Readings on General Education


The Idea of a University Education:
Cardinal Newman, Booker
T. Washington, and W.E.B. Du Bois

Newman, John Henry. The Idea of a University, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., 1907. Online: http://www.newmanreader.org/works/idea/index.html [August, 2003]  See especially Part I, Sections 5, 6, and 7.

Price, Gregory N., The Idea of a Black University, Department of Economics Working Paper, September, 1999. Online: http://www.ncat.edu/~econdept/wp/ideabu.pdf

Du Bois, W. E. B. The Souls of Black Folk. Chicago: A.C. McClurg & Co.; [Cambridge]: University Press John Wilson and Son, Cambridge, U.S.A., 1903; Bartleby.com, 1999. Online: www.bartleby.com/114/. [August, 2003].

Du Bois, W. E. B. The Education of Black People: Ten Critiques, 1906-1960. [Herbert Aptheker, editor] New York: Monthly Review Press, 2001. 

Washington, Booker T. Up from Slavery: An Autobiography. New York: Doubleday, Page, 1901; Bartleby.com, 2000. Online: www.bartleby.com/1004/. [August, 2003].

Recent Research/Discussion on General and Liberal Studies

Association of American Colleges and Universities.
Online: http://www.aacu-edu.org/

AAC&U is at the center of a number of ongoing initiatives focused on general education reform. Their website provides access to a wealth of information on general education resources.

AACU Publications on General and Liberal Studies

Greater Expectations: A New Vision for Learning as a Nation Goes to College. National Panel Report, Washington: Association of American Colleges and Universities, 2002. Online: http://www.greaterexpectations.org/

An analysis of the challenges facing higher education, successes and failures in meeting them, and recommendations to rethink what we should expect from, and how we should provide, college education in the twenty-first century (also see the related Briefing Papers at the www.greaterexpectations.org website).

Schneider, Carol Geary and Robert Shoenberg. Contemporary Understandings of Liberal Education. Washington: Association of American Colleges and Universities, 1998. Online excerpts: http://www.aacu.org/publications/ContemporaryUnderstandings.cfm

The first publication in a series exploring The Academy in Transition, this discussion paper maps national trends in educational reform and examines their implications for the content and organization of higher learning.

Strong Foundations: Twelve Principles for Effective General Education Programs. Washington: Association of American Colleges and Universities, 1994.

Recommends strategies and procedures for sustaining vitality and strength in general education.

Gaff, Jerry G. General Education: The Changing Agenda. Washington: Association of American Colleges and Universities, 1999.

The third publication in the series exploring The Academy in Transition, this discussion paper analyzes changes in general education over the last two decades.

General Education in an Age of Student Mobility: An Invitation to Discuss Systemic Curricular Planning. Washington: Association of American Colleges and Universities, 2001.

The fifth publication in the series exploring The Academy in Transition, this discussion paper includes a collection of essays examining curricular coherence.

Ratcliff, James L., D. Kent Johnson, Steven M. La Nasa, and Jerry G. Gaff. The Status of General Education in the Year 2000: Summary of a National Survey. Washington: Association of American Colleges and Universities, 2001

This report summarizes the results of an extensive survey of undergraduate general education in a national sample of AAC&U-member colleges and universities and provides a snapshot of general education practice at the turn-of-the-century, information about significant changes in the past decade, and insight about the challenges of the future.

Additional Publications on General and Liberal Studies

Re-inventing Undergraduate Education: A Blueprint for America’s Research Universities. The Boyer Commission on Educating Undergraduates in the Research University, State University of New York at Stony Brook, 1998. 
Online: http://naples.cc.sunysb.edu/Pres/boyer.nsf/

This report summarizes the current nature of undergraduate education in research universities and provides recommendations for educational reform.

Reinvention: Why now? Why us? A Symposium on the Boyer Commission Report: A Second Anniversary Retrospective. State University of New York at Stony Brook. Remarks by Provost Nancy Cantor, University of Michigan April 28, 2000. Online: http://www.umich.edu/~provost/speeches/boyer.html

A follow-up symposium to the 1998 Boyer Report.

Astin, Alexander W. What Matters in College? Four Critical Years Revisited. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1997.

Research on student development during college years and how universities and colleges affect that development.

Light, Richard, Making the Most of College: Students Speak Their Minds, Harvard University Press, 2001. Online overviews of Light’s work:

Light summarizes interviews with 1600 Harvard students over ten years, providing advice on how students can maximize their education and what teachers and university leaders can do to improve students' college experiences.

Additional Online Reading - Links from UNC-CH’s General Education Curriculum Review web site

Edward Kidder Graham's Speeches on the Purpose of Undergraduate Education: The College and Human Need, 1915 and The Spirit of the University, 1916. Online: http://www.unc.edu/curriculumrevision/documents/grahamspeeches1915.html

Expected Outcomes for First-year Composition Classes from the Writing Program Administrators (from College English, January 2001). Online: http://www.unc.edu/curriculumrevision/documents/wpa.htm

A Case Statement on Quantitative Literacy. Prepared for the Woodrow Wilson Foundation. Online: http://www.stolaf.edu/other/ql/case.html

 

 
 
 
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