Liberal and professional learning are intertwined because they reflect two important dimensions of human nature: the need to know and understand and the need to make use of knowledge. Perhaps the most difficult challenge for administrators and faculty is to find a happy medium between the two. (MSE)

Recommends including an introductory public relations course in technical communication programs to dispel the widely held but inaccurate view that technical communications and public relations are entirely different endeavors. Stresses that including the public relations course would help eliminate misconceptions regarding both fields, and…

Proponents of the liberal arts continue to disagree over maintaining the traditional college curriculum versus diversifying it to give a greater role to ethnic and women's studies and to the ideas of non-Western cultures. (MSE)

Curriculum development is a process of knowledge construction imbued with participant and institutional values and commitments. This perspective calls attention to issues of social cohesion in the institution, including how scholarly interests influence the curriculum, how faculty subcultures may conflict with academic traditions, and competition…

Surveys the extent and range of graduate writing courses nationwide and the rationale for offering them, as described by deans and faculty. Concludes that attention should be paid to the need for graduate composition courses and the attendant need for cross-disciplinary interest in the teaching of such courses. (MS)

Four papers on science instruction are presented: "Science as a Human Activity" (Harmon Dunathan); "Science as a Historical Process" (Robert Proctor); "Science as a Creative Process" (Robert Pollack); and "Making Science Assessible" (Walter E. Massey). (MSE)

If art students are to be educated for the twenty-first century, still preserving creativity, students must be taught that art is an integral, functioning part of the world. Their education must go beyond one or two areas in the fine arts to include a solid liberal arts grounding. (MSE)

A discussion of American Sign Language looks at its history in the context of deaf education and its increasing acceptance as a complete natural language both among linguists and in the college curriculum. (MSE)

During two periods of expansion in higher education, the curriculum of undergraduate education has undergone major changes. Toward the end of each period of expansion, a movement for assessment has developed, with the goal of restoring coherence and substance to the undergraduate program. (MLW)

Two studies examined what is taught in the university beyond the official curriculum and students' motivations for studying. Results showed that university students study both for the degree and to make the curriculum relevant to their own lives and experience, a tendency that may minimize the effect of the hidden curriculum. (Author/MSE)

The American undergraduate arts and sciences curriculum is a great accomplishment, but is in danger of collapsing under the weight of its own successes, to its own detriment and society's. Its cultural and intellectual foundations are crumbling and must be reestablished. (MSE)

Notes the rapid rise of social sciences within universities of Brazil during the 1960s and 1970s. Identifies the interrelationships among the social sciences in Brazilian universities and their involvement with political developments. (JDH)

Reports on a study of international studies programs in two-year colleges. Presents survey findings regarding courses and programs in international trade, foreign arts and cultures, and foreign languages; college-community interaction; cross-cultural extracurricular activities; foreign students; outside funding; and government interaction. (DMM)

Data are tabulated on the proportion of colleges and universities reporting institutional response to reports on curricular reform, use of measures of institutional effectiveness, methods of measurement, administrator attitudes about assessment, enrollment changes, and changes in institutional finances, for universities, four-year colleges,…

In working to integrate liberal and professional education in the undergraduate curriculum, the various faculties must begin to have systematic conversations with each other to discover their common ground and the potential for working together. (MSE)