKSAR education reform (2004)
• Liberal Studies as the panacea of education in
  knowledge society

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Understanding the Meanings of Liberal Studies in
HKSAR

• The myth of Liberal Studies in language game of
  HKSAR education reform
• Liberal Studies as the panacea of education in
  knowledge society
• Liberal Studies as disaster in HKSAR education
  reform

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8

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• ???
• 2009?02?19? (??)
• ????,?????????????????,??????????????,??? Liberal
  Education,????????????????,?????????????????(
  Education that enlarges and disciplines the mind
  and makes it master of its own powers,
  irrespective of the particular business or
  profession one may follow.)

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Understanding the Meanings of Liberal Studies in
HKSAR

• Confusion of connotations of liberal studies
• Liberal Studies
• Liberal education
• General Education
• Liberal Arts Education

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Liberal Education in the Pre-Modern Age
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Liberal Education in the Pre-Modern Age

• The origins of liberal education can be traced to
  the Ancient Greece in B.C.
• Liberal art (artes liberalis in Greek) was
  understood as an education ideal underlining the
  idea of liberalis in Greek. It means relating to
  freedom or fitted for freedom.
• Accordingly, liberal art education was understood
  as education for free citizens in the
  city-state of Ancient Greece.
• However, in the political context of the Ancient
  Greece, which was built on a social system of
  slavery, liberal art education was in fact simply
  meant education of free citizens with leisure to
  study (Kimball, 1986, p.14)

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Liberal Education in the Pre-Modern Age

• The origins of liberal education can be traced to
  the Ancient Greece in B.C.
• Nevertheless, the idea of liberal arts education
  found in the writings of Plato and Aristotle
  carries a more profound meaning. It signifies the
  educational ideal that it is an education to free
  individuals rather than simply education for
  eligible free individuals.
• Plato, following Socrates' teaching, saw
  "knowledge leads directly to virtue." He viewed
  liberal art education as "an endeavor that
  liberates the mind from chains of its shadowy
  cave of ignorance." (Kimball, 1986, p. 17)
• While Plato's student Aristotle sees liberal arts
  education as a means to elevate human minds to
  self-reflective level. He underlines that the
  unexamined life is not worth living for human
  being. (Aristotle, quoted in Nussbaum, 1997, p.
  8)

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The Trial of Socrates
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Platos School of Athens
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Plato and Aristotle
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Liberal Education in the Pre-Modern Age

• The idea of trivium and quadrium in 5th and 6th
  century
• During the Roman Empire in 5th to sixth century,
  liberal arts education indicated a curriculum
  consisted of seven arts. They can further be
  divided into trivium and quadrivium
• Trivium was made up of grammar, logic and
  rhetoric. They constituted the lower division of
  university studies in the Middle Age
• Quadrivium composed arithmetic, geometry, music
  and astronomy. They constituted the upper
  division of university studies in the Middle Age.
• Nevertheless, liberal arts education in this
  period was still confined to be education for the
  eligible few, i.e. Roman citizens.

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Liberal Education in the Pre-Modern Age

• After the fall of Roman Empire and the Barbarian
  invasion to Rome, the Romans idea of liberal art
  education of trivium and quadrivium came
  under the domination of Christianity or more
  specifically the Catholic Church in the Middle
  Ages from the sixth to sixteenth centuries.
  (Lawton and Gordon, 2002) University of Bologna
  was founded in the twelfth century. It was soon
  followed by such place as Paris, Oxford and
  Cambridge. However, these early universities
  "were developed as a response to the need for
  institutions to educate priests and monks."
  (Lawton and Gordon, 2002, p. 51-52)

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Liberal Education in the Pre-Modern Age

• The humanist of the Renaissance and the scientist
  of the Scientific Revolution in the sixteenth and
  seventeenth century respectively broke the
  pursuit of knowledge away from the domination of
  the Christianity worldview.
• The movement of Renaissance humanism can be
  represented by Pico della Mirandola famous text
  entitled Oration on the Dignity of Man (1486) in
  which he emphasized the genius of man ... the
  unique and extraordinary ability of the human
  mind.

