Manifestation of Values of Liberal Education in Study System of Technological University Experiencing Transformation
Ph.D. candidate Jolita Horbacauskiene, Kaunas University of Technology, Lithuania
Paper presented at the European Conference on Educational Research, UniversityCollegeDublin, 7-10 September 2005
The first part of the paper presents a discussion on the conservative and radical conceptions of liberal education values in higher education, the changes in this tradition conditioned by the peculiarities of the development of higher education institutions (R. Barnett, 1990). The second part of the paper presents content analysis of the documents regulating study system and identifies possibilities and problems of manifestation of liberal education values in the studies of technological universities which experience transformation. The third part gives the analysis of the results of the survey whether manifestation of declared values of liberal education corresponds to the reality.
Key words: Liberal education, technological university, manifestation of values of liberal education
Though liberal education has assumed many forms in different times and places it has always been concerned with significant educational aims: cultivating intellectual and ethical judgment, helping students comprehend and communicate their views to the world and preparing them for lives of civic responsibility and leadership.
Higher education institutions no longer assume that analytical capability emerges automatically as students take courses. Instead universities are designing new curricula and new teaching strategies, which could assure that such abilities as communication skills, critical thinking, understanding of social context, aesthetical sense, professional ethics, scientific interest for professional development and motivation for further education are developed in students.
Lithuania, as many post soviet countries, experienced changes in its higher education system when all former specialized higher education institutions (institutes) were transformed into universities, which according to the university origin should be concerned with educating full citizens for a multicultural and diverse society in today’s interdependent world. Though needs and requirements of the modern industrialized society forces higher educational institutions to focus more on training high-skilled professionals, but nevertheless universities declare in their official documents that they do not limit their study programs to training or instructing students. They claim that one of their primarily goals is to offer education oriented to the whole person rather than to mere acquisition of skills.
The approach presented in the paper states that the most important and essential purpose of a university is to provide liberal education that would guarantee a person's intellectual emancipation. The primarily purpose of such education is not only practical application of the received knowledge or tangible benefit, or other quantitative values, but the knowledge itself which as such is valuable in the conditions of the knowledge society (G. Delanty 2002, D.Maskell, I.Robinson 2002, M.Nussbaum, 2003).
On the basis of scientific literature analysis and the results of the survey the paper looks for the answer to the following questions: What are the problems and possibilities of liberal education in technological universities especially former specialized higher education institutions (the case of Kaunas University of Technology)? How and to what extend declared values of liberal education manifest in technological university’s study system? Do declarations in university’s official papers correspond to everyday reality?
The aim of the article is to analyse manifestation of values of liberal education in study system of technological university experiencing transformation (case of Kaunas University of Technology).
Objectivesof the article are:
- to ground theoretically the importance of liberal education in university study system;
- to define conditions for liberal education in Kaunas University of Technology study system and students’ presumptions for liberal education;
- to define the meaning of general skills in professional carrier/students’ attitude;
- to compare evaluation and importance of skills developed in general studies for future career.
The importance of liberal education in university study system
The definition of liberal education has evolved throughout the history of Western education, but for centuries the concept has been associated with preparation for citizenship. Today many theorists see preparation for participation in the civic life of a democratic country as one of the core principles of liberal education. Nevertheless many authors agree that traditional framework of liberal education containing components of broad cultural, political, social and scientific learning should be adapted to changing demands of multicultural, interdependent and complex world, so together with fostering traditional values liberal education should serve to development of transferable skills, cooperation and communication skills, motivation for life long learning and others. Many authors (Jones R. C., Oberst B. S. (2003), Lagemann E. C. (2003), McLaughlin T.H. (2000), Nussbaum M.C. (2003, 2004), Ollis D. F., Neeley K. A., Luegenbiehl H. C. (2004), Schneider, C. G (2003), Schneider, C. G., Shoenberg R. (1998)) accept the following characteristics as descriptive of liberal education: critical and creative thinking; written and oral communication; understanding diversity; intellectual, ethic and aesthetic growth; problem solving skills; preparation for citizenship and social responsibility; developing self-knowledge and identity; cooperation, team working skills; cultivating foreign language skills.
R. Barnett in “The Idea of Higher Education” (1990) suggests that universities should have possibilities to develop students’ emancipation if attention would be focused on content of a program as well as its educational processes. He offers four main strategies: critical students’ self-reflection; open learning including team-work; cross-disciplinary elements; fostering of philosophical and sociological perspectives.
R. Barnett (1990) defined two conceptions of liberal education – conservative and radical. In conservative interpretation word “liberal” is understood as “fitted for freedom”. In Ancient Greece this liberal education discouraged critical reflection, seeking continuity and fidelity for lasting traditions of their own society (M. Nussbaum, 2003). This traditional conception of liberal education is focused on a lecturer as organizer of studies activity ensuring necessary conditions for students’ independence and self-development.
