Liberal education

Schwab, J. J. (1978). Education and the structure of the disciplines. In I. Westbury N. J. Wilkof (Eds.), J.J. Schwab Science, curriculum and liberal education,. selected essays (pp. 229-273). Chicago University of Chicago Press. 

Which of the following best describes the author s idea of a liberal education ... 

Engineering as Liberal Education, Launchpad, and Lifelong Love 11... 

The modem engineering curriculum is remarkably balanced and substantially in line with key elements of a classical liberal education. ... 

The centroid of knowledge has shifted toward matters technical to the point where a classical liberal education with little math or science emphasis and no study of technological artifacts is no longer a broad basis for understanding the world around us. 

In a fascinating symposium volume entitled The Meaning of the Humanities, Ralph Barton Perry defines the humanities as that which embraces all influences conducive to freedom. This he extends beyond mere curricula to institutions, activities, and relationships. He points out that the first condition of freedom is freedom from ignorance, which implies learning. That we should aspire to be as universal as possible is appropriate enough, though each must know his own limitations. A liberal education, however, requires some ac-... 

What, then, are some of the aspects of liberal education that might engage us I would like to discuss five of them without in any sense presuming to say that there are no others, nor equally important ones. The first is the value judgement that needs to be developed. Then there is a sense of relevance and appropriateness that marks the able mind. Thirdly, there is the ability to reason in the broadest sense. Fourthly, a sensitivity to language, and, fifthly, an innate courtesy which should be sought after and cultivated. 

Chemical engineering and the liberal education today. Paper presented at the 25th Phillips Lecture, Oklahoma State University, 26 April 1991. 

Reading and travelling, they say, broaden the mind, stimulate imagination, are a liberal education. And so on. These are specious arguments. .. For though it may be quite true that for certain people... 

Collected Essays Volume IE Science and Education A Liberal Education (p. 82)... 

As the engineering profession developed in the nineteenth century, and its major institutions and educational frameworks were established, a number of groups advocated the cause of engineering science . The Gentlemen of Science of the British Association s early years saw engineering science as a way to institute hierarchical control over engineering by physical scientists, and even by gentlemen whose liberal education included mechanical science. Their representations... 

Personally, we feel that the population as a whole should learn more about science. In fact we feel that science should be a part of the repertoire of a cultured man today. We need great leadership in all fields by men who are cognizant of the values of our civilization and the factors which influence it. The liberal education that prepares men for such leadership must include science as an integral part, for science is too central a part of our modem culture to be ignored. 

The purpose of the conference was to create effective ways of presenting physics to college students who are not preparing to become professional physicists. Such an audience might include prospective secondary-school physics teachers, prospective practitioners of other sciences, and those who wish to learn physics as one component of a liberal education. 

The term, Chemistry , commonly means a body of conceptual knowledge. In association with the educational word, Curriculum , it implies that this knowledge is to be taught and leamt in its own right, whatever subsequent use it may be put to. This conception of learning to know chemistry applies in university education and in general and liberal education at the school level. It is quite different from the conception of learning chemistry to be able to do that applies to, and underpins chemistry s role in vocational education. 

Our [Australian] universities are vocational one goes into medicine or engineering straight from school. There is no effort to ensure liberally educated graduates we even have economists and lawyers with no sense of the great historical debates about human nature and society upon which their own professional practice has its foundations. ... 

This widespread interest in senior school chemistry as an important prepart of so many university professional courses raises interesting issues about the implicit vocational role that chemistry in the senior levels of schoohng is playing and the restriction it places on the pathways into these professions. It also questions whether chemistry in schooling is contributing as well as it should to liberal education. 

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