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Liberal Education in the Pre-Modern Age

• The humanist of the Renaissance and the scientist
  of the Scientific Revolution in the sixteenth and
  seventeenth century respectively broke the
  pursuit of knowledge away from the domination of
  the Christianity worldview.
• The movement of Scientific Revolution can of
  course be signified by Galileo Galilei and Isaac
  Newton and their work. More specifically, it is
  Galilie conflict with the Catholic Church, which
  finally came down to the trial by the Inquisition
  in Rome in 1633, that signifies the liberation of
  scientific mind from the Christian doctrine,
  which subsequently brought about the movement of
  the Enlightenment and the advent of the Modern
  Age.

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Liberal Education in the Modern Age The
Enlightenment

• The idea of the Enlightenment
• According to Immanuel Kants definition,
  "Enlightenment is man's release from his
  self-incurred tutelage. Tutelage is man's
  inability to make use of his understanding
  without direction from another. Self-incurred is
  this tutelage when its cause lies not in lack of
  reason but in lack of resolution and courage to
  use it without direction from another. Sapere
  aude (Dare to know)! 'Have courage to use your
  own reason!' - that is the motto of
  enlightenment." (Kant, 1959/1784, p. 85)
• Kant, I. (1959/1784) What is
  Enlightenment. Pp. 85-92. In I. Kant.
  Foundations of the Metaphysics of Morals.
  Indianapolis Bobbs-Merrill.

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Liberal Education in the Modern Age The
Enlightenment

• The idea of the Enlightenment
• At individual level, enlightened individual is a
  'scholar' who possesses the mindset with "the
  propensity and vocation to free thinking" (Kant,
  1996/1784, p. 92) and the ability "to make public
  use of one's reason at every point." (Kant,
  1959/1784, p.87)
• At societal level, enlightened social
  institutions should be structured in a way to
  guarantee "the freedom to make public use of
  one's reason" (p. 87) that is to "let every
  citizen make his comments freely and publicly,
  i.e., through writing, on the erroneous aspects
  of the present institution." (p. 89)
• These institutions must submit themselves to
  be "subject to doubt before the public." (p.90)

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Liberal Education in the Modern Age The
Enlightenment

• The idea of the Enlightenment
• In connection to ideal of the Enlightenment,
  liberal education in the 18th century took on an
  egalitarian meaning. It is the liberating and
  enlightening education for all human being and
  every human being is entitled to the "reasoning
  power."

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Liberal Education in the Modern Age The
Enlightenment

• The idea of the project of modernity
• Jürgen Habermas' formulation of the project
  of modernity as collective efforts of human
  kinds, especially those in Europe in the 18th
  century bearing the consequences of
• Habermas, Jurgen (1981) Modernity versus
  Postmodernity. New German Critique 22 3-14.

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Liberal Education in the Modern Age The
Enlightenment

• The idea of the project of modernity
• Differentiating the holistic reason of religion
  and metaphysics of Christianity in Europe before
  the 18th century into autonomous spheres of
  science, morality and art in the Modern Times
• Constituting of separate areas of inquiry
  Knowledge and truth, justice and moral-rightness,
  and taste, authenticity and beauty
• Developing of the cognitive-instrumental,
  moral-practical and aesthetic-expressive
  rationalities
• Institutionalizing of domains of culture
  scientific-inquiry discourse, theories of moral
  and jurisprudence, and production and criticism
  of art.

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Liberal Education in the Modern Age The
Enlightenment

• Liberal education as part of the project of
  modernity
• It is in the context of modernity that
  liberal education invokes it modern meanings
• To liberate human mind from religion and
  superstition and lead it into scientific
  reasoning and practice
• To liberate human mind from social and political
  tutelage and suppression and lead it into
  democratic reasoning and practice
• To liberate human mind from aesthetic domination
  and hegemony and lead it into free and creative
  expressions of self
• However, the separation and division of human
  reason into separate domains and then
  institutions have sowed the seed of the
  degradation of the liberal education ideal in
  modern schooling system in the twenty century

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Liberal Education in Industrial Society

• Max Weber's thesis of rationalization of
  education and training
• Industrialization and bureaucratization elicit
  complex division of labor in production process
• Compartmentalization of skills and knowledge
• System of knowledge was divided into separate
  disciplines
• Constitution of regular curricula and
  standardized examination within each discipline

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Liberal Education in Industrial Society

• With the establishment of the University of
  Berlin in 1809 and its reorientation of the
  mission of university from teaching of Christian
  doctrine or established knowledge to scientific
  research and pursuit of new knowledge, the
  mind-liberating tradition of liberal art
  education found its retrieval in university
  education first in German and then in the US.