In radical conception liberal education is interpreted as education which “produce free citizens, citizens who are free not because of wealth or birth, but because they can call their minds their own. They have ownership of their own thought and speech, and this imparts to them dignity that is far beyond the outer dignity of class and rank.”(M. Nussbaum, 2003, p. 293). Traditionally this approach to liberal education is considered one of the essential features of higher education that obliged academic community to assure that students have the possibility to become full and equal members of academic community as well as responsible and active citizens of democratic society. According to Ramsden (2000) radical interpretation of liberal education ensures that lecturer plays an advisory role in the process of studies, while student has the possibility to choose subjects, forms and methods of studies, ways of studies evaluation, etc., that lead to activation of student’s independent mind, critical thinking and self-reflection. Today this approach opens more possibilities for students to develop critical thinking and self-reflection, increase self-autonomy what becomes especially significant in an environment characterized by expanding global competition, changes in labour markets, the huge growth of knowledge, innovations in technology and increased demands for higher skills. As Lagemann E. C. (2003) notes the value and benefits of a liberal education will be more respected and in greater demand as the world becomes increasingly complex and the traditional framework of liberal education needs to be adapted to the demands of the changing world. As official papers state Universities will be increasingly pressured to ensure that, in addition to the traditional components of broad cultural, social, and scientific learning, liberal education also contains the specific skills such as greater responsibility, higher skills, broader application abilities, and continuous learning that enable students to find the way to correspond to the growing demands of the labour world. Different official organizations issue variety of documents on higher education where special attention is paid to the skills graduates should acquire in university studies.
Declaration of Bologna Process states that bachelor graduate should be able to collect and interpret professional activity information related to present social, ethic and science problems and give evaluation grounding decisions taken;
communicate with professional and non-professional environment exchanging information, discussing ideas, problems and decisions made. Union of Industrial and Employers’ confederation of Europe support creation of the European higher education area and express requirements for graduates to have cross- disciplinary qualifications. Among these indispensable cross-disciplinary qualifications and competences are:
an appropriate level of verbal and written articulacy in the national language and in at least one foreign language;
ability to work in a team;
moderation and feedback techniques;
presentation techniques;
analytical abilities;
coherent thinking;
general method competence;
creativity and flexibility in the application of knowledge, experience and methods;
realization competence;
entrepreneurial thinking and acting;
intercultural understanding and competence;
continuous learning ability.
Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) (2000) presented engineering criteria where together with other requirements, requirements for liberal education have a very significant place. According to this criteria engineering programs have to demonstrate that their graduates have: an ability to function on multi-disciplinary teams; an understanding of professional and ethical responsibility;
an ability to communicate effectively;
broad education necessary to understand the impact of engineering solutions in a global and societal context;
a recognition of the need for, and an ability to engage in life-long learning;a knowledge of contemporary issues.
Kaunas University of Technology states that its mission is to be an important part of the global university community and one of the most significant centres of the Lithuanian science, to be involved in development of the information and knowledge-based society, and to aim for excellence through diversity. Kaunas University of Technology defines the following as its objectives: students and University staff working as partners to improve the quality of the student experience, with students involved in decision making at every level;
fostering the students’ personal and intellectual growth so that they may identify, formulate and solve the problems; comprehend a professional and ethic responsibility; and become well prepared for life beyond the University.
Unfortunately, in reality situation is different. Identification of problems for liberal education in university experiencing transformation listed below are based on theoretical background. These problems are common to all institutions of higher education experiencing transformation, former specialized institutes that were transformed to universities:
• No tradition of liberal education – for 50 years of Soviet occupancy liberal education was realised to some extend, but usually its realisation depended mainly on lecturer’s flexibility. Functionality of critical thinking, rationality, analytic skills, autonomy require partnership-based relations between lecturers and students and parity-based environment at a university and at that time it was more common for lecturer to impose hierarchic relationships and autocratic rationality, so because of ideology university had very limited possibilities for liberal education.
• Tradition of dogmatic reasoning – it is a characteristic feature of all post-Soviet societies. This tradition should be linked with the Soviet period education system and its ideology. Individuals able to think universally and integrally were not required by that system because they were dangerous to it as Soviet system required dutiful specialists believing in its ideology and scientific technical revolution. The consequences of this tradition are still very deep in scientific research, studies, and on other levels.
• Strong scientism ideology- humanities in our universities are often seen as a relic of tradition or a humanistic decoration, but not as a discipline that carries out the mission of liberalization as the evaluation criteria of humanities and social sciences are formed by specialists of natural sciences strongly believing in scientism, ignoring other ways of understanding, and imposing their view of reality.
• No integration between professional and general education disciplines - although humanities are an obligatory part in non-humanities study program, the absence of integration is felt, the gap between professional and general education disciplines is enormous and the integration processes usually depend on the initiative of faculty professors. Academic community should assume responsibility and create education strategies that should encourage cooperation of university disciplines instead of separating and raising opposition.
