The traditional role of liberal arts has been to transmit cultural heritage to undergraduate students. This function should be changed to involve the development of understandings that leave students free to make informed and uncoerced individual judgments in a world that deals with constantly increasing bodies of knowledge. The old concept of…

The greatest weakness of US liberal education is that students are not encouraged to learn outside the rigidly structured system of courses, credits, grades, and frequent tests. Some criticisms of liberal education concern professors who are more devoted to their disciplines than to their students, and the lack of diversification of curricula for…

This document comprises papers presented at the Society for Research into Higher Education conference on innovation in higher education. The conference took two directions; first was a discussion of innovation as an idea; with associated appraisals of the problems of implementation of innovations; and secondly, descriptions of particular recent…

A response to the Association of American Colleges' report "Integrity in the College Curriculum" is presented. Two issues identified by the report are discussed: the goals of undergraduate education and the role of the faculty. (MLW)

In November 1969 Marymount College organized the Innovation Workshop as a first step toward institutional renewal. The workshop's objective was to heighten the consciousness of students and faculty about the need for change in the undergraduate experience. (Author)

Reviews concerns with the current educational environment in higher education science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), such as the sheer size of the enterprise and the focus on research to the detriment of student learning. Calls for a visible and persistent national commitment to educational reform and renewal. (EV)

For nearly two decades, a proportion of lectures in certain modules in conventional undergraduate diploma and degree courses has been replaced by text-based flexible learning. This flexible learning program has satisfied the various quality assurance procedures in place within the university throughout the period of implementation. Evaluation of…

A new, integrated laboratory curriculum was recently developed at the U.S. Naval Academy in response to the 1999 ACS Committee on Professional Training guidelines that required inclusion of biochemistry and a stronger emphasis on student research. To meet these ACS requirements and to introduce more student choice in the major, we embarked on a…

The purpose of this paper is twofold: to describe robust rationales for integrating inquiry-based learning into undergraduate science education, and to propose that digital libraries are potentially powerful technological tools that can support inquiry-based learning goals in undergraduate science courses. Overviews of constructivism and situated…

How Gallaudet College, a national liberal arts school for the deaf, went about remodeling, and revivifying, its undergraduate curriculum. (Editor/PG)

This essay is an attempt to view American higher education as a social system with a discernible structure and characteristic ways of functioning. Chapters 1, 2, and 3 describe the system as a whole, its units, and the functioning of the system in comparison with other systems of higher education. Chapters 4 and 5 deal with undergraduate…

Argues that a bold restructuring of curriculum is a more effective response to the problems in undergraduate history teaching than minor course innovations. Discusses the recent reformation of the history curriculum at Canada's Laval University, presenting an outline of the undergraduate history programs. (GEA)

The Holmes Group proposals to restructure preservice teacher education programs require physical educators to consider the place of their discipline in higher education. If adopted, the proposals will require physical educators to demonstrate the content and substance of the discipline. Related questions are discussed. (JL)

A case study of the recent undergraduate curriculum reorganization process followed by a sociology department in a large south-central state university is presented. A review of the literature concerning possible purposes of and problems in sociology curricula is also presented. (Author/RM)

Argues that (1) even the most radical critics of departmental structures are committed to the perpetuation of English departments and, therefore, will adopt, regardless of potential contradictions, the professional discourse that validates them and (2) that this will be done even though the Babel of contemporary critical discourse makes a…