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Liberal Education in Industrial Society

• As U.S. universities, most notably Harvard,
  re-oriented their missions from the Oxbridge
  tradition of teaching of the Classics to the free
  pursuit of scientific knowledge, the
  single-standard curriculum for undergraduate
  study instituted in liberal art colleges in the
  U.S. was to be compartmentalized into
  specialties, streams and departments.

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Liberal Education in Industrial Society

• Charles W. Eliot president of Harvard from 1869
  to1909 introduce the idea of free electives to
  the undergraduate curriculum of the university.
  As a result, the range of courses offered was
  greatly expanded and schools and departments
  facilitating specializations were established in
  vast scale and speed. As for undergraduate
  students, they were permitted to choose freely
  from these vast varieties of systems of knowledge.

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Liberal Education in Industrial Society

• As Abbott L. Lowell replaced Eliot to be the
  president of Harvard in 1909, the free-elective
  system was replaced by the academic-major system.
  As a result, major-concentration curriculum has
  become the dominant mode of study in
  undergraduate programs not only the U.S. but
  around the world.

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The post-WWII Reform of General Education in
U.S. Universities

• As World War II came to an end, confronted by
  devastating effects of the Nazism of Germany,
  Fascism of Italy, and militarism of Japan,
  educators especially university educators were
  forced to reflect on the appropriateness of the
  education and knowledge that they felt fit to
  inculcate into the young generations. One of such
  reflection was to look hard into the curriculum
  of major-concentrated, specialized,
  professionalized, vocationalized and to some
  extent instrumentalized mode of study in most of
  the undergraduate programs in universities.

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The post-WWII Reform of General Education in
U.S. Universities

• The Harvard Committees (HC) idea of General
  Education in a Free Society (1945) (HC Report)
  and its effort to reconcile the emerging conflict
  between disciplinary-knowledge and liberal
  education.
• HC Report defines the general education as the
  modernized version of liberal education and the
  main difference between them is that general
  education attempts to universalize the
  liberal-education ideal to all citizens in a
  democratic society.

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The post-WWII Reform of General Education in
U.S. Universities

• General Education in a Free Society (1945)
• Clearly, general education has somewhat the
  meaning of liberal education, except that, by
  applying to high school as to college. If one
  cling to the root meaning of liberal as that
  which befits or helps to make free men, then
  general and liberal education have identical
  goals. (HC, 1945, p.52) However, in order to
  universalize the ideal of liberal education in
  modern democratic society, educators are
  confronted by the structural contradiction
  between general and special education.

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The post-WWII Reform of General Education in
U.S. Universities

• General Education in a Free Society (1945)
• The task of modern democracy is to preserve the
  ancient ideal of liberal education and to extend
  it as far as possible to all members of the
  community. To believe in the equality of human
  beings is to believe that the good life, and the
  education which trains the citizen for the good
  life, are equally the privilege of all. And these
  are the touchstones of the liberated man
• First, is he free that is to say, is able to
  judge and plan for himself, so that he can truly
  govern himself? In order to do this, his must be
  a mind capable of self-criticism he must lead
  that self-examined life which according to
  Socrates is alone worthy of a free man. Thus he
  will possess in inner freedom, as well as social
  freedom.

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The post-WWII Reform of General Education in
U.S. Universities

• General Education in a Free Society (1945)
• And these are the touchstones of the liberated
  man
• Second, is he universal in his motives and
  sympathies? For the civilized man is a citizen of
  the entire universe he has overcome
  provincialism, he is objective, and is a
  spectator of all time and all existence. Surely
  these two are the very aims of democracy itself.
  (HC, 1945, p. 53)

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The post-WWII Reform of General Education in
U.S. Universities

• General Education in a Free Society (1945)
• We are living in an age of specialism.
  Specialism is the means for advancement in our
  mobile social structure yet we must envisage the
  fact that a society controlled wholly by
  specialists is not a wisely ordered society. We
  cannot, however, turn away from specialism. The
  problem is how to save general education and its
  values within a system where specialism is
  necessary. (HC, 1945, p. 53)

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The post-WWII Reform of General Education in
U.S. Universities

• General Education in a Free Society (1945)
• Specialism enhances the centrifugal forces in
  society. The business of providing for the needs
  of society breeds a great diversity of special
  occupations, and a given specialist does not
  speak the language of the other specialists. In
  order to discharge his duties as a citizen
  adequately, a person must somehow be able to
  grasp the complexities of life as a whole. .
• Our conclusion, then, is that the aim of
  education should be to prepare an individual to
  become an expert both in some particular vocation
  or art and in the general art of the free man and
  the citizen. Thus the two kinds of education once
  given separately to different social class must
  be given together to all alike. (HC, 1945, p.
  53-54)

