scholarly journals Blended Support of Undergraduate Interdisciplinary Research

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rianne Van Lambalgen
Keyword(s):  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Interdisciplinary Research ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Core Curriculum ◽  
Undergraduate Research ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Arts And Sciences ◽  
Complex Process ◽  
Liberal Arts And Sciences

This paper discusses blended support for undergraduate students to perform interdisciplinary research in teams. Interdisciplinary research is a complex process that consists of multiple steps and requires collaboration with people from different backgrounds. This paper presents research done at Liberal Arts and Sciences, Utrecht University (LAS), where as part of the core curriculum, students learn to do interdisciplinary research. Considering the complex process of doing interdisciplinary research, it is important that students are guided in this process. Blended support that provides technology-mediated guidance while at the same time encouraging face-to-face meetings would be of use to help students become more independent interdisciplinary researchers. This paper explores preferences in blended support, based on a survey and interviews with second and third year students and with undergraduate research supervisors at LAS, UU. Results indicate that there are different activities during the interdisciplinary research process where technology-mediated support would be of value. However, students and supervisors especially value meeting face-to-face when doing interdisciplinary integration. This should be taken into account when designing a blended framework for support of undergraduate interdisciplinary research.

Writing the Liberal Arts and Sciences

2021 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Core Values ◽  
Historical Consciousness ◽  
Intellectual Curiosity ◽  
Liberal Arts Education ◽  
Scholarly Community ◽  
Arts And Sciences ◽  
The Core ◽  
Liberal Arts And Sciences ◽  
Academic Content

Starting from informal cross-disciplinary conversations between colleagues, this volume is the result of an experiment in understanding the standpoints and methodologies of others in a multidisciplinary setting. At its heart are the core values of a liberal arts education: intellectual curiosity and the ability to communicate across borders. Written with the aim of communicating academic content to non-specialists, the essays interweave narratives about truth with various kinds of dialogue and the importance of historical consciousness. Together they illustrate the power of writing as a tool for strengthening a scholarly community.

Encyclopedists, medieval

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Barnish
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Late Antiquity ◽  
Strong Influence ◽  
Arts And Sciences ◽  
The Arts ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Liberal Arts And Sciences ◽  
Martianus Capella ◽  
The Middle Ages

The modern encyclopedic genre was unknown in the classical world. In the grammar-based culture of late antiquity, learned compendia, by both pagan and Christian writers, were organized around a text treated as sacred or around the canon of seven liberal arts and sciences, which were seen as preparatory to divine contemplation. Such compendia, heavily influenced by Neoplatonism, helped to unite the classical and Christian traditions and transmit learning, including Aristotelian logic, to the Middle Ages. Writers in the encyclopedic tradition include figures such as Augustine and Boethius, both of whom were extremely influential throughout the medieval period. Other important writers included Macrobius, whose Saturnalia spans a very wide range of subjects; Martianus Capella, whose De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii (The Marriage of Philology and Mercury) covers the seven liberal arts and sciences; Cassiodorus, who presents the arts as leading towards the comtemplation of the heavenly and immaterial; and Isidore, whose Etymologies became one of the most widely referred-to texts of the Middle Ages. These writers also had a strong influence which can be seen later in the period, particularly in the Carolingian Renaissance and again in the twelfth century.

scholarly journals “The Gods Must Be Crazy”: Students’ Attitudes and Dispositions as Enablers and Blockers to Internationalization

2020 ◽  
pp. 102831532096428 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Ehrhardt ◽  
Caroline Archambault
Keyword(s):  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Intercultural Learning ◽  
Course Content ◽  
Arts And Sciences ◽  
Explicit Attitudes ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Liberal Arts And Sciences ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Students Attitudes

This article argues that students’ attitudes and dispositions can be important enablers or blockers to effective internationalization of the curriculum in higher education. Using a case study of teaching African studies at a Dutch Liberal Arts and Sciences college, this article shows that students have mixed explicit attitudes toward the subject matter, but more consistent implicit dispositions that influence their understanding. Specifically, our students show strong dispositions toward agency, rationality, separation, and similarity, which clarifies some aspects of the course content but obscures others. As such, they function as both enablers and blockers to intercultural learning. Since dispositions are common among university students and relevant to a wide array of intercultural learning contexts, this study offers important insights for designing and implementing effective internationalization—in particular, the need to tailor our efforts to the specific constellation of attitudes and dispositions, the course content, and the skills of both teachers and students.

Anti-intellectualism and education reform

2020 ◽  
Vol 101 (7) ◽  
pp. 10-16
Author(s):  
Johann N. Neem
Keyword(s):  
Education Reform ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Central Place ◽  
American Education ◽  
Arts And Sciences ◽  
Liberal Arts And Sciences

It is a strange and sobering experience to read Hofstadter in our own anti-intellectual era. If anything, left-leaning intellectuals’ sense of alienation has increased since the 1990s. To challenge anti-intellectualism in American education, the liberal arts and sciences will need to be restored to their central place in the curriculum.

Investigating different options in course delivery – traditional vs online: is there another option?

2018 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 230-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashley Hass ◽  
Mathew Joseph
Keyword(s):  
Online Education ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Online Courses ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Liberal Arts University ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Traditional Courses ◽  
Southwest Region ◽  
Southwest Usa

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine students’ perceptions of online vs traditional (face-to-face) course offerings at the business school of a liberal arts university in southwest USA. The research compares perceptions of students who have been subjected to online education along with those who have not been exposed to online education and examines likelihood to take online courses. Design/methodology/approach Paper and pencil surveys were distributed in different classes in business classes at a university in southwest USA. The target group was undergraduate students. Findings The results indicate that overall, students have neutral perceptions about online courses, while favorable perceptions are strongly associated with likelihood to take online courses. Moreover, prior exposure with online courses is not a significant factor in forming favorable perceptions about online courses. Research limitations/implications The present research is limited in generalizability and the institution surveyed in the southwest region is new to online courses offering in their curriculum and not all the participants had prior experience with online courses. Originality/value Although this paper compares online education with traditional, another option for methods of education include hybrid models incorporating both. A possible third option not discussed through this research is a hybrid or blended learning course, a combination of both online and traditional courses. This opens the options for the student, as hybrid courses can be built with many different options. One includes using technology for “screencasts” or lectures online.

How Well Do 158 Prospective Elementary Teachers Know Arithmetic?

1960 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 141-146
Author(s):  
Elbert Fulkerson
Keyword(s):  
Elementary Education ◽  
Liberal Arts ◽  
Number System ◽  
College Of Education ◽  
Careful Study ◽  
Arts And Sciences ◽  
Liberal Arts And Sciences ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Professional Treatment ◽  
The University

For the Past Several Years the College of Education of Southern Illinois University has required its students majoring in elementary education to take a course known as Mathematics 210, which is described in the University Bulletin as a “professional treatment of the subject matter of arithmetic methods and a study of trends and current literature on the teaching of arithmetic.” This course is offered by the Mathematics Department of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and carries four quarter hours of credit. I ts prerequisite is a general mathematics course which does not count toward a major or minor in mathematics but which does include, however, a careful study of the real number system and other topics providing a better understanding of arithmetic and elementary algebra.

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