21世紀美國高等教育博雅教育模式多案例研究

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台灣教育研究期刊,2023,4(5)

,255-283

21 世紀美國高等教育博雅教育模式多案 專

例研究 論
何趙輝
胡志明市管理與科技大學博雅教育課程秘書 文
越南國立胡志明市社會科學與人文大學博士候選人


鄭光榮
胡志明市管理與科技大學博雅教育課程主任

阮越海
胡志明市管理與科技大學博雅教育課程講師

摘要
本文通過對美國特定大學和學院的一些課程的調查,探討了美國當前的博
雅教育模式。我們假設美國有四種重要的博雅學校,包括絕對博雅學校、獨立
的博雅學校、博雅先於專業教育、與集成。然後,我們考察了美國四所典型學
校,即威廉學院、普林斯頓大學、哈佛大學、與克萊蒙特麥肯納學院。我們通
過訪問這些大學的主頁並參與現有的文獻和論點來設計定性研究,得出一些發
現,即博雅教育對美國高等教育有著深遠的影響。我們發現美國博雅教育的價
值有三個因素:通識教育、跨學科和思維方式。首先,這些學校的目標是為學
生提供廣泛領域的通識教育,並重視修辭、思維和語法/寫作技能等科目的作用。
此外,通識教育融入博雅教育,協助學生獲得跨學科知識和基本批判技能。最
終,學生們學習如何集思廣益並形成心態來處理生活中復雜的情況。

關鍵詞:博雅教育、美國、高等教育、通識教育、跨學科、思維方式

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Journal of Taiwan Education Studies, 2023, 4(5), 249-277

A Multi-case Study of Liberal Arts


Education Models in the United States’
Higher Education in the 21st Century
Ha, Trieu-Huy
Secretary, Department of Liberal Arts Education, University of Management and
Technology, Ho Chi Minh City
PhD Candidate, University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Viet Nam National
University Ho Chi Minh City.

Trinh, Quang-Vinh
Dean, Department of Liberal Arts Education, University of Management and
Technology, Ho Chi Minh City

Nguyen, Viet-Hai
Lecturer, Department of Liberal Arts Education, University of Management and
Technology, Ho Chi Minh City.

Abstract
This article explores the current models of liberal arts education in the US by
investigating some curricula of specific universities and colleges in the US. We
assume that there are four significant kinds of liberal arts schools in the US, including
Absolute liberal arts school, Separate liberal arts schools, Liberal arts before
professional education, and Integrated. Then, we investigate four typical schools in
the US, namely William College, Princeton University, Harvard University, and
Claremont McKenna College. We design qualitative research by accessing the
homepages of these colleges and engaging in existing literature and arguments to
draw some findings that liberal arts education has a profound impact on American
higher education. We found there are three factors to identify the value of liberal arts
education in the US: general education, interdisciplinary, and mindset. First, these
schools aim to provide general education to students with a broad spectrum of fields
and appreciate the role of the trivium of subjects, including rhetoric, thinking, and
grammar/writing skills. Besides, general education is integrated into liberal arts
education to assist students in acquiring interdisciplinary knowledge and basic critical
skills. Eventually, students learn how to brainstorm and shape a mindset to deal with

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convoluted situations in their life.

Keywords: liberal arts education; the United States; higher education; general
education; interdisciplinary; mindset

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1. Introduction
Once we refer to liberal arts education, the United States is widely recognised as a
ripe and time-honoured area of liberal arts education, even if the provenance of
Liberal Arts Education was in Greek (Godwin, 2013). Traditionally, Greek
philosophers cultivated an untilled area of liberal arts education that focused on the
importance of liberal thoughts and the function of thinking. The Socratic method
encourages learners to utilise critical thinking as an instrument to make cogent
arguments on specific issues (Kellman, 2018). Then new knowledge is likely to be
continually generated and leveraged for human development (Thomas Aquinas
College, 2022). Besides, Aristotle underscored that thinking capacity, language usage,
and rhetoric are key factors of Liberal Arts Education (Lord, 2013). Accordingly,
these skills are empirically applied in particular academic fields due to a
multidisciplinary approach from Natural and Social sciences to Humanities (Burnet,
1967). Meanwhile, Plato insisted on a gap-free of Liberal Arts Education and
vocational education as it aims to enhancement of human intelligence and physical
well-being (Smith, 1923). Ancient philosophers’ perspectives on this aspect can be
generalised with three touchstones, encompassing the role of liberal thoughts by
critical thinking, multidisciplinary, and the relationship between Liberal Arts
Education and vocational.

