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The Idea of Liberal Education
at HSMC
Cheung Chan-Fai
April 29, 2016
What Is a 21st Century Liberal Education? Liberal Education is an approach to learning that empowers individuals and prepares them to deal with complexity, diversity, and change. It provides students with broad knowledge of the wider world (e.g. science, culture, and society) as well as in-depth study in a specific area of interest. A liberal education helps students develop a sense of social responsibility, as well as strong and transferable intellectual and practical skills such as communication, analytical and problem-solving skills, and a demonstrated ability to apply knowledge and skills in real-world settings. (From AAC&U, https://www.aacu.org/leap/what-is-a-liberal-education)
Liberal Arts: Specific disciplines (i.e., the humanities, sciences, and social sciences). Liberal Arts College: A particular type of institution—often small, often residential—that facilitates close interaction between faculty and students, and whose curriculum is grounded in the liberal arts disciplines. Artes Liberales: The historical basis for the modern liberal arts, consisting of the trivium (grammar, logic, and rhetoric) and the quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music). General Education: That part of a liberal education curriculum that is shared by all students. It provides broad exposure to multiple disciplines and forms the basis for developing essential intellectual, civic, and practical capacities. General education can take many forms, and increasingly includes introductory, advanced, and integrative forms of learning.
Often-Confused Terms
(From AAC&U, https://www.aacu.org/leap/what-is-a-liberal-education)
Meaning of GE
• Not an academic discipline
• No clear definition
• Free electives / Distribution requirement
Core curriculum/ Great books programme
• A broad and balanced programme contribute to a “Whole-man” education
The Problem of General Education in Hong Kong
Meaning of GE
“Core-curriculum” (Lingnan, PolyU),
“Gateway Education”(CityU),
“Common Core” (HKU,HKUST)
“General Education” (CUHK, HKBU, HKIEd)
boosting a large number of courses (sometimes over 200) listed under several “Cores”, “Clusters”, “Areas” or “Areas of Inquiry”
The Problem of General Education in Hong Kong
The University of Hong Kong Common Core Curriculum
• Divided into four Areas of Inquiry (AoIs):
• normally required to take 6 six-credit courses, one from each AoI and not more than 2 from any AoI. (http://commoncore.hku.hk/introduction/#prog_req)
The Chinese University of Hong Kong General Education
CUHK General Education
Total: 21 units
College GE
6 units +
College Life
University GE
15 units
UGE Four Areas 9 units
Area A Chinese Cultural Heritage Area B Nature, Science and Technology
Area C Society and Culture Area D Self and Humanity
GE Foundation (GEF) 6 units
In Dialogue with Humanity
In Dialogue with Nature
The HK University of Science and Technology Common Core Program
Common Core Areas Credits
Note Required Elective
Humanities (H) 6 *
6
* 3 credits must be from H SSCs
Social Analysis (SA) 6 * * 3 credits must be from SA SSCs
Science and Technology (S&T) 6 * * 3 credits must be from S&T SSCs
Quantitative Reasoning (QR) 3
Arts 0
English Communication 6 ** Nil **Must be taken in the 1st year of study
Chinese Communication 3 Nil
Healthy Lifestyle Non-credit Nil
Total credits required 36 SSCs = School-Sponsored Courses
http://uce.ust.hk/web/courses/course_curriculum_8.html
Hong Kong Baptist University General Education
Core Requirements Distribution Requirements
Units Units
University English 6 Areas of Learning (b)
University Chinese 3 Arts 3
Public Speaking 3 Business 3
Information Management Technology (a) 3 Communication/Visual Arts 3
Numeracy (a) 3 Science/Chinese Medicine 3
Physical Education (a) 2 Social Sciences 3
History and Civilization (a) 3 Interdisciplinary (c) 3
Values and the Meaning of Life (a) 3
University Life 0
Total 26 Total 12
(a) Each of the above denotes a category in which a list of courses will be available for students’ selection. (b) Students will take one course in each of the four areas outside of their own Faculty/ School/ Academy, for a total of 12 units; ONE of these 4 courses may be an interdisciplinary course. (c) Interdisciplinary courses will be listed for two (or more) areas of learning (i.e. with two course codes starting with GDXX18XX or GDXX19XX). Students have to decide which area (outside of their own Faculty/ School/ Academy) they would like the course to fulfill. Students can only take ONE interdisciplinary GE course to fulfill their Distribution Requirements. http://ge.hkbu.edu.hk/programme-structure/
City University of Hong Kong Education Development and Gateway Education
GE Requirements Advanced Standing I (Note 1)
Advanced Standing II (Note 2)
University Requirements
English University English and Discipline-specific English 6 credit units
Discipline-specific English 3 credit units
