As a veteran university president of fifteen years, MaryAnn Baenninger has welcomed thousands of prospective students and parents to Saturday recruitment days, however recently she has begun to wonder about the adequacy of recent descriptions of "liberal arts" as an ideal education. National conversations about higher education have…

Achieving learning outcomes during a semester- or quarter-long course is no guarantee that students "got it"--that students have learned how to learn or that they have successfully bridged the gap between theory and practice. Higher education has developed diverse pedagogical approaches to expand the notion of teaching. Over the past…

Higher education broadly and liberal arts institutions specifically are experiencing a range of critical challenges, not the least of which are shifts in what today's undergraduates choose for their major. For instance, data from the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) reveal that, since 2008, there has been a precipitous…

Technology is a catalyst that is reconfiguring every profession, from finance to medicine to media. Old verities about "useful" skills are disappearing into the cloud. Many students give the existential question "What do I want to be?" a simple response: "Employed." It is not obvious what skills that will require in a…

In this article, Lori Varlotta, president of small liberal arts institution Hiram College, describes how she and her team have launched a systemic change process that includes modifying the entire academic structure: first-year experience, majors, core curriculum, graduation requirements, and student learning outcomes. Hiram's model for academic…

Our current higher education institutional structures have become so ingrained that many of these structures have gone unquestioned for more than a century. While it is true that we have created, to a significant degree, new "functions" for higher education, many of our "structures" endure. Two major disruptors--the influence…

In this article, Deborah Dunn reflects on the need to rethink the concepts of service learning. Students are well acquainted with the basic concept of service learning and community engagement, as some form of service or engagement is often required for them to graduate both high school and college these days. The lack of authentic meeting with…

An effective higher education curriculum is woven from threads that unite into a whole cloth for students, as demonstrated by the new Civic Innovations program at Wagner College on Staten Island in New York City. Civic Innovations embodies an intensive system of college and community collaborations that focus the college's commitment to civic…

Something remarkable is happening in programs of liberal education all over the country. The longstanding notion that learning should occur almost exclusively in classrooms is being amended to give a much more prominent place to various forms of experiential education. The belief that liberal education should focus on a narrow range of…

Experiential learning opportunities can enrich an undergraduate liberal education and produce graduates who are prepared to grapple, imaginatively and responsibly, with the complex challenges they will face throughout their lives. A growing body of empirical evidence supports that contention. Yet much remains to be learned about how to lead…

Experiential education, which takes students into the community, helps students both to bridge classroom study and life in the world and to transform inert knowledge into knowledge-in-use. It rests on theories of experiential learning, a process whereby the learner interacts with the world and integrates new learning into old constructs.…

In this article, the author describes the challenge of profound curriculum reform for Wagner College. Unlike many institutions that tinker with course offerings, the salvation of the college could come only through dramatic refocusing and revitalization of not just what the faculty members teach, but the way they teach. The resurrection of Wagner…

Looks at some of the philosophical positions, especially Pragmatism, that ground and inform the traditions of experiential education, examining hierarchical philosophy and experiential education, egalitarian pragmatism and experiential education (using Jane Addams as an example), and Dewey's theory of education as expressed in "Democracy and…

Examines value of study-abroad programs in providing students with experiential learning experiences. Notes goals (appreciation of diversity, understanding other cultures, enriched educational opportunities) and types of study-abroad opportunities available, and offers several case studies of students' study-abroad experiences. Also discusses…

Describes an initiative at Emory University (Georgia) to create an ethos of humane learning through a course that combines theory with internships and actively involves partner communities with faculty and students. In the seminar component students discuss what they are learning from the experiential component and record their individual…