College instruction aims not only to expand students' content knowledge, but also to help students develop practical skills, such as the ability to think critically. This study was conducted in a chemistry course for non science majors offered as part of a liberal education core curriculum at a large public university in the Midwest. Students…

The focus of the study was the University of Dallas' Rome Program, a mid-length study abroad program on the university's campus in Rome, Italy. The program is designed to provide participants with the opportunity to encounter firsthand Western tradition by integrating the core curriculum through classroom teachings and class excursions, thus…

In 2011, the chief executives of the University of Minnesota and Minnesota State Colleges & Universities systems will leave their positions, along with the governor of the state. The state will continue to face fiscal challenges, and the campuses will have to figure out how to do more with less. As "Tribune" columnist Lori Sturdevant…

The task of general education should be to provide a broad framework for understanding, an intellectual context within which factual information can meaningfully be comprehended. Each framework should have at least three qualities in common: an historical dimension, an intellectual dimension, and an analytical dimension. (MLW)

This discussion on the merits of requiring four years of general education studies for prospective teachers focuses on the philosophical ingredients of liberal arts courses. One, perennialism, advocates students learning content from great minds of the past. The other, essentialism, emphasizes that basic subject matter can be identified and taught…

The debate over teaching the "canon," a collection of great books authored by Homer, Plato, Shakespeare, Kant, Darwin, and others that has traditionally represented the Western intellectual tradition, as a core of the college curriculum, is examined. Discussion begins with a description of how the canon has been taught from ancient…

Reed College, a small, liberal arts college with high academic distinction, is described. Faculty participate in virtually all policy decisions and are hired and promoted according to the quality of their teaching. Its finances are improved, but it is still underfinanced and too heavily dependent on tuition income. (MLW)

Hirsch, author of "Cultural Literacy" (1987), wishes that progressive instructional methods were carefully monitored to see whether kids are actually learning. An "anti-subject-matter" orientation suits middle-class students better than kids from less educated families. Most elementary curricula stress "tool skills"…

Six undergraduate humanities courses and programs with a variety of structures and focuses are described, and sources of further information are given. (MSE)

Universal Studies, a study program designed to help students develop emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually, is described. Development of the personality and character of the individual is emphasized, as are innovation, creativity, individualized instruction, independent learning, and realizing human potential. These goals are characterized…

Four articles on higher education curriculum are presented. In "The Articulate Curriculum" an approach to curriculum description is presented that is designed to have minimal ambiguity concerning the intention, content, and processes of the curriculum and that will lead to questioning several discrete factors in the curriculum planning…