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The post-WWII Reform of General Education in
U.S. Universities

• General Education in a Free Society (1945)
• Accordingly, the HC identifies four
  characteristics which they think are essential
  traits for the liberated mind of citizens in
  democratic society (HC, 1945, Pp. 64-87)
• Effective thinking It consists of the ability of
  logical thinking, relational thinking and
  imaginative thinking
• Effective communication The effective
  communication depends on the possession not only
  of skills such as clear thinking and cogent
  expression but of moral qualities as well, such
  as candor. (HC, 1945, p. 68)

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The post-WWII Reform of General Education in
U.S. Universities

• General Education in a Free Society (1945)
• essential traits for the liberated mind of
  citizens in democratic society (HC, 1945, Pp.
  64-87)
• Making of relevant judgments The aptitude of
  making relevant judgment cannot be developed by
  theoretical teaching being an art, it comes from
  example, practice, and habituation. The teacher
  can do a great deal nonetheless he can relate
  theoretical content to thee students life at
  every feasible point, and he can deliberately
  stimulate in the classroom situations from life.
  Finally, he can bring concrete reports of actual
  cases for discussion with the students. The
  essential thing is that the teacher should be
  constantly aware of the ultimate objectives,
  never letting means obscure ends, and be
  persistent in directing the attention to the
  student from the symbols to the things they
  symbolize. (HC, 1945, p. 71)

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The post-WWII Reform of General Education in
U.S. Universities

• General Education in a Free Society (1945)
• essential traits for the liberated mind of
  citizens in democratic society (HC, 1945, Pp.
  64-87)
• Discrimination among values The ability to
  discriminate in choosing covers not only
  awareness of different kinds of values but of
  their relations, including a sense of relative
  importance and of the mutual dependence of means
  and ends. (HC, 1945, p. 71)

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The post-WWII Reform of General Education in
U.S. Universities

• Similarly, two other universities in the US had
  also produced substantive reports on reforms of
  their general education curriculum, namely the
  University of Chicago (1950) The Idea and
  Practice of General Education and Columbia
  University (1966) The Reforming of General
  Education.

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Debates and Reflection on Western Civilization
in General Education in US higher education

• The debate on the required course of Western
  civilization in Stanford University in the 1980s
• The issue of the Core Reading List for the
  year-long required course Western Civilization

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Ideas of Liberal Education in Historical Context

• The debate on the required course of Western
  civilization in Stanford University in the 1980s
• The issue of the Core Reading List for the
  year-long required course on Western Civilization
• The list was criticized as ethnocentric in
  several terms, i.e. Eurocentric, male-centric and
  Christian-centric.
• The outcome of the debate is the input of
  sensitivity and reflectivity to multiculturalism
  into the curriculum of nurturing liberated minds

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Ideas of Liberal Education in Historical Context

• The debate on the required course of Western
  civilization in Stanford University in the 1980s
• Accordingly, Martha C. Nussbaum (1997) redefined
  the trait of the liberated mind into
• Critical self-examination The capacity for
  critical examination of oneself and ones
  traditions. (p. 9)
• World citizen An ability to see themselves not
  simply as citizens of some local region and group
  but also, and above all, as human being bound to
  all other human beings by ties of recognition and
  concern. (p.10)
• Narrative imagination The ability to think what
  it might be like to be in the shoes of a person
  different from oneself, to be an intelligent
  reader of that persons story, and to understand
  the emotions and wish and desires that someone so
  placed might be. (p. 10-11) In other words, it
  is the ability of sympathetic understand and
  sympathetic imagination.

