Liberal Arts and Adult Education

1.What is the contribution of the liberal arts course on the learning process?

Liberal arts curriculum is a course of study of exemplary intellectual and artistic works across the disciplines, including history, philosophy, literature, fine arts, mathematics, and science. Proponents of liberal arts believe that when individuals attain deep understanding of age-old existential quandaries, they will become well rounded, moral, and wise; moreover, they will become liberated from living merely by habit and unexamined belief. Although intellectual achievement is an important goal of liberal arts curriculum, so too is the development of character. This curriculum's adherents express faith in liberal arts to humanize students by cultivating spirituality, moral sensitivity, self-understanding, intellect, rationality, discipline, the powers of good judgment, and knowledge about of how to live deliberatively and humanely as a good citizen within society.

The idea of liberal arts stems from ancient Greece and the Socratic tradition of intellectual and moral training to prepare individuals to participate as citizens within a democracy. Greek and Roman Stoic philosophers also argued for liberal arts as preparation to become world citizens by gaining the ability to understand different cultures and recognize the humanity of other people. Traditionally, however, this curriculum was meant to educate leaders, in particular, the few who would receive a university education; therefore, most discussion of liberal arts curriculum has centered on higher arts and the need for liberal or liberal arts as the foundation of university curriculum.

Transformative pedagogy and a learning-centered paradigm are at the heart of a liberal education. In this article, the authors present a case study detailing a simulation they created in an interdisciplinary course in one university's core curriculum. Although the simulation and the larger course appeared to have engaged the students, after years of socialization to be passive receptacles of information, they seemed to find it difficult to break out of the traditional classroom experience; indeed, they had difficulty even imagining alternative forms of learning. Such resistance suggests the need for more innovative and transformative learning experiences as central components of today's liberal education. The sharing of ideas and practices to strengthen oppositional teaching cultures is suggested to mitigate the cost of engaging in transformative pedagogy.

To be liberally educated includes a number of competencies, but at its heart is students' ability to “learn how to learn and develop a zest for learning that will last them a lifetime” (Goldenberg, 2001, p. 15). Today's liberal arts “develops just those capacities needed by every thinking adult: analytical skills, effective communication, practical intelligence, ethical judgment, and social responsibility” (Association of American Colleges and Universities, 2002, p. 26). Learning without disciplinary boundaries and overcoming a rigidity of thought allows individuals to be critically aware, which can lead to self-empowerment (Gamson, 1984).

Yet this self-discovery within the learning process is hampered by many trends in higher education, including specialization (Holton, 2002), the treatment of universities as businesses (Bok, 2003; Van Valey, 2001), and the “Mc- Donaldization” of higher arts (Ritzer, 2000). Although not causal, such educational shifts ...