"Honors Colleges in the 21st Century" contains the work of 56 authors representing 45 different institutions, which makes this the largest and most comprehensive group of honors leaders ever to appear in print together discussing honors colleges. Particularly notable is the fact that eleven of the chapters are co-authored by individuals…

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…

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…

Over the past several decades, interdisciplinary programming, community engagement courses, and Writing Across the Curriculum initiatives have proliferated as colleges and universities seek to enhance student learning outcomes, prepare students for a global economy, and seek creative solutions to emergent social and scientific problems…

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…

Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa has developed a successful interdisciplinary program in liberal arts core courses, entitled "Introduction to Liberal Arts." The goals of the program, operational structure and curriculum construction are reviewed. (Author/PG)

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)

Explores a preservice curriculum in teacher education, based on curricular integration rather than disciplinary separatism, that provides liberal arts students with the structure and knowledge needed to experience teaching success. Different aspects of the curricular integration process are discussed, focusing on the political, programmatic, and…

In an effort to infuse professional and preprofessional academic programs with liberal arts learning, this project at the University of Baltimore (Maryland) resulted in the establishment of a required liberal arts core curriculum for upper division students. The project provided funding for three activities: interdisciplinary team teaching of the…

The University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma, an experimental college, has developed an innovative general education program. Teaching approaches and organizational structures of the program have been changed to accommodate the new curriculum. The general education core, called the Interdisciplinary Studies Sequence (IDS), includes courses in…

Pacific Lutheran's integrated studies program includes eight courses and one seminar, all with "dynamics of change" as the theme. Courses are related to each other in pairs or sequences, each sequence having its own unifying and controlling topic expressed in the particular subjects of each course component. (Author/LBH)

This bulletin highlights the efforts of the St. Louis Community College District to revitalize the liberal arts on its campuses. First, the structures and activities that were used to develop a liberal arts curriculum are described, including: (1) the formation of districtwide and campus Liberal Arts Committees; (2) the development of project…

Rather than return to a core curriculum that reflects the structures of knowledge and education developed for other contexts and needs, the humanities should create new structures appropriate to the students', culture's, and faculty's needs today, particularly through interdisciplinary collaboration. (MSE)

The School of New Resources is described as a liberal arts program that helps adults enrich their lives by building on their life experiences within a formal learning environment. Core courses culminate in a seminar to integrate or synthesize the educational process and reinforce the humanistic thrust of the program. (Author/MLW)