Core management courses bear a particularly challenging curricular as well as pedagogical burden insofar as they are typically the sole or primary vehicle for integrating management principles with larger university and school objectives. Compounding the challenge is that these very objectives are neither universally clear nor necessarily…

Potential students hoping to gauge the quality of courses at Portland State University might be forgiven for feeling confused. On the one hand, the University Studies program, which uses interdisciplinary seminars during the first two years to develop students' core skills, has been widely praised and emulated. The Council for Higher Education…

Examines Adler's proposal to extend the teaching of a common core curriculum beyond colleges/universities into secondary schools. Fears an intellectual drift toward some mediocre mean and the deflation of academic standards. Warns that the rejection of pluralistic curricula overlooks individual needs. (DMM)

The faculty of arts and sciences at Harvard University has begun debate on the first major overhaul of its undergraduate curriculum in more than 30 years. Discusses Dean Henry Rosovsky's proposal to abolish the "general education" and to replace it with a considerably more organized "core curriculum". (Author/RK)

Eighteen months after soundly criticizing a new Harvard general education that proposed to abandon the concept of a structured general education, substituting a minimum distribution requirement under which students could choose a few courses from hundreds offered by the faculty, the writer applauds the shift, encouraged by interim president Derek…

General education is the process of developing a framework on which to place knowledge stemming from a variety of sources. Its goals are to help students think critically, develop values, understand traditions, respect diverse cultures and opinions, and, most importantly, put that knowledge to use. Even though its goals parallel socially supported…

A syllabus that shows the diversity of cultures should be the "core curriculum." A linear narrative of American history, a selection of significant periods and then a discussion of what was happening simultaneously in many places, and an attempt to dramatize the future are all suggested for a core curriculum. (MLW)

Maintains that cultural literacy's emphasis on "what" students should know must be shifted to a concern for "how" they come to know. Describes various theories of reading and the role of the teacher and practical illustrations of them. Criticizes notions of core curricula while suggesting reasons for considering them. (HB)

American commitment to education is not just a commitment to access but to excellence as well. We need to ask again the hard questions about our academic purposes. Is there a conscious organization to the curriculum today? The answer is a cautious affirmative, for the goal of diversity has taken us, academically, far from shore. A college…

Considers the general education component of technical programs as a means of helping adults adjust to today's industrial changes in processes, machines, and management and thereby to hold jobs, move into new ones, and change careers. Reviews the literature on the general education needs of students in high technology programs and models for…

Describes a study of general education at 700 colleges and universities, based on tabulation of credits and content analysis of goal statements. Examines degree requirements, the disciplines comprising general education, differences among majors, statements on general education, the use of labels, purpose and rationale, methods, and structure of…

This discussion of the role of general education in community college programs in Ontario begins with an acknowledgement of the absence of a broadly accepted working definition of general education and an admonition to community colleges to accept the responsibility for providing students with a total education. Next, the paper proposes various…

A tendency in liberal arts to organize the disciplines into a common, core curriculum and to evangelize this common learning in a puritanical way is examined and criticized. It is recommended that the liberal education mission must not be imposed on those who do not seek it. (MSE)

In October 1978, the New England Junior College Council held their fall conference to consider the future of general education in the community college. This report of the proceedings includes Richard H. Sturgeon's introductory remarks, in which he acknowledged the conference speakers and introduced the question of the survival of the core…

A new approach to general education at Bowling Green State University based on "essential skills and functional understandings" is discussed. The model includes skills in: problem solving and critical thinking; reading and writing; computation and mathematics; listening and speaking; and decision-making and values-conflict resolution.…