Purpose: This research is an interview-based study that captures the academics' perspectives toward the planning and design of an interdisciplinary General Education Curriculum for undergraduate students in the Chinese context, using the Common Core Curriculum at the University of Hong Kong as a case study. Design/Approach/Methods: A total of 28…

This article describes a general education course offering, Physics and the Arts. During the development of this course, physics and arts faculty collaborated closely. We cover the usual physics phenomena for such a course--light, color, and sound--in addition to gravity, equilibrium, and spacetime. Goals of the course are to increase students'…

The University of California-Merced's Core 1 has potential to foster genuine interdisciplinary thinking by asking students to conceptualize knowledge across fields of inquiry. Core 1 introduces students to the range of scholarly inquiry at the university all in the span of one semester-long, writing-intensive, integrated curriculum that encourages…

The physical fitness required to perform complex athletic feats has a parallel in the intellectual fitness it takes to perform complex mental tasks. At the heart of liberal education sits the idea that moderate training in several disciplines is better than intensive training in just one. Through exercising students' abilities in interpreting…

The purpose of this paper is to share how physical education (PE) offers a unique place of interdisciplinary connections, contributing to coherence in the general education (GE) experience, and to demonstrate the overall value of PE, serving as a rationale for its inclusion in a GE program. A definition of GE is provided, followed by an historical…

This essay argues for the importance of quantitative reasoning skills as part of a liberal education and describes the successful introduction of a mathematics-based quantitative skills course at a small Canadian university. Today's students need quantitative problem-solving skills, to function as adults, professionals, consumers, and citizens in…

Mark Van Doren, the noted literary scholar, once remarked, "The college is meaningless without a curriculum, but it is more so when it has one that is meaningless." Many current critics of undergraduate curricula in America assent to the crucial need for programmatic renewal in our colleges and universities. They bemoan the cookie-cutter…

After describing our interdisciplinary humanities course and its history, we identify challenges these courses face and strategies for keeping them vigorous. We argue that course longevity depends on effective translation of vision and content into explicit goals bridging the gaps between faculty members and between faculty and students. (Contains…

Recommends curriculum clustering as a way of giving definition and meaning to secondary curricula lacking cohesiveness and academic depth. This approach involves the development of a cluster of courses outside of normal graduation requirements that form a general education core linking foundation courses and more advanced course work. Illustrates…

The Core Program replaces a 54-credit, distributive approach to general education with a 45-credit, integrative and interdisciplinary set of semester programs very evenly spread out over the four years of college education. In place of a required number of courses from several separate departments, Core involves a 6-credit interdisciplinary course…

This article argues that liberal education instills a common understanding of past knowledge in students and warns against the pressures toward specialization. A core curriculum is recommended as a means of tying together various topics. (DB)

Liberal education in Japan, and specifically at Japan's Tenri University, is described. The conflicts between the society's need for well-rounded educated individuals versus well- educated specialists are noted. (CJ)

Describes a model used at Japan's Hokkaido University to integrate general and specialized education. For undergraduate study, the common core curriculum is supported by an interdisciplinary education system offering the essence of each specialized field abstracted and reorganized for non-specialized students. Graduate study is more flexible. (EV)

This report provides questions and answers about writing across the curriculum, along with a series of 11 writing projects for instructors in the general education core courses (i.e., Energy in the Natural Environment, Humanities, Individual in Transition, and the Social Environment) at Miami-Dade Community College. First, the questions and…

At Los Medanos College (LMC), a project was undertaken in 1978 to develop an inter- and intradisciplinary general education program that would: (1) develop among students an awareness of major social issues of the late 20th Century; (2) help them analyze social problems and inquire into the options for resolving them; (3) broaden their world view…