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Ideas of Liberal Education in Historical Context

• Donald N. Levine reinstates the aim and value of
  liberal education in the 21st century in his book
  Powers of the Mind The Reinvention of Liberal
  Learning in American.
• Modernity revolution and its effects
• Reform agenda of liberal education

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Liberal Education in 21st Century

• Donald N. Levine in his book Powers of the Mind
  The Reinvention of Liberal Learning in American,
• Reform agenda of liberal education

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Ideas of Liberal Education in Historical Context

• In retrospect, three conflicting themes seem to
  emerge from the efforts on reforming ideas of
  liberal education and the curriculum of general
  education in US universities from post-WWII era
  to the end of the twentieth century. They are
• Elitism vs. universalism Liberating the minds of
  a selected few or those of the general public and
  structural contradiction between slave or federal
  society and free society
• General education vs. specialized education
  Structural contradiction between gentry and
  literati education in agrarian society and
  specialist education in industrial society
• Ethno-cultural and nationalistic education vs.
  multicultural and cosmopolitan education
  Structural contradiction between nationalistic
  ethno-cultural education and global multicultural
  education

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Liberal Education in the 21st Century
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Liberal Education in the 21st Century

• Definition of the problem
• Four trends have changed the problem of
  liberal education beyond recognition in recent
  decades
• knowledge is growing so rapidly and
  uncontrollably that the very idea of an
  all-round (or general) education is coming to
  seem unfeasible
• nonetheless, it seems increasingly obvious that
  knowledge skills of some kind are essential in a
  society where knowledge work has become the
  most productive and highly remunerated kind of
  work
• moreover, it seems clear that these knowledge
  skills, whatever they are, cant be confined to
  an elite, but must be imparted to everyone

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Liberal Education in the 21st Century

• Definition of the problem
• Four trends have changed the problem of
  liberal education beyond recognition in recent
  decades
• in a pluralist society, the old classical model
  of learning knowledge skills (illustrated for
  example by European elite education) is
  challenged by some groups in society who reject
  the culture in which such education has been
  embedded. (Smith, 2002, p. 1)

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Liberal Education in the 21st Century

• Redefinition of the educated and liberated mind
• Educated mind is perceived as container of
  educational knowledge and liberated mind as
  container of liberating knowledge
• Following the development of cognitive science,
  mind is perceived as network processing
  knowledge, information and data
• Liberal education, especially in the knowledge
  age and/or society, is defined as an effort of
  enculturation into what Karl Popper termed World
  3.

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Liberal Education in the 21st Century

• Redefinition of the educated and liberated mind
• According to Poppers classification
• World 1 consists of the knowledge of the physical
  world
• World 2 consists of the knowledge of the
  subjective and mental world
• World 3 is the world of ideas. It consists of
  immaterial knowledge objects that can be
  discussed, modified, replaced and so on.
  (Bereiter, 2002, p.27) It consists of the
  discussible proposition or declarative knowledge
  ??theories, conjectures, problem formulations,
  historical accounts, interpretations, proofs,
  criticism, and the like. (Bereiter, 2002, p. 29)
  It basically coincides with the conception of
  meta-cognitive knowledge or knowledge of
  intentional cognition. More generally speaking,
  it is the knowledge of knowledge-building and
  knowledgability.

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Metacognition and Knowledgeability

• Conception of metacognition
• Flavell defines metacognition as ones knowledge
  concerning ones own cognitive processes and
  products (1976, quoted in Son and Schwartz,
  2002, P.16)
• Hacker defines the concept of metacognition as
  thinking about ones own thoughts. This thinking
  can be of what know (i.e. metacognitive
  knowledge), what one is currently doing (i.e.
  metacognitive skill), or what ones current
  cognitive and affective state is (i.e.
  metacognitive experience). . Metacognition
  sometimes has been defined simply as thinking
  about thinking, cognition of cognition, or using
  Flavalls (1979) word, knowledge and cognition
  about cognitive phenomena. (Hacker, 1998, p. 1)

http//logic.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk/b885764/Metacogniti
on2.html
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Metacognition and Knowledgeability

• Conception of metacognition
• Nelson and Narens model of metacognition
• Levels of cognition
• Object-level cognition
• Meta-level cognition
• Process of metacognition
• Monitoring
• Control

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Object-Levels
Mentalevels
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The Curriculum Code of Liberal Studies in
Secondary-School Education

• 1. Basil Bernsteins
• Framework of School Curriculum

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The Curriculum Code of Liberal Studies in
Secondary-School Education

• Formal educational knowledge can be considered
  to be realized through three message systems
  curriculum, pedagogy and evaluation. Curriculum
  defined what counts as valid knowledge, pedagogy
  defines what counts as a valid transmission of
  knowledge, and evaluation defines what counts as
  a valid realization of this knowledge on the part
  of the taught. (Bernstein, 1971, p.47)

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The Curriculum Code of Liberal Studies in
Secondary-School Education