• Passive resistance to reforms and new educational models– are still very frequent in post-Soviet countries.
A rather large number of lecturers in universities still use the Soviet pedagogical style and emphasize learning by heart (which is often given higher importance and valued more than critical thinking) as for fifty years traditionally education system was based on a clearly controversial theory of good and was conflicting to the education systems of democratic liberal countries. Resistance and the above-mentioned problems are one of the key barriers to democratic processes both in universities and in the society in general.
Analysis and results of pilot survey
In order to inspect current situation of liberal education values in university experiencing transformation bachelor degree study programs in 4 faculties of Kaunas University of Technology were analysed and pilot survey was conducted to define the conditions for liberal education in this university from students’ point of view.
Study program analysis showed that faculties of Telecommunications and Chemical Technology have the same number of credits for general education (21) except Faculty of Social Sciences (32) and Faculty of Humanities (26). General education includes the following subjects: philosophy, communication course, culture of professional language, foreign language in Faculty of Chemical Technology and Faculty of Telecommunications. In Faculty of Humanities general education subjects include philosophy, logics, course on culture and society, communication philosophy and informatics. In Faculty of Social Sciences – philosophy, culture of professional language, business ethics and communication, art history and foreign language. Attention should be paid to the fact that technological faculties have lower number of credits for subject of general education and many of these subjects are obligatory that means students do not have the possibility to choose while in Faculties of Humanities and Social Sciences students are offered more subjects of general education.
Figure 1: Bachelor Study Programs in Credits According to Faculties.
Methodology of the pilot survey is based on the following conceptions:
- Theory of philosophic humanism
- Open society conception (Popper,1998).
- Knowledge society conception (Drucker, 1993)
4. Conservative and radical conceptions of liberal education (R. Barnett, 1990, 1994)
Quantitative pilot survey was performed using non-standardized questionnaire consisting of 66 question that were divided into 3 blocks: 1) instructions on how to fill in the questionnaire, 2) block of diagnostic questions (61 closed answer question and 1 open answer question), 3) block of demographic questions (4 closed answer questions).
In the instruction the aim of the survey was presented, the meaning and significance of the survey to its participants was described expecting to motivate them. Special attention was paid to anonymity of the respondents. All the respondents were given homogeneous questionnaires, which allowed comparison of respondents’ answers.
The diagnostic questions were based on the analysis on scientific literature.
Questionnaires were distributed to 200 respondents in 4 faculties: Faculty of Humanities, Faculty of Social Sciences, Faculty of Chemical Technology.
The questionnaire consisted of 11 diagnostic blocks. Detailed structure of the research instrument is presented in Table 1.
Manifestation of Values of Liberal Education in Study System in KaunasUniversity of Technology Diagnostic Variables
Table 1
No. / Diagnostic variables / Number of statements or/and questions / Method1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11. / Critical thinking
Creativity
Cooperation skills
Communication skills
Self development
Flexibility
Tolerance, awareness of socio-context
Motivation for professional development, life long learning
Evaluation of skills formed in studies of general subjects
Importance of skills acquired in general studies for professional carrier
Student’s vision of studies in university / 8
6
6
4
6
4
8
5
7
7
1 / Quantitative
Quantitative
Quantitative
Quantitative
Quantitative
Quantitative
Quantitative
Quantitative
Quantitative
Quantitative
Qualitative
Total: / 62
Likert scales were used in the questionnaire. Structure of Likert scales was formed from statements by which respondents evaluated frequency of manifestation.
Respondents were asked to choose one indicator according to its size. The smallest indicated never, the biggest – very often. Applied interpretation of answers’: evaluation tendency approaching to number 5 indicated respondents’ agreement with suggested statement, while evaluation tendency approaching to number 1 indicated respondents’ disagreement with suggested statement. Evaluation corresponding to number 3 showed not indicated responds or not knowing how to evaluate statement.
Population of respondents consisted of 4th year students from Faculty of Humanities, Faculty of Social Sciences, Faculty of Chemical Technology and Faculty of Telecommunications in Kaunas University of Technology. Total number of respondents was 200, 50 from each faculty, 77 males and 123 females. The returned number of questionnaires is 100%. High number of returned questionnaires was affected by voluntary participation of respondents in the survey.
The aim of the survey was presented to respondents in a clear and detailed way, instructions on how to fill in the questionnaire were given. Respondents had possibility to choose whether he or she wanted to participate in the survey. Anonymity of participants was assured. Usually when respondents filled in questionnaires the researcher was present which positively affected the returned number of questionnaires and accuracy of filling in.
Statistical data of the survey was processed by SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences) program (SPSS for Windows 12.0). Together with descriptive statistical methods results of the survey were analyzed by factor analysis.