Learning Everywhere: The End of "Extracurricular"

Autor/in	Baenninger, MaryAnn
Titel	Learning Everywhere: The End of "Extracurricular"
Quelle	In: Liberal Education, 104 (2018) 4 PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	0024-1822
Schlagwörter	Liberal Arts; College Curriculum; Educational Change; Experiential Learning; Career Readiness; General Education; New Jersey + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Bildungsreform; Experiental learning; Erfahrungsorientiertes Lernen; Allgemein bildendes Schulwesen; Allgemeinbildung
Abstract	As a veteran university president of fifteen years, MaryAnn Baenninger has welcomed thousands of prospective students and parents to Saturday recruitment days, however recently she has begun to wonder about the adequacy of recent descriptions of "liberal arts" as an ideal education. National conversations about higher education have placed liberal education in the cross hairs of many debates about cost, student loan debt, merit-based versus need-based aid, online learning, and massive open online courses. Baenninger notes that such debates have distracted educators from thinking about what has changed, how students learn and from deeply reflecting on what society needs from a college-educated citizenry and workforce. Liberal colleges have been on the defensive, but Baenninger, president of Drew University, writes here that the time has come to turn the tables. She maintains that such a move will require both a sound understanding of how students and the world evolve, and deep reflection on how educators have adapted to those changing needs. Further, she goes on to say that the place to begin understanding the potential for reinventing educational institutions is the evolution and growth of the set of experiences that the Association of American Colleges and Universities calls high-impact practices, a subset of which are often grouped under the umbrella of experiential learning. While there is almost universal acknowledgment among educators that these experiences are important, educators continue to describe them as add-ons, the icing on the cake. A liberal arts education is classroom education in the major and general education, plus "outside the classroom" experiences, high impact practices, and/or residential life and community experiences. Baenninger believes that the additive, unintegrated description has held institutions back and excused them from thinking strategically about a new model. For many years, while liberal arts colleges have been touting and accumulating these high-impact experiences for students in a relatively nonstrategic way, a quiet revolution has been happening. These experiences not only became trend setting, they also transformed themselves over time from peripheral to central and from additive to integral. In light of this trend, Baenninger asks the following question: If colleges are to describe a liberal education as an immersive education that fosters not only soft skills but also industry-specific skills, how then, do liberal arts institutions grow into this new identity? What are the challenges and imperatives liberal arts colleges face in solidifying this identity and communicating it, and more importantly, for sustaining and growing authentic student experiences around it? A six step plan toward this goal is outlined, and a description of Launch, a new career and post college initiative that was introduced at Drew University, is provided. (ERIC).
Anmerkungen	Association of American Colleges and Universities. 1818 R Street NW, Washington, DC 20009. Tel: 800-297-3775; Tel: 202-387-3760; Fax: 202-265-9532; e-mail: pub_desk@aacu.org; Web site: http://www.aacu.org/publications/index.cfm
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01