• How a society selects, classifies, distributes,
  transmits and evaluates the educational knowledge
  it considers to be public, reflects both the
  distribution of power and the principles of
  social control. From this point of view,
  differences within and changes in the
  organization, transmission and evaluation of
  educational knowledge should be a major area of
  sociological interest. (Bernstein, 1971, p.47)

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The Curriculum Code of Liberal Studies in
Secondary-School Education

• Understanding the educational knowledge code of
  curricula in secondary education
• Classification According to Bernstein's
  formulation, classification refers the
  relationships between contents. Where
  classification is strong, contents are well
  insulated from each other by strong boundaries.
  Where classification is weak, there is reduced
  insulation between contents for the boundaries
  between contents are weak or blurred." (p. 49)
• For example, relationships between
  subject-contents in HKCEE and HKALE, such as
  physics, chemistry, biology, economics, and
  history, are insulated from each others and also
  insulated into science or humanities streams.
  Therefore, they can be perceived as organized in
  "strong classification.

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The Curriculum Code of Liberal Studies in
Secondary-School Education

• Understanding the educational knowledge code of
  curricula in secondary education
• Frame "The concept of frame is used to determine
  the structure of the message system pedagogy.
  Frame refers to the form of the context in which
  knowledge is transmitted and received. Frame
  refers to specific pedagogical relationship of
  teacher and taught. Where framing is strong
  there is sharp boundary, where framing is weak a
  blurred boundary, between what may be and what
  may not be transmitted. Frame refers us to the
  range of options available to teacher and taught
  in the control of what is transmitted and
  received in the context of the pedagogical
  relationship." (p.50)

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The Curriculum Code of Liberal Studies in
Secondary-School Education

• Understanding the educational knowledge code of
  curricula in secondary education
• For example, the pedagogical relationships
  between teachers and taught much stronger in
  science subjects such as physics, chemistry, and
  biology than that in Liberal Studies. In Liberal
  Studies, the pedagogical relationships are
  characterized as "Issue Inquiry Approach" in
  which both teachers and taught enjoy much greater
  control on what can be or cannot be included.

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The Curriculum Code of Liberal Studies in
Secondary-School Education

• Understanding the educational knowledge code
• Educational knowledge code It "refers to the
  underlying principles that shape curriculum,
  pedagogy, and evaluation. The form this code
  takes depends upon social principles which
  regulate the classification and framing of
  knowledge made public in educational
  institution." (p. 47-48)

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The Curriculum Code of Liberal Studies in
Secondary-School Education

• Understanding the educational knowledge code
• Bernstien further differentiates educational
  knowledge code into two types
• Collection code It refers to the organization
  of educational knowledge that involves strong
  classification in relationships between
  curriculum-contents (p.51). It further gives rise
  to strong frame in the pedagogical relationships
  between teacher and taught. Finally it will most
  probably entail the evaluative system places an
  emphasis upon attaining states of knowing rather
  than ways of knowing. (p. 57) In this kind of
  examination, the examinees are only required to
  recall specific sets of knowledge and information
  rather than to demonstrate ways of knowing.

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The Curriculum Code of Liberal Studies in
Secondary-School Education

• Understanding the educational knowledge code
• Bernstien further differentiates educational
  knowledge code into two types
• Collection code Within the collection code of
  educational knowledge, there constitutes
  particular kinds of power relationship and
  identity.
• The power relationships constituted in the three
  message systems are hierarchical and rigid.
  Occupants in the subordinate levels, such as the
  pupils, are under tight if not complete control
  from superior levels. The stronger the
  classification and the framing, the more the
  educational relationship tends to be hierarchical
  and ritualized and the pupil seen as ignorant,
  with little status and few rights. (p. 58)
• Within this type of educational knowledge, the
  identities of the participants, such as those of
  the teacher and taught, are definite, strong or
  even rigid. They basically command a kind of
  subject loyalty in their pupils as well as
  teachers. (p.55)

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The Curriculum Code of Liberal Studies in
Secondary-School Education

• Understanding the educational knowledge code
• Bernstien further differentiates educational
  knowledge code into two types
• Integrative code It refers to the organization
  of educational knowledge that involves a marked
  attempt to reduce the strength of
  classification. (p.51) In other word,
  integrative code refers to educational knowledge
  in which the relationship between
  curriculum-contents are relative weak. It may
  subsequently give rise to weak frame in
  pedagogical relationship. Finally, the evaluative
  system within the integrative code is most likely
  to emphasize ways of knowing rather than
  require examinees to demonstrate definite sets of
  information and states of knowing.