After the era of Liberal Arts Education’s precocious attention, this kind of
education has spread its tentacles across continents and approached East Asian
countries. Liberal arts education lurked across this area as Asian civilians found
pioneering elements of liberal values in Confucius’s teaching in China by questioning
the role of civic service in a specific society, albeit this characteristic has changed
over time (Jiang, 2014). Likewise, the level of influence on Liberal Arts Education
reached high due to its geographical position with adjoining European countries. In
the 11th century, Western educators sparked controversy concerning the purpose of
this category and a strong correlation between vocational education and general
curricula. Even if asserting the centrality of specialisation with the benefits of
medicine, theology, and the legal profession, Western wisdom saw a wide range of

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fundamental logic, rhetoric, and grammar skills developments in their curricula


(Godwin & Altbach, 2016). An early democracy in Europe floated the idea of liberal
arts education and played a formative role in this value in liberal arts education,
narrowing the gap between specialisation and liberal arts education to equip students
with a well-rounded education with two major aspects of knowledge and skills.

Though introduced in the US later than continents due to historical factors, this
country has become a lush landscape of liberal arts education. The number of liberal
arts colleges shows increasing elements compared to any region of the world
(Harvard College, 2020). British immigrants historically nurtured the growth of
liberal arts education in this colonial area. As opposed to a restraint of this kind in the
British, the liberal arts education pattern was enlarged and gradually shaped a
complete vision in the US. An identical model of liberal arts education was grafted
onto the US higher education by the range of rhetoric, language, and critical thinking
(Rudolph, 1993). New British educators transplanted this model into American higher
education as soon as Harvard University was established in 1636 based on a
traditional model of Oxford University. Accordingly, Dewey argued that liberal arts
education featured “hospitality of mind, generous imagination, class freedom,
freedom from class, sectarian or partisan prejudice and passion, faith without
fanaticism” (Dewey, 2008, p. 201). As such, the primitive curricula of this college
introduced some sorts of natural sciences, social sciences and Humanities, theology,
and religious studies (Bethell, 1998). At the end of the 19th century, liberal arts
education became a burgeoning field of education. It tended to multidisciplinary
fields as well as critical skills, such as writing and logical and critical thinking
(Herbst, 1980). The cohabitation of multiple ethnic groups and immigrants in the US
during this period led to a declining status of specialisation to introduce
interdisciplinary methods that equipped students with a broad range of knowledge of
several fields of sciences (Geiger, 2004; Pfnister, 1984; K. R. Smith, 2011).

According to the Association of American Colleges, liberal arts education targets


intellectual and personal liberation, which has a rapid intensification of individualism
and the demeanour of individual reflection (Duderstadt, 2000). This section was fully
introduced to students via either arts and sciences disciplines or general fields. This

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way, knowledge would set a cornerstone for students’ creation and renovation of the
campus. Besides, this method has a broad impact on most colleges in the US, and the
appearance of liberal arts colleges made sweeping changes in the educational
hierarchy (Association of American Colleges & Universities, 2014). The rampant
development of liberal arts education in the US stemmed from the liberal thoughts of
newcomers to North America whose open-mindedness and the immigration of
various ethnic groups cultivated a ripe area for liberal arts education. It churned this
country into a reputed nation of liberal arts education. When resettling in the US, the
white British people that fully absorbed the aura of traditional liberal arts attempted to
set up a system of liberal arts education. Establishing the US authority with a diverse
cultural identity can be seen as a critical factor in shaping the wisdom of creation and
turning this country into a developed land with state-of-the-art achievements and
helping liberal arts education flourish (Z. Jiang, 2019).

However, this article aims to investigate the current development of liberal arts
education in the US rather than chronologically illustrate a vivid picture of this
method. We argue that liberal arts education reached a crescendo of development in
the US and became a higher education destination for both American students and
international learners. This study focuses on a closer analysis of current patterns of
liberal arts education in the US in the 21st century by some stunning examples of
reputable universities in the US. As such, we assess the pros and cons of those models
and make a prophecy on their progress in the complexity of American education in
the future.

2. Literature Review
There is a tremendous volume of research on liberal arts education. However, this
topic still elicits scholarly attention from several scholars to point out this model's
peculiar features and significant tendencies. When discussing the evolution of liberal
arts education in the US, Fareed Zakaria argued that Harvard University and Yale
University were two typical and pioneering colleges of liberal arts education. The
lingering effect of liberal arts education is designing a curriculum set containing a
wide range of liberal arts courses, including arts and critical thinking (Zakaria, 2015).

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Meanwhile, in liberal arts education, this educational pattern sparked a controversy


on the correlation between “professional” and “general knowledge”, “teaching” and
“research”, and the “individual” and “community”. These terms contributed to
fostering a complete concept of targets of liberal arts education that perforce reaches
a harmonious development between professional education and general knowledge
equipment and comply with a well-rounded education for undergraduate students
(Godwin & Altbach, 2016). Liberal arts education becomes a driver of service
learning and binds students’ responsibility to social development and the
self-perceived civic responsibility of students (Wang & Liu, 2019). It underscores
that liberal arts education would nurture a norm of citizens’ commitment and
engagement of citizens with social advancements.