Chinese Civilisation – History and Philosophy
3 credit units Not compulsory requirement
Distributional Requirements
A minimum of 3 credit units from each of the three distributional areas below: Area 1: Arts and Humanities Area 2: Study of Societies, Social and Business Organisations Area 3: Science and Technology
6 credit units 3 credit units
College/School-specified Requirements 6 credit units 6 credit units
Total 21 credit units 12 credit units
http://www.cityu.edu.hk/edge/ge/ge_requirements_new.htm
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University 4-Year Curriculum
http://4yc.polyu.edu.hk/curriculum.html#
The Hong Kong Institute of Education General Education Curriculum
http://www.ied.edu.hk/ge/web/page.php?id=9
Lingnan University Core Curriculum
Common Core
• CCC8001 Logic and Critical Thinking • CCC8002 The Making of Hong Kong • CCC8003 Understanding Morality • CCC8004 World History and Civilisations
5 Clusters
Creativity and Innovation
Humanities and the Arts
Management and Society
Science, Technology and
Society
Values, Cultures and Societies
Curriculum Requirements The Core Curriculum is made up of a Common Core and 5 Clusters. Students are required to take all 4 courses in the Common Core and a total of 7 courses from the 5 Clusters, with at least one course from each cluster. The number of cluster courses students can take is capped at seven, except for special cases with the approval of the Director of Core Curriculum and General Education to take more. http://www.ln.edu.hk/ccgeo/corecurri.php
General Education: Meaning of “General” 1. Studium generale: General = for all students and scholars, a formal concept 2. General studies/knowledge = All areas of knowledge beyond the major disciplinary study, a content concept • Can any student understand the intended meaning of all
these areas by just taking one or two course from each core? • The large quantity of courses is a camouflage of the
superficiality of General Education / Distribution requirement / free Electives.
The Problem of General Education in Hong Kong
General Education:
The term “General Education” is a liability
HKDSE: Liberal Studies (通識敎育)
General Education is part of Liberal Education
(from AAC&U)
The Problem of General Education in Hong Kong
Liberal and Professional Education at HSMC
Objective of the Task Force:
To develop a high-quality, defensible and manageable Liberal Education curriculum for HSMC students
Liberal and Professional Education at HSMC Stage One The Task Force reviewed the Foundation module GEN1000 and identified the major weaknesses of the GE curriculum. Foundation module The module content should be modified and simplified, as the content sets too wide. Classical texts could be introduced as teaching materials. Students will be required to read the texts by themselves before class and discussed during class by leading questions provided by teachers. Cluster modules The existing list is too arbitrary. The modules in the clusters should be rearranged in thematic dimension.
Liberal and Professional Education at HSMC
Stage Two
• The existing GE Programme (Common Core Modules) is recommended to rename as “Liberal Education Programme” (LEP)
• and to adopt a new structure of 3 Sections
1. Liberal Education Generic Capacity
2. Liberal Education Foundation
3. Liberal Education Core
Liberal and Professional Education at HSMC
A global and contemporary perspective on the conceptualization of learning • With reference to the UNESCO paper Learning: The
Treasure Within (1996) and Revisiting Learning: The Treasure Within (2013), the Task Force has incorporated the four pillars of learning (Learning to know; Learning to do; Learning to be; Learning to live together) into HSMC education model and Liberal Education Programme.
• Two more pillars of learning are added: Learning to live in nature; learning to be a global citizen
HSMC “Liberal + Professional” education model
1. Professional component incorporates “Learning to do” into major studies of the existing 5 Schools
2. Liberal Education Generic Capacity (21 units) takes “Learning to know” into the existing Language and Quantitative Methods and IT Skill. Intensive first year writing seminar in English and Chinese would be introduced
HSMC “Liberal + Professional” education model
3. Liberal Education Foundation: (6 units)
“Unless students and professors (and particular professors) have a common intellectual training, a university must remain a series of disparate schools and departments, united by nothing except the fact that they have the same president and board of trustees.” Robert Hutchins: The Higher Learning in America, 1936
HSMC “Liberal + Professional” education model
3. Liberal Education Foundation: (6 units)
Considering the importance of freshman sharing common learning experience, two core modules have been suggested. The idea of these two modules is to introduce students of classics texts (6 texts per module) and enhance students’ ability in reading, thinking, writing, discussing and speaking.
