- As you consider Scheuer and Ungar, are there parts of their projects or their focus that you find missing in the Core Handbook? Put differently, they write about conceptions of the liberal arts and the value of a liberal education. What, if anything, do they focus on that the Core Handbook seems not to emphasize? If the connection is neat and tidy – and you find no missing pieces – link at least one Ungar response to a misperception to a detail in the Core Handbook. Explain with evidence. This response might be relatively short – perhaps 100 words.
To me, the Core Handbook and the two authors seem to connect all around the same idea that a liberal arts education teaches students that one subject isn’t centered around itself but is the point at which many different concepts come together to create that one topic of study. Ungar specifically responds to misperception four as “[a]nother term sometimes substituted for liberal arts, for the sake of clarity, is “the arts and sciences.” Thus, many universities have colleges, divisions, or schools of arts and sciences among their academic units” (para. 12). Ungar shows that the term “arts and sciences” is actually referencing a liberal education because the arts and sciences are connected and shouldn’t be separated. For us here at UNE, the Core Handbook mentions that “Living in the interconnected world today demands an understanding of a variety of cultures, people and the environment. This understanding requires an ability to analyze issues from different points of view and to communicate effectively” (para. 11). Our core classes/requirements are centered around the fact that you simply cannot survive off of just one area of study to be able to live and contribute good things into the world. Many students here are studying different fields of science, and science is a very rigorous topic of study that comes with its own rules and guidelines. But you also have to know how to effectively communicate your work to others, and communicate correctly with others in general. You learn these skills from an english class like ours and from our classes that fall under the Social Global Awareness category. The connection between the sciences and language/cultural classes we take are an example of where the connections between studies come into play for the real world.
- For homework due February 26, we started to critically explore two of our current classes in relation to the Core Handbook and/or a conception of the liberal arts outlined in Scheuer/Ungar. Revisit that work by identifying which part(s) of the Core the course fits into (Exploration, Creative Arts, etc.). If you did not explore 2 Core courses, pick a third course to ensure you have 2 Core courses. Scheuer thinks that critical thinking and citizenship are two important or key goals of a liberal arts education. How does (or doesn’t) each course contribute to one or both goals? You should have text that looks something like a paragraph (with key evidence from Scheuer/Ungar, Core Handbook, and the course) for each course.
For ENV 104, critical thinking and citizenship were both huge takeaways from the class. This environmental awareness course teaches students about the environmental issues happening all around us. Specifically this course “emphasizes that humans are part of ecosystems within interdependent cycles, which involve other organisms, air, water, chemicals, and energy. Students will examine the relationships of humans to their environment from historical, economic, scientific, aesthetic, and ethical perspectives” (Core Handbook, 13). Speaking about and discussing these issues in this way taught us to really hone our critical thinking skills, take in what others are saying, and build off of each other’s ideas! This course also follows Sheuer’s idea of citizenship in this way as well; “[citizenship] isn’t just a political notion in the ordinary sense. Like the term liberal arts, it’s more comprehensive and systemic: a social ecology involving a range of activities symbiotic with democratic communities” (para. 16). Scheuer explains that to have a well ordered/working community, citizenship is super important since this concept of a “citizenship” brings individuals of a community together towards one goal.
For MAR 105/106 laboratory science courses, critical thinking is a huge part of the course but I am not so sure that all the requirements for citizenship are there according to Scheuers definitions. The marine lab teaches us to be able to use certain equipment and be able to draw conclusions from whatever data/observations we may find which satisfies the critical thinking aspect. But the area of citizenship the course is lacking in is “being a productive member of a community: doing something useful for oneself and for others, whether in a factory, farm, home, office, garage, or boardroom. It’s [citizenship] also about being a critical consumer and seeing the connections between the political and economic spheres” (Scheuer, para. 13). Marine lab mainly focuses on the student being able to fully answer any question in the lab packet and be able to work with the animals safely. The lab does not have us physically go out and catch the organisms we work with/do research on them beforehand, and it does not require us to further educate others on what we learned from the lab activity that day. This is explicitly stated in the Core Handbook, “[t]his course will serve to introduce the scientific method as an approach to knowledge and may include topics relating natural sciences to human interactions with local and global surroundings” (14). The course isn’t supposed to explicitly teach us how and where to connect with our world, it is just a suggestion or a bonus that the professors can throw in there to give the students more of an understanding. This information usually is about how the organisms live and where they are found specifically in Biddeford or in towns close by.
Question 4 (Skipped question 3):
Look at the Critical Thinking requirement in the Core and consider it alongside what Scheuer/Ungar have to say about critical thinking/inquiry. Develop a connection using evidence from at least one of our authors and the Core Handbook. Build your response as a paragraph-like unit.
The major learning outcome from a critical thinking course here at UNE is being able to “[e]valuate and synthesize information from multiple contexts and settings to achieve a common understanding of a phenomenon and to effectively characterize and/or implement an action designed to address a question, challenge, or problem” (Core Handbook, 24). The concept of plucking information from many different studies and formulating an answer to a question is the greatest challenge of critically thinking. You have to compile many different topics and select which pieces of information make sense towards the question you are trying to get answered, whether it be a personal problem or much bigger. Scheuer and Ungar both try to get the point across in their articles that this kind of critical thinking cannot be learned just through one area of study. In-depth critical thinking comes from all the previous information you have learned and information you have yet to find. Scheuer quotes education researcher Lisa Tsui saying “‘Because critical thinking is a complex skill, any attempt to offer a full and definitive definition of it would be futile’” (para. 23). She describes critical thinking as “complex” due to the sheer amount of information always being consulted, and the fact that everyone thinks and comes to conclusions in different ways. Critical thinking is such an important skill to learn because in the professional world, this is where the good and bad ideas/inventions/laws/etc get discussed and thinned out.