Liberal arts education in the US in the 20th century canvasses an idea of liberal
classes with a wide-ranging selection of courses for students to take a trial for their
interests, including social sciences and natural sciences. Stross argued that students
could absorb liberal arts education based on their texts, languages, people, reading,
communication, and reasoning (Stross, 2017). Lecturers no longer lie at the heart of
class roles, but they would swift this role toward students and broaden the discussion
with students by their sagacious knowledge (Purcell, 1971). So far, general education
in tune with liberal arts education has interconnected to bring an enormous chance for
interdisciplinary knowledge (Wang & Liu, 2019). In the current higher education of
the US, the blurred demarcation of these educations shows that general education is
an instrument that distributes multidisciplinary knowledge to learners and sharpens
their skills and enriches general knowledge to deal with the practical situation in their
life. Thereby, this way of education helps acquire a crucial base of expertise to handle
the unfamiliar context. Kurennoy supposed that liberal arts education ramified into
some branches, including lifelong learning, academic freedom, the importance of
practice and experience, critical thinking and civic competence, competency
development instead of knowledge accumulation, the priority of general education
over specialised education, learning to learn, self-directed learning effort, political
neutrality, and interaction and Socratic dialogue (Kurennoy, 2020). This separation
can be seen as a complete definition of elements of modern liberal arts education. The

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pragmatic principles play a significant role in promoting the self-awareness attitude


of students toward nature, and a wide-ranging source of knowledge would be
well-equipped so that students have a brilliant ability for multidisciplinary knowledge.
Also, critical thinking and competency development are crucial skills to help them
quickly adapt to a mercurial environment and shape lifelong learning.

In this period, the function of liberal arts education was dedicated to the economic
growth of the US and focused much on natural and economic sciences (McClelland &
Stewart, 1981). Erickson (1992) affirmed that it is challenging to treat liberal arts
education and general education as a dichotomy of definition, and it seems that two
separate paradigms have a rivalry to dominate American higher education. Erickson
sought interfaces of these two models and argued that general education was
concordant with a well-rounded education that students are capable of coping with the
flexibility of professional demands. Still, liberal arts education, while supposed to be
analogous to general education, it remains unchanged in a trivium set of subjects. The
intervention of liberal arts education and general education engenders brings
advantages to American higher education. In the 21st century, liberal arts education
magnified its effect on American higher education. The characteristics of this model
include a wide selection of subjects, a higher level of thinking, and a stronger notion
of service learning. As the Andrew W.Mellon Foundation understood this model, it
supposed that American liberal arts education engages in some aspects of health,
service learning, and cognitive development (Rossman et al., 2020). The strategic
presence of the US contributes to bolstering the appearance of liberal arts education
in several regions of the world (Hemmy & Mehta, 2021; Reilly, 2010). As much as
not having acknowledged a pattern of the US model, most countries develop a
curriculum in the bondage of the changing demands of the labour market and framed
democratic society as well as prepare critical skills for undergraduate students (Z.
Jiang, 2019).

A widely discussed topic reveals that we should reach a consensus on


fundamental elements of liberal arts education, deemed a newly-emergent proclivity
of contemporary education. Liberal arts education aims to educate an individual who
has a competent ability to have a free and flexible approach to all phenomena of

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sciences and life through a lens of diverse viewpoints and multidisciplinary


knowledge. Students have a penchant for the general ability to deal with all problems
of sciences and life through well-equipped skills, including soft skills, solve-problem
skills, and critical thinking skills. In this way, liberal arts education aims to help
learners set a framework of individual consciousness to understand their strengths and
weaknesses and form a democratic milieu for informally sharing individual
experiences and knowledge. Hence liberal arts education is instrumental in training
multi-skilled citizens and helping them acclimatise to a mutable environment. The
literature on the US’s liberal arts education explores essential touchstones of liberal
arts education and its effectiveness in operating the higher education of the US.
Current arguments reveal that liberal arts schools in the US originated from the
primitive model of Europe and have a long evolution to liberal arts education
nurturing the body of liberal arts education in a modern context. Besides, the role of
current liberal arts education is committed to a mixture of liberal arts education and
general education liberal arts education that offer students multidisciplinary
approaches and help learners acclimatise themselves variable environment of the
labour market. The lacuna of research is that no article elaborates on a complete
model of the US liberal arts university and understands how they have operated and
their prospects for American higher education. Hence, we will bridge this gap and
imply some suggestions for developing countries that would devise education policies
for liberal arts education.

3. Methodology
This research paper is designed by a qualitative approach that depends on
intensive argumentation on the US liberal arts education. There are four case studies
in this paper. Why did we choose these cases? When we inspected the educational
model in the US, we assumed that there are four categories of American higher
education.

C1: Absolute liberal arts school(Liberal arts education school): Students enrolling
on this school can choose any course they want to learn. They gradually define what

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they want to do and who they want to become. Then, they will likely choose a
specialised field to research or pursue in their career path.

C2: Separate liberal arts school: This kind of school has a separate school of
liberal arts education in a complex of specialisation schools. Students approach
general education and understand an interdisciplinary approach to select a favourite
specialisation they want to follow.