HSMC “Liberal + Professional” education model
3. Liberal Education Foundation: (6 units) Prior to the reminding 4 Pillars of learning, two Foundation modules of reading classics texts.
a. Foundation of Liberal Education I: Virtue / Value
e.g. Plato: Symposium, Epicurus: letter to Menoeceus, Seneca: On the Shortness of Life, Newman: The Idea of a University. 論語, 道德經, 金剛經
b. Foundation of Liberal Education II: Wisdom / Knowledge e.g. Newton: The Principia, Darwin: The Origin of Species. Carson: Silent Spring, Watson: DNA: The Secret of
Life
HSMC “Liberal + Professional” education model
3. Liberal Education Foundation: (6 units) • All students are required to takes this LEF • The selected classics texts, in Western and
Chinese tradition should be readable and manageable.
• The pedagogy to teach the classics texts will be developed by a teaching team
• The selected classics texts should anticipate the themes of the Liberal Education Core modules.
HSMC “Liberal + Professional” education model
3. Liberal Education Foundation: (6 units)
Pedagogy
• Delivered in small class, i.e., 25 students for each group; supplemented by web-based learning
• Student-centered active learning
• Complemented by optional learning activities such as cultural visits, campus seminars
HSMC “Liberal + Professional” education model
3. Liberal Education Foundation: (6 units)
Vision • Effectively enhance students’ intellectual and cultural
quality through the reading of classics texts
• Nurture in students the habits of reading on, thinking about and discussing serious topics
• Help students understand the relatedness of learning and life, thus nurturing in them an internal drive for learning
• Facilitate students’ transition from school to university
• Build a learning community through common learning experience
HSMC “Liberal + Professional” education model
4. Liberal Education Core: (15 units) a. Learning to be b. Learning to live in nature c. Learning to live together d. Learning to be a global citizen Ideally all the modules (Should be less than 8 in number) in these 4 cores are developed from the 12 classic texts, which are the advance study of the themes discussed in the Foundation.
HSMC “Liberal + Professional” education model
4. Liberal Education Core: (15 units)
a. Learning to be
To develop one's personality and be able to act with ever greater autonomy, judgement and personal responsibility. In that connection, education must not disregard any aspect of a person's potential: memory, reasoning, aesthetic sense, physical capacities and communication skills.
To know oneself and the meaning of life and death through the study of philosophy, literature, religion, art and music
- Possible classic texts in LEF: Plato: Symposium, Epicurus: letter to Menoeceus, Seneca: On the Shortness of Life, Newman: The Idea of a University
HSMC “Liberal + Professional” education model
4. Liberal Education Core: (15 units)
b. Learning to live in nature
How human understands nature and the universe through science and philosophy, and manipulates nature through technology. The place of human in the cosmos. Human destruction of the balance of nature How to achieve harmony with nature.
- Possible classic text in LEF: Newton: The Principia, Darwin: The Origin of Species. Carson: Silent Spring
HSMC “Liberal + Professional” education model
4. Liberal Education Core: (15 units)
c. Learning to live together
by developing an understanding of other people and an appreciation of interdependence - carrying out joint projects and learning to manage conflicts -in a spirit of respect for the values of pluralism, mutual understanding and peace, through the study of ethics, politics and sociology.
- Possible classic text in LEF: Aristotle: Ethics, Politics, Machiavelli: The Prince, Mill: On Liberty
HSMC “Liberal + Professional” education model
4. Liberal Education Core: (15 units)
d. Learning to be a global citizen
How do we learn to live in the ‘global village’? Without an understanding of the international political, cultural, economic and financial relationship and the complexity of the globalization, we do not know our place in the contemporary world.
- Possible classic text in LEF: Z Bauman: Globalization: The Human Consequences
HSMC “Liberal + Professional” education model
Drew Faust, President, Harvard University Baccalaureate address to Class 2008:
June 3, 2008
Successful life / Meaningful life “A liberal education demands that you live self-
consciously. It prepares you to ask and define the meaning inherent in all you do. It has made you an analyst and critic of yourself, a person in this way supremely equipped to take charge of your life and how it unfolds. It is in this sense that the liberal arts are liberal – as in liberare – to free.”
Thank you