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The Curriculum Code of Liberal Studies in
Secondary-School Education

• Understanding the educational knowledge code
• Bernstien further differentiates educational
  knowledge code into two types
• As a result, the power relationships and identity
  constituted under the integrative code are most
  likely to be in contrast to those in collection
  code. Teachers and pupils work within the
  integrative code are more likely to enjoy greater
  autonomous and control over the process of
  teaching and learning. They are also more likely
  to nurture a kind of less definite and more open
  identity towards the subject-matter under study

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The Curriculum Code of Liberal Studies in
Secondary-School Education

• 2. Michael Youngs Thesis on
• the School Curriculum for the 21st Century

81
The Curriculum Code of Liberal Studies in
Secondary-School Education

• Young makes a distinction between curricula of
  divisive specialization and connective
  specialization in analyzing the curricular
  structure of post-compulsory and A-level
  education in England and Wales

82
The Curriculum Code of Liberal Studies in
Secondary-School Education

• Curriculum of divisive specialization
• It refers to curriculum in post- compulsory
  education which corresponds with the mode of
  production of Fordism, which bears the following
  features
• Rigid insulation between manual and non-manual
  labor
• Rigid sectional form of divisive specialization
  among occupational and professional groups
• Complex division of labor into mechanical,
  repetitive and observable motions
• Separation between conception and execution of
  work
• Strict Hierarchical structure of delegation of
  authority and line of commands

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The Curriculum Code of Liberal Studies in
Secondary-School Education

• Curriculum of divisive specialization
• In connection to the mode of production of
  Fordism, the curriculum of in post-compulsory and
  A-level education is organized in the form of
  what Young called "divisive specialization"
• Sharpe separation between academic study and
  vocational training
• Sharpe division among curricular streams, such as
  science, humanities and social study
• Selective and exclusive rather than participating
  and inclusive education system
• Inflexible in movement and transferring between
  divisions and streams
• Exaggerate differences between high low
  prestigious institutions and programs

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The Curriculum Code of Liberal Studies in
Secondary-School Education

• Curriculum in connective specialization
• It refers to curriculum, which Young advocates
  would be advantageous to the labor formation of
  the economy of the 21st century, which bears the
  following structural attributes
• Flexible specialization of production and greatly
  decrease the division between manual and
  non-manual labor both in scale and scope
• Sectional specialization was replaced by
  corporate specialization, which encouraging
  vertical integration among different occupational
  and professional groups within corporations.
• New information-based technology replacing
  mechanical and repetitive motions of human labor
• Human-centred organization and flatter management
  structure
• Interactively integration between conception and
  execution of work in models such as quality
  circles, quality terms, learning community

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The Curriculum Code of Liberal Studies in
Secondary-School Education

• Curriculum in connective specialization
• In relation to the mode of production of
  post-Fordism, Young suggests that school
  curriculum for the 21st century should be in the
  form of connective specialization
• Connective specialization as a curriculum
  concept it points to the interdependence of the
  concept, processes, and organization of
  curriculum. As definition of educational purposes
  it seeks to transcend the traditional dichotomy
  of the educated person (academic and
  non-manual) and the competent employee
  (vocational and manual) which define the purposes
  of the two tracks of a divided curriculum.
  (Young, 1998, p. 78)

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The Curriculum Code of Liberal Studies in
Secondary-School Education

• Curriculum in connective specialization
• In relation to the mode of production of
  post-Fordism, Young suggests that school
  curriculum for the 21st century should be in the
  form of connective specialization
• It therefore "provides the basis a very different
  curriculum for the future" which he terms
  "connective specialization". "Such a curriculum
  would need to build on and give specificity to
  the principles of
• breadth and flexibility
• connections between both core and specialist
  studies and general (academic) and applied
  (vocational) studies
• opportunities for progression and credit transfer
• a clear sense of the purpose of the curriculum as
  a whole." (Young, 1998, p. 79)

87
What is the Epochal Meaning of Liberal Studies in
NSSC in the Schooling System of HKSAR?

• The connective-specialization feature of Liberal
  Studies in NSSC

88
What is the Epochal Meaning of Liberal Studies in
NSSC in the Schooling System of HKSAR?

• The relative definitive features of Liberal
  Studies

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Lecture 1 Development of Idea of Liberal
Education END