C3: Liberal arts before professional education(The university has liberal arts
education curriculum): This school has several specialisations, but students have to
register for liberal arts education as a compulsory condition before being intensively
trained in their major.

C4: Integrated: Students learn professional and liberal arts education at any
semester, depending on their selection.

Because the number of liberal arts colleges is more than 650 in the US, it cannot
make a large-scale research sample. Hence, we select four reputable colleges by their
educational principles of liberal arts education, and those universities have different
ways of curricula and training programs. First, we check long-standing liberal arts
schools in the US with the case of William College and Princeton University. In these
two case studies, we assumed that both colleges still retain the essence of American
liberal colleges and make satisfactory alternative curricula to adapt to the new history
of American liberal arts education in the 21st century. Besides, the case of Havard
University is employed due to the root of American liberal arts education. Even if
Harvard University Board of Trustees made a substantial extension of specialisation,
the role of liberal arts education has still been profound. The College of Liberal Arts
inside Harvard University is a stunning illustration of liberal arts education and offers
preparation courses for Harvard students and realise their real ambition. Finally,
Claremont McKenna College is examined since this school is newly-established
liberal arts education, and the organisation of liberal arts education press the
advantage of liberal arts education in the contemporary world and meets the demand
of American students. Furthermore, we engage with existing literature and current
arguments that liberal arts school is a peculiar model of American higher education

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and the existing notions of liberal arts education. The ample sources of documents
originate from the homepage of college websites, student handbooks, and reviews of
students. We assess the reliability of data and utilise this source to illustrate our
arguments and new findings.

4. Results and Discussion

4.1 Results
The four-year liberal arts college is a prevalent course of education in liberal arts
schools in the US. Those schools’ curricula are designed based on the foundation of
academic freedom and comprehensive knowledge to adapt to a flexible labour market
and social changes. A set of curricula valorises the demand for academic freedom and
turns campuses into a stage of liberal thoughts and dynamic discussions between
lecturers and students. Besides, liberal arts schools contribute to enlightening
self-awareness and the relationship between individuals and the community for the
betterment of the future. Plausibly, liberal arts schools of the US per se poise on the
traditional wisdom of liberal arts education, strengthening a perception of academic
freedom, honing soft skills, and enriching general knowledge.

Case 1: William College

William College was established as a private educational facility in 1793 and is


reputed for its liberal arts college model. The curriculum has four years of training
and is designed by the New England Commission of Education (Sabot &
Wakeman-Linn, 1991). Although training in a wide array of specialisations, including
econometrics and economics, biology, computer science, art studies, English
language and literature, chemistry, and mathematics, students are able to register for
some courses which are not their majors to research, including environmental studies
or art history (Massachusetts Institutions, 2011). Besides, a complimentary class with
an introduction to sports skills, accounting, jury and law, and life are glaring
illustrations of liberal arts involvement in this school. Numerous interdisciplinary
courses are intensively taught throughout the four years of undergraduate students.
When discussing the role of interdisciplinary courses in American education, Klein

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(2018) supposed that this might be defined as a process of answering a question,


solving a problem, or dealing with a theme that is too large or convoluted only to
utilise a method of one field. The provision of liberal arts courses attempted to equip
students with their formidable capacity to deal with unfamiliar situations and enlarge
their wisdom in several areas of knowledge.

Table 1. Liberal arts curricula at William College

Major fields Liberal arts list of courses


Major courses [36 majors] • Dance
• Interdisciplinary Studies
• Experiential Education
• Self-Instructional Languages
• Writing Skills Courses
• Tutorial Courses
• Difference, Power, & Equity Courses
• Winter study (Off-campus study)

Source: William College (2022)

According to the set of courses at William College, students can register for a
wide range of courses that students are interested in. Dance is assigned as a course at
this school, which is assumed to elicit student enthusiasm for arts and stimulate
potentially talented students in this field. More importantly, students are approaching
self-instructional languages that equip students with efficient linguistic tools and a
deeper understanding of cultural diversity and arouse their favourites in learning new
languages. Virtanen argued that there were four elements of learning foreign
languages in liberal arts education: (1) proficiency in written and oral language, (2) an
understanding of the significance of the social sciences, (3) an understanding of the
significance of science and the scientific method, (4) an appreciation for esthetic
values (Virtanen, 1972). Learning a foreign language has a high degree of an
interdisciplinary method of liberal arts education since it opened a gate to several
fields of sciences, fostering aesthetic emotion and sharpening rhetoric skills. As a
result, the course of writing skills is applied in this curriculum, and this advantage
would assist students to enhance their writing skills as a critical skill of undergraduate

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education. This course befits with critical thinking that stimulates the creation of
ideas and expresses personal viewpoints on their writings. William College also
encourages students’ dynamism through tutorial courses and off-campus study
activities.

