Mackenzi Kimball
Professor Cripps
English Composition 110
March 19th, 2021
The Integrated Curriculum Found at UNE
A liberal arts education is extremely important in the 21st century, but some still seem to contest that idea. Many people nowadays say that the liberal arts are a dying concept for students of all ages, but that sentiment should never come to pass. 2 articles discuss the importance of the liberal arts, “Critical Thinking and the Liberal Arts” by Jeffrey Scheuer, and “7 Major Misperceptions About the Liberal Arts” by Sanford Ungard. Both speak on what the liberal arts are and are not and how a liberal arts education can be so useful for molding young minds into strong and capable adults in the future. Mainly, the liberal arts allow students to be exposed to many different areas of study and can learn a wide set of skills in this kind of learning environment. UNE has created the core handbook with this kind of curriculum in mind. The UNE Core Handbook crafts a very well rounded liberal arts education, one in which Scheuer and Ungar would agree given their definitions and ideas of a liberal arts education.
Scheuer and Ungar present a rough model of a liberal arts education as encompassing many different topics of studies and skills all in one curriculum. Without this type of curriculum, students are very unprepared for real world issues. Ungar discusses the idea of a career education for the fact that that type of curriculum leaves students without meaningful skills. It is reasonable for Ungar to disagree with the idea of vocationalism in this way because a career education only strives for students to have practical skills within their major. In his article he states, “the ‘career education’ bandwagon seems to suggest that shortcuts are available to students that lead directly to high-paying jobs—leaving out ‘frills’ like learning how to write and speak well, how to understand the nuances of literary texts and scientific concepts, how to collaborate with others on research” (Ungar, para 4). Ungar points out that career education leaves out the learning of very important skills to have when facing real world problems. A liberal arts education would give the students who believe in vocationalism a broader range of skills, especially with communications and writing. The inability to communicate your ideas in an effective way can cause much confusion, so learning effective reading, writing, and speaking skills is very important for job life, professionalism and personal life in general. While Ungar explains the shortcomings of a career education, Scheuer gives a rough definition explaining exactly why a typical career education is not enough. Scheuer describes a liberal arts education as “an evolving system, consisting of stable but impermanent fields of inquiry that fuse at some points and fissure at others, adapting to cultural shifts while sharing a common language and assumptions, overlapping knowledge bases, and the core of critical thinking.” (para. 14). Both Scheuer and Ungar understand that a liberal arts education model must include topics of study that build on communication and critical thinking skills. These skills help students in every course of a liberal arts education and can be applied to our personal lives in the future which make an individual well rounded and prepared.
The Core curriculum at UNE utilizes the integrated curriculum that Scheuer presents in his article. The integrated curriculum that Scheuer describes is widely used throughout U.S. liberal arts colleges because it includes many different disciplines and skills all in one package. Scheuer states this integrated curriculum as “encompassing virtually all nonprofessional higher learning, from the natural and social sciences to the humanities and the performing arts. At its best, this comprehensive vision recognizes both the value and the limitations of such categories, along with the consequent need for interdisciplinary learning” (para. 9). Scheuer explains that this curriculum covers a broad range of disciplines and how they can all connect to each other. At UNE, each category of study comes with a different set of knowledge and skills learned through the course. UNE acknowledges the fact that no topic of study can purely be on its own without taking information, ideas and concepts from other areas of study. For example, a laboratory science course objectives read as follows, “This 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… [students will] Demonstrate a functional understanding of the scientific method to make informed decisions based on scientific information/Demonstrate conceptual and practical knowledge of course topics and describe ethical implications of human interactions with the natural world” (Core Handbook, 14). Just in this course description alone students have to be able to connect natural science to the world around them. These courses recognize that the knowledge you gain from taking that course will translate to another course you will take. No course is a stand alone course, as Scheuer notes, and each course feeds and survives off good critical thinking and communication skills. UNE is most definitely practicing the integrated curriculum that Scheuer talks about.
UNE does a great job of formulating a liberal arts education model in the core curriculum. The core curriculum prepares students for adult and professional life by introducing every student to a variety of skills that can both be used towards many aspects of their future. The description of the core curriculum as a whole is as follows, “The Core Curriculum is designed to incorporate many teaching strategies to facilitate student-centered, integrative (such as interdisciplinary) learning experiences that utilize the skills of our faculty. Core requirements introduce students to disciplines as ways of knowing, provide interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary perspectives, and instill advanced understanding of disciplines outside a student’s major” (Core Handbook, 4). UNE acknowledges that each major should not be left out of learning important information and skills from other majors and thus incorporates this into the whole curriculum. We can see this same general idea in the form of critical thinking and citizenship being learned from each course. Scheuer describes citizenship as an integral factor in a liberal arts education by saying “[t]he overall goal [of citizenship] is to foster vibrant and prosperous communities with broad and deep participation, in public conversations marked by fairness, inclusion, and (where critical thinking comes in) intellectual rigor” (Scheuer, para. 20). Citizenship can be seen in the UNE Core Curriculum because courses integrate the use of critical thinking skills with students’ background knowledge which they can then use in engaging and thoughtful conversations in class and in the future. Both professors and the course objectives encourage the use of these skills in class for the assignments and discussions. His practice helps prepare students for their future role in their community. Scheuer and Ungar both talk about how important it is to not completely separate each course’s information so students can get the most out of their education. UNE recognizes that no subject of study should be completely separated from the other so students are given the opportunity to grow their skills exponentially through this integrated curriculum.
Overall, a liberal arts education is useful for those all around the world. Scheuer ends his article with one last remark about the importance of a liberal arts education, “The STEM disciplines are obviously important to economic productivity, but so is the entire rainbow of human knowledge and the ability to think critically. That’s why nations around the world are beginning to embrace the liberal arts idea that American education has done so much to promote, even as we question it.” Scheuer references the “rainbow of human knowledge” which is one of the most important pieces of information discussed in his article. STEM and career education are very motivated ways of learning, but to the average person they don’t excite the entire rainbow of human knowledge. By this Scheuer means there are only so many subjects and skills you can learn through those kinds of educations, but a liberal arts education allows for a student’s brain to constantly be stimulated by knowledge, discussions, debates, research and many other things. A liberal arts education is an integral part in making students who understand and back up their beliefs with knowledge and skills.
UNE embodies the idea of an integrated curriculum given Scheuers’ definition. Scheuer describes the complexness of the integrated curriculum since there are infinite connections between courses. Ungar strongly disagrees with the idea of a career education simply for the reason that a complex education like the liberal arts can give so much to students without them realizing it. The liberal arts teaches students about various categories of study while also influencing the growth critical thinking skills in hopes that the individual can make informed decisions for themselves and for the people around them. This is what helps make a well rounded society is having the space for critical thinking to take place. The liberal arts should never be seen as a dying way to educate since it is ingrained in us from elementary school.
Works Cited
Scheuer, Jeffrey. “ Critical Thinking and the Liberal Arts.” The Chronicle of Higher Education, 28 Feb. 2010, 7 Major Misperceptions About the Liberal Arts (chronicle.com). Accessed 5 Mar. 2021.
UNE Core Handbook: core_handbook_2019-2020_mcreynolds_edits_august_2019.pdf (une.edu)
Ungar, Sanford J. “7 Major Misperceptions About the Liberal Arts.” American Association of University Professors, Dec. 2015, Critical Thinking and the Liberal Arts | AAUP. Accessed 5 Mar. 2021.
