The Wonderful World of LS

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The Wonderful World of LS

• CK Cheung, Faculty of Education, HKU

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Warm up exercise 1

• Raise 1 question you have about Liberal Studies

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• What comes to you mind when I say LS?
• - 0

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Understanding the generation today

• From observing to constructing (blog) the issue
  of privacy
• From a ready-made world to constructing a world
  (RPG, Youtube)
• From learning to playing, entertainment
  edutainment infotainment
• From kid to adult to kidult
• From papermedia to hypermedia to virtual media
• From outsiders to networkers (networked
  individualism)
• From children to child
• From no choice to plenty
• The ME, THUMB generation
• The age of narcissism

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Solution

• From globalization to glocalization (connection
  and contextualization)
• From moral panic to critical thinking
• From instancy (popular culture) to constancy
  (values)
• From information to formation to transformation
• From passive reception to active reflection
  (participatory culture and ownership)
• Paradigm shift teaching - learning, learning
  teaching, production learning teaching
• From education to leadership training

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Questions

• What are the challenges ahead?
• What will become obsolete?
• What is the world like now and what will it be
  like 20 years down the road? (a story about a P.5
  girl writing composition)
• How shall we then act?

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3 essential skills

• Observation (known)
• Questioning (yet to be known)
• Imagination (unknown)

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What is learning?

• It is the acquisition and retention of whats
  been learnt after the initial exposure has been
  terminated.
• Suchmans theory its the interaction between
  encounters and organizers
• Development of inquiry look at rubbish and find
  the answer

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Why LS ?

• A changing world of young people in HK
• Political change
• Social change wealth, autonomy
• Globalization interconnected world,
  multi-cultural and multi-perspective, universal
  consumerist culture, homogenization and yet
  fragmentation
• A need to be questioning and analytical in the
  face of change, new forces and increasing
  complexity

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Can LS save HK?

• How is knowledge acquired?
• Is foundation knowledge needed?
• Who wrote the curriculum guide? Will it be too
  visionary to know what is significant to
  students, society, and the world?
• If LS is so good, why didnt schools implement it
  when it was lst introduced in the 90s
• GS-Junior LS-Life and Society

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The meanings of liberal

• concerned with being open-minded, unprejudiced,
  free from pedantry (???????)
• being free and freed from narrow views
• being willing to understand, accept and respect
  the ideas, opinions, feelings and actions of
  others which are different from one's own

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• willing to understand and respect the ideas and
  feelings of others
• favouring some change
• favouring a wide general knowledge, the
  broadening of the mind and wide possibilities for
  self-expression
• Longman Dictionary of Contemporary
  English

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What is 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.
• Webster Dictionary

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Curriculum aims

• to enable students to develop multiple
  perspectives on perennial and contemporary issues
  in different contexts (e.g. cultural, social,
  economic, political and technological contexts)
• to enhance students understanding of themselves,
  their society, their nation, the human world and
  the physical environment
• to help students become independent thinkers so
  that they can construct knowledge appropriate to
  changing personal and social circumstances

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1. to develop in students a range of skills for
   life-long learning, including critical thinking
   skills, creativity, problem-solving skills,
   communication skills and information technology
   skills
2. to help students appreciate and respect diversity
   in cultures and views in a pluralistic society
   and handle conflicting values and
3. to help students develop positive values and
   attitude towards life, so that they can become
   informed and responsible citizens of society, the
   country and the world (CDC and HKEAA 2007 5).

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What can LS do?

• discussion-, question, and action-centered
• build on the existing knowledge and experience of
  students
• help them understand the social forces
  controlling their lives
• civic responsibility and human emancipation
• liberating, empower students and lead to social
  change
• raise social consciousness, instill political
  awareness
• to liberate themselvesto develop a critical
  attitudewhich allows them to think, to
  question,to begin to re-evaluate themselves
• learning to think, to inquire, and to take action
• not impose any political doctrine