Case 2: Princeton University

Princeton University is a private educational institution based in Princeton, New


Jersey. Established in 1747, this college has offered students a broad range of
specialisation programs, ranked one of the top universities in the US (Sheinerman,
2020). Liberal arts education at the undergraduate level is intended to offer
comprehensive intellectual grounding in all kinds of humanistic inquiry (Princeton
University, 2022). Students should select their favourite courses in liberal arts
education before intensive courses in their major. Liberal arts education at Princeton
University enables students to approach a variety of interdisciplinary courses, and
students have to register for at least one course for each group of courses.

Significantly, the board of trustees pays greater attention to the role of persuasive
writing and critical thinking for undergraduate students as these skills would benefit
social and cultural analysis and meet the burgeoning demand for labour market
flexibility. This is a common point between Princeton and William College since
these two educational institutes inflated the significance of traditional courses of
liberal arts education, namely writing skills and critical thinking. Critical thinking is
commonly assumed to engage students in identifying central issues and assumptions
in an argument and recognise critical relationships between evidence and their
assumptions to create accurate argumentations (Tsui, 2008). By encouraging the
function of writing and critical thinking, Princeton attempted to follow the path of
conventional liberal arts education and treat those courses as necessary skills for their
students. Besides, school curricula of liberal arts education equipped students with an
interdisciplinary approach before getting access to selecting a major, including
history, languages, philosophy, the arts and a variety of other subjects. According to
the brochure, the school’s liberal arts education functions to broaden students’
perspectives, discuss novel ideas, and build stronger cohesion between students and
society to kindle a meaningful life (Princeton University, 2022).

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Table 2. Liberal arts curricula at Princeton University (Princeton University, 2022).

Humanities Sequence Integrated Science Engineering Studies


Curriculum
• What Makes Us Human? • Introductory chemistry • Civil and Environmental
• East Asian Humanities (two semesters) Engineering
• Interdisciplinary • Physics (two semesters) • Chemical & Biological Engineering
Approaches to Western • Computer science (one • Computer Science
Culture semester) • Electrical and Computer
• Near Eastern Humanities • Molecular biology Engineering
• Mechanical and Aerospace
Engineering
• Operations Research and Financial
Engineering.

Source: Princeton University (2022)

The curricula of Princeton University provide students with interdisciplinary


courses, and students are allowed to register for a suited course. Besides, engineering
courses are available, and it is critical for students who perform their capability of
natural sciences. This course does not require students to have a well-qualified
background in engineering. Yet, it offers fundamental knowledge of Math and
sciences as prerequisite courses before approaching engineering. As opposed to
STEM education in specialisation colleges, engineering courses at the majority of
liberal schools are supposed to be less competitive than public schools since those
courses underscore a well-rounded approach, not only impart knowledge of
engineering but also offer field trips and the ability to tackle technical problems as
well as how to deal with unfamiliar situations of the career thanks to thinking
capacities and brainstorm well equipped under the roof of liberal arts schools
(Harvard College, 2020). This is a typical example of American pragmaticism in
education that has a tremendous impact on a rising tendency of engineering courses in
liberal arts education. Besides Princeton University, engineering courses jump into
Amherst College, Barnard College, Bowdoin College training curricula, etc. The
diffusion and development of pragmaticism are drivers of engineering courses at

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Princeton University. Liberal arts education promises to satisfy social requirements


and enrich human resources (Olsen, 2018).

Case 3: Harvard University

The reputation of Harvard University is known as a well-established and


top-ranking educational institution in the world. Besides a wide range of academic
fields, Harvard University operates Liberal Arts College as a critical school of this
university. According to the information of Harvard Liberal Arts College,
undergraduate students would achieve the flexibility in mind to set their own goals.
This school would assist them in designing their coursework. Eventually, students
would enlarge their perspectives and address future renovations through their
exceptional critical thinking, conscientious global citizenship and their
responsibilities to improve the world (Harvard Liberal Arts College, 2022).

Harvard Liberal
Arts School

Quantitative
General Expository
Distribution Reasoning Language
Education Writing
with Data

Figure 1. Liberal Arts School of Harvard.


Source: Harvard College (2020)

Five major sub-groups of subjects are taught at the Harvard Liberal arts school. In
the first section, general education fully provides students with some categories of
Aesthetics and Culture, Ethnic and Civics, Histories, Societies, Individuals, and
Science & Technology in society. Currently, the curriculum of liberal arts colleges
in the US aims to formulate a definition of global citizen that endeavours to educate
students with rich knowledge on cultural diversity and how to deal with cultural
differences in a natural context (Vicki et al., 2012). While these courses can be seen

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as a strength of Harvard University, their teaching content is likely to be modified and


adapted to an interdisciplinary approach for liberal arts students. These mandatory
courses target an extraordinary ability to acquire new wisdom from natural sciences
to social sciences and humanities. In addition, all students must finalise one
departmental course in the three divisions, including Arts and Humanities, Social
Sciences, and Science and Engineering and Applied Sciences. This selection counts
upon students’ choices and favourites in a particular field. After this stage, students
must sign up for the Quantitative Reasoning with Data Requirements course and
select an arbitrary system. The role of the quantitative method is critical to liberal arts
students because they need to be trained in how to deal with data and apply
quantitative methods to solve knowledge of natural and social sciences as well as
employ this way to guarantee their research reliability (Karaali et al., 2010).
Meanwhile, the Expository Writing Requirement contributes to sharpening the
writing skills of students prior to Harvard University admission. The role of academic
writing is increasing as this is quite significant to students’ ability in the student’s
ability academic environment. Finally, foreign language is required for students
before matriculation, and language satisfaction is conducive to Harvard students
when they enter their major and attain academic achievements affiliated with global
issues (Mcllhenny et al., 2018).

