Synopses & Reviews
A New Agenda for Higher Education
Historically, higher education has aimed to enhance the possibilities of life for its students. The liberal arts and sciences have sought to do this through cultivating in students a "life of the mind"the intellectual dimensions of students' lives such as problem-solving capacities and critical thinking. On the other hand, the professional schools have focused on providing the means whereby students might "make something of themselves" by acquiring competence in specific skills valuable to others.
In A New Agenda for Higher Education, the authors endorse higher education's utility for enhancing the practical as well as intellectual dimensions of life by developing a third, different conception of educational purpose. Based on The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching seminar that brought together educators from six professional fields with faculty from the liberal arts and sciences, A New Agenda for Higher Education proposes an educational aim of "practical reason," focusing on the interdependence of liberal education and professional training.
The book includes case studies of instructors from a wide array of disciplines including those who educate their students for practical responsibility. The authors document the process by which they learned to collaborate with one another across fields and, in the end, produced a new discourse of practical reason. The book also offers faculty, administrators, and those interested in the promise of higher education valuable suggestions on how to put these insights to work in their own academic contexts. It promises to stir and support the development of practical wisdom among students of all fields who are preparing for a wide variety of careers and callings.
Synopsis
In A New Agenda for Higher Education, the authors endorse higher education???s utility for enhancing the practical as well as intellectual dimensions of life by developing a third, different conception of educational purpose. Based on The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching seminar that brought together educators from six professional fields with faculty from the liberal arts and sciences, A New Agenda for Higher Education proposes an educational aim of ???practical reason,??? focusing on the interdependence of liberal education and professional training.
Synopsis
A New Model of Undergraduate Teaching
A New Agenda for Higher Education proposes a model of undergraduate teaching that combines the academic with the professionally practical, focusing on the interdependence of liberal education and professional training. At its most effective, say the authors, liberal education provides students with the intellectual capacity to make sense of their environment and reflect on their place in the world. Professional education, by contrast, must provide the knowledge essential to a particular field of endeavor but also ways in which students can engage this knowledge for the common good. This book shows how both liberal arts educators and educators of professionals can collaborate to realize the goals of liberal and professional learning more effectively. It offers faculty a powerful set of examples of teachers who are working to sustain a broader vision of practical reasoning and public responsibility in their respective disciplines and in the lives of their students.
"The issues raised in A New Agenda for Higher Education are important to the shape of teaching, learning, career preparation, and the very values and priorities of the modern university."
Bobby Fong, president, Butler University
"This is a well-crafted book based on what must have been a fascinating seminar. I felt that in reading the book I was part of an ongoing dialogue stimulated by the seminar. That's high praise coming from someone who is rather burnt out by years of talk, talk, talk in academia and who wants to see action, action, action for a change. But I realize that discourse frames action and this is a very constructive discourse."
W. Robert Connor, president, The Teagle Foundation
About the Author
William M. Sullivan is codirector of the Carnegie Foundation's Preparation for the Professions Program. He is the author of Work and Integrity: The Crisis and Promise of Professionalism in America and coauthor of Educating Lawyers: Preparation for the Profession of Law and Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life.
Matthew S. Rosin is author of Obsoleting Culture and was formerly a research scholar at The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. He is currently a senior research associate at EdSource, an independent and impartial educational policy research agency that clarifies K12 policy issues in California.
Table of Contents
Foreword by Lee S. Shulman and Gary D. Fenstermacher.
Preface.
Acknowledgments.
About the Authors.
Introduction.
1. Partners in the Field: Part One (Elliot N. Dorff, Arthur S. Elstein, and Barbara S. Stengel).
2. Partners in the Field: Part Two (Gary Lee Downey, Daisy Hurst Floyd, and William C. Spohn).
3. A Narrative of the Seminar.
4. Practical Reason as an Educational Agenda.
Conclusion: Taking Formative Action.
Appendix One: Partner Syllabi.
Hessel Bouma III, "Human Biology," Calvin College.
Elliot N. Dorff, "Issues in Jewish Ethics," American Jewish University.
Gary Lee Downey and Juan Lucena, "Engineering Cultures," Virginia Tech and Colorado School of Mines.
Daisy Hurst Floyd, "Advanced Legal Ethics: Finding Joy and Satisfaction in Legal Life," Mercer University School of Law.
Allen S. Hammond IV, "Contracts," Santa Clara University School of Law.
Robert McGinn, "Ethical Issues in Engineering," Stanford University.
Timothy Murphy and Michele Oberman, Selected Cases from "Ethics and Law," University of Illinois College of Medicine.
William C. Spohn, "Scripture and the Moral Life," Santa Clara University.
Barbara S. Stengel, "Foundations of Modern Education," Millersville University.
Appendix Two: Seminar Assignments.
Assignment for Session One, September 2002.
Assignment for Session Two, January 2003.
Syllabus Narrative Writing Assignment, Summer 2003.
Assignment for Session Three, November 2003.
Follow-Up Reflection Questions, January 2004.
References.