It is noticeable that interdisciplinary is a special characteristic of liberal arts


education at Harvard University. Still, the magnitude of skills also proved that liberal
arts education at this school is in the preparatory phase of academics. It is crucial to
help students envision their necessary tasks and skills when pursuing a course at this
school. The majority of courses are akin to the curricula of liberal arts schools
throughout the US and current popular arguments on a tripod of liberal arts education,
namely, general education, interdisciplinary, and service-learning (Godwin & Altbach,
2016). As such, the training programs of Harvard University in liberal arts education
probably harmonise two contradictions in the expectations of higher education. They
are a promotion of liberal arts education in tune with vocational-professional skills.
Researchers argue that liberal arts education has a strong focus on real topics and the

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natural world to convey fundamental knowledge to students and master their social
and practical skills (Wang & Liu, 2019).

Case 4: Claremont McKenna College

Claremont McKenna College is a newly-established liberal arts college in the US.


This school lists as the whole liberal arts school in the US. The trustee appreciates the
worth of liberal arts education in the precocious development of their students. These
vents promote student improvements in teaching-learning methods and create an open
forum for teachers and students to exchange ideas and solutions on an interesting
issue (Dike, 2010). In particular, general education requirements consist of a
humanities seminar and a writing seminar for their first-year students. Those classes
are major courses that whet students’ writing skills before experts professionally
train them, as professional writing is a critical premise for students to do their utmost
in academic performance. As effective writing is a skill that engages in
comprehension, intensive reading, application and synthesis of new knowledge
(Defazio et al., 2010), the role of academic writing courses is profound to expedite
students’ academic performance at school. In these courses, students learn how to
write a high-quality research paper, and an open space of academic freedom
facilitates learners to express their viewpoints and expose their strengths and
shortcomings during the coursework. Besides, students obligatorily enrol in a foreign
language course or partake in a mathematics or computer science course, one
laboratory science course and three academic terms of P.E. courses. Eventually,
students are eligible for a favourite specific course at school, including social sciences,
particularly economics, government, international relations, and psychology
(Claremont McKenna College, 2023).

Table 3. Liberal arts curriculum of Claremont McKenna College

General Requirements

Freshman Writing Must be completed within the first or second semester


Seminar
Freshman Humanities Must be completed within the first or second semester
Seminar

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General Requirements

Foreign Language Any CMC mathematics or computer science course


Lab Science One laboratory science course offered by Keck Science
Department or elsewhere within The Claremont
Consortium
Must be completed by the end of the second year at CMC
Physical Education 3 physical education activity courses or two seasons of a
sport
Must register for activities and sports to count
Senior Thesis To be completed in the senior year; related to the
student’s major(s)

Source: Claremont McKenna College (2023)

Major sub-groups of courses that students of Claremont McKenna College would


engage in over the course of an undergraduate school course. This school requires
learners to pay attention to Writing and Humanities courses as soon as they
commence their academic in the first academic semester. In the following two years,
students either earn academic credit for foreign language courses or demonstrate their
certificate in mathematics or computer science course. Physical education is also
compulsory; students fulfil their thesis to finalise their course. Liberal arts curriculum
entwines learners across all academic school years and it is able to measure the
efficiency and impact of the liberal arts education and whether it satisfies the
requirements of employment followed by student graduation.

4.2 Discussion
Liberal arts education is a long-standing tradition of American higher education.
As soon as it was on American land, this education effectively offered undergraduate
students critical skills in the preschool stage. It expanded the definition of liberal arts
education besides the capacity of critical thinking and the role of multidisciplinary
education.

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There is much debate on the original definition of liberal arts education. Liberal
arts education. Traditionally, Bruce A. Kimball put stress on the function of liberal
arts education to liberate individuals from cliché conventions and follow the path of
veracity. During the era of Enlightenment, Kimball set the stage for a better
understanding of liberal arts education, which paved the way for enriched knowledge
and honed students’ creation and learning skills. It would contribute to training a line
of critical thinkers and virtuous individuals (Kimball, 1995). Liberal-free feature of
liberal arts education has a seven-point inclusion.

Freedom and liberty

rationality

critical skepticism
Liberal education

tolerance

egalitarialism

individualism and the


obligation of citizenship

the concern for individual


personal growth

Figure 2. Seven criteria of the liberal-free idea of liberal arts education (Kimball,
1995, pp. 119–123).

The figure reveals that freedom and liberty are top-rank criteria in the liberal-free
Idea of liberal arts education. Kimball appreciated freedom and liberty in this model
as this criterion creates a stage of creation and genesis of new knowledge. This
liberates students from conservative viewpoints and depends on accurate evidence to
defend their perspectives (Barker, 2000). This element encourages open-mindedness
of learners and sharing of their viewpoints on a specific topic by employing reliable
theories and their practical application in real life. This opinion rejected all prejudiced

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and dogmatic standpoints in an attempt to radically change an intellectual's


ideological foundation and background and liberate them from the improper
explanation for a social phenomenon. Even it is instrumental in creating new
knowledge for the academic base. According to Kimball, the initial criterion of liberal
arts education triggered social equality and individual growth for social development.
Table 4. Liberal arts school based on criteria of Kimball (1995).

The Concern for Individual


Obligation of Citizenship
Individualism and the
Freedom and Liberty

Critical Scepticism

Personal Growth
Egalitarianism
Rationality

Tolerance
Criteria

Claremont McKenna College


✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
(Absolute liberal arts school)
Harvard University
✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
(Separate liberal arts school)
Princeton University
(Liberal arts before professional ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
education)
William College
✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
(Integrated)

When using these criteria to evaluate the degree of liberal arts education in these
four case studies, we realised that they all have freedom and liberty as core values of
liberal arts education. Meanwhile, Rationality, Egalitarianism, and Egalitarianism are
still questioned in the set of curricula that should be linked to a deficiency of service
learning of those universities. This element is critical to set a firm foundation for
liberal arts education growth. Besides, four schools stress the importance of critical
thinking and rhetoric to sharpen students’ skills and enhance their academic
performance. In the 21st century, the additional target of liberal arts education is to
educate students in the spirit of individualism and the citizens' obligation to social and

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economic growth and perform their duty on community affairs. This aspect of liberal
arts education meets higher education requirements, elevating the role of
individualism as a speciality of American culture. Still, it expands its effort to build a
grasp of its values that should be compatible with social needs.

Besides, these four American liberal arts schools emphasise the importance of
general education. It usually aims to cultivate new areas of knowledge by bating the
significance of didactic methods (Newman, 1873). Liberal arts education would
enrich learners' knowledge through a series of practical lessons instead of engaging
them in tons of academic papers for specialisation (Alam et al., 2021). This statement
does not mean to decline a common understanding of the academics in the university.
Conversely, liberal arts education widens the knowledge they should glean from their
experiences. Teachers impart general education to students with a broad spectrum of
fields and appreciate the role of the trivium of subjects. So far, the US has emerged as
a superpower of liberal arts education through the provenance of this education in
Europe. Historically, this education offered trivium of rhetoric, grammar, and logic,
and then the fields were replenished with quadrivium of astronomy, mathematics,
geometry, and music in ancient and medieval times (Castle, 1965). While rhetoric,
grammar, and logical thinking were committed to nourishing soft skills for learners to
join the social debate and public oration, multidisciplinary fields in the subsequent
stage of liberal arts education strengthened the perception of general education and
effectively addressed social affairs. The Curricula of liberal arts schools elicited the
involvement of several fields of general education so as to assist students in
familiarising themselves with the knowledge that falls out of their attention and foster
their sense of discovery in interdisciplinary approaches. In particular, four colleges of
liberal arts education offer students a range of rhetoric, grammar, and logical thinking.
When introducing the training program, boards of trustee underline the function of
the liberal arts program that enable students to pursue multiple interests rigorously
and deeply (Princeton University, 2022). At Harvard University, students are trained
in quantitative reasoning and with data and Expository Writing courses in order to
sharpen the capabilities of critical thinking and writing essay skills. Meanwhile,
students of Claremont McKenna College take part in writing and humanities seminars

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to master fundamental skills in the academic sphere. The free mind is the central issue
that liberal arts education engages in since academic freedom strongly correlates with
liberal arts education. Thomas Russell Cooper respects the function of liberal arts
education that it would leverage a total development of an individual and was a
worthy premise of specialisation in the subsequent stage of training (Thomas, 1963).
Hence, this kind of education in the US encourages the participatory status of critical
thinking and rhetoric to enrich students’ insight and engender a notion of citizen
responsibility. The curriculum content of American liberal arts inflates the
significance of autonomous learning objectives and didactical methods. On account
of oral expression and writing skills, American students are able to take a closer
analysis of their interests and the current affairs of society.

Furthermore, to grapple with society's fiendish problems, students must be aware


of urgent issues as they have complexities and need interdisciplinary methods.
General education is an instrument to promulgate knowledge to students and equip
them with a broad range of fields. When discussing the role of general education,
researchers supposed that general education was the distinctive function of the
college that would teach the modes of conceptualisation, explanation, and verification
of knowledge and aims to help students acquire self-consciousness, historical
consciousness and methodological consciousness (Bell, 1966). Thereby, liberal arts
education in American higher education is mainly thrust into interdisciplinary courses
because students would avoid too little knowledge and broaden their knowledge in
various fields. This aspect is profound for the sack of their profession and adaptability
in a changeable job market. In particular, the set of liberal arts education includes
thinking capacity, rhetoric, and logical problem-solving. Humanities no longer lie at
the heart of liberal arts education, but it emphasises writing or conversational skills
and other fields of mathematics and computer skills (Z. Jiang, 2019).

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Table 5. Subject distribution based on subfields.

Applied Languages
Critical Thinking

Service Learning
Natural Sciences

Global Citizens
Social Sciences

Aesthetics
Subfields

Claremont McKenna College


✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
(Absolute liberal arts school)
Harvard University
✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
(Separate liberal arts school)
Princeton University
(Liberal arts before professional ✓ ✓ ✓
education)
William College
✓ ✓ ✓ ✓ ✓
(Integrated)

When dividing into subgroups of fields, Trinh assumed that liberal arts education
should encompass Natural sciences, Social sciences, Critical thinking, Global citizens,
Applied languages, Service learning, and Aesthetics. However, not all universities in
the world have a full range of these fields (Trinh, 2020, 2021, 2023b, 2023a; Trinh &
Weng, 2017). Overall, all four colleges offer students with Natural Sciences, Social
sciences, and critical thinking. As analysed, the liberal arts curriculum of Princeton
University encompasses courses in Arts and Humanities, Integrated sciences, and
Engineering studies. Students are allowed to select a particular method among groups
of subjects designed in the curriculum. At Claremont McKenna College, students are
not only taught in humanities and writing seminars. However, there are differences in
global citizenship, applied languages, and service learning subjects. This feature
depends on the target of those schools and the subjectivity of teaching programmers.

However, we must distinguish between general education and liberal arts


education in American higher education. Service learning education provides students
with a wide scope of multi-disciplinary subjects in the curriculum. Yet, liberal arts
education obtains the presence of a free mind and extraordinary skills of students in

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liberal arts education classes. It is admitted that general education engenders a sense
of wise learners. Still, liberal arts education also focuses on a well-rounded education
and masters students’ soft skills in a practical context (Z. Jiang, 2019, p. 1632).
Hence, knowledge of multidisciplinary is only a primordial condition and must be
processed by the sensible mind of students when coping with real challenges. The
interface of two educations is interdisciplinary knowledge, and the gap is bridged to
aim at integrated education and give an impulse to liberal arts education. As opposed
to an original general education, liberal arts education would facilitate academic
freedom in general education subjects. Various courses are available in sundry
semesters, and this advantage enables students to register for a favourite class and
cultivate their passion after courses. Hence, from the four above case studies of
American colleges, we can see that a series of systems have been designed and
outlined. The scope of fields is much broader than in the past and illustrates a positive
development of American liberal arts education. Besides fundamental skills of
traditional liberal arts education, educators amplified the set of courses. They
considered liberal arts education an open way for students who find their egos and
genuine passion for embarking.

5. Conclusions
We draw some significant conclusions from this research below:

First, there are four types of liberal arts schools in the US. (1) Absolute liberal arts
school(Liberal arts education school): Students enrolling on this school can choose
any courses they want to learn. They gradually define what they want to do and who
they want to become. Then, they are likely to choose a specialised field to research or
pursue in their career path; (2) Separate liberal arts school: This kind of school has a
separate school of liberal arts education in a complex of specialisation schools.
Students approach general education and understand an interdisciplinary approach to
select a favourite specialisation they want to follow; (3) Liberal arts before
professional education(The university has liberal arts education curriculum): This
school has several specialisations, but students have to register for liberal arts
education as critical conditions before being intensively trained in their major; (4)

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Integrated: Students both learn professional education and liberal arts education at
any semesters depending on their selection.

Second, there are three factors to identify the value of liberal arts education in the
US, including general education, interdisciplinary, and mindset.
Table 6. Subject distribution based on the three factors.

General Interdisciplinar
Factors Mindset
education y
Claremont McKenna College
✓ ✓ ✓
(Absolute liberal arts school)
Harvard University
✓ ✓ ✓
(Separate liberal arts school)
Princeton University
(Liberal arts before professional ✓ ✓ ✓
education)
William College
✓ ✓ ✓
(Integrated)

Despite the long or short time of establishment, these three factors consistently
impact liberal arts education in US higher education. Students foster their perception
of interdisciplinary approaches and build a firm general education foundation and a
strong mindset to deal with problems effectively. First, students of these colleges are
intensively trained in a handful of arts, natural sciences, humanities and social
sciences courses. The formation of classes and syllabi varies based on each school’s
ability. Yet, curriculum designers poise on an interdisciplinary approach and a myriad
of courses to optimise students’ choices. Besides, the mindset of students can be
shaped thanks to a range of soft skills courses in critical thinking, rhetoric, and
writing skills. In the new context of pragmaticism, these schools attempt to underly
the importance of service learning, a notion of citizenship, and civic responsibility of
the engagement of citizens in social affairs can be seen as a fruitful outcome of liberal
arts education.

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