Liberal education - Looking back

Introduction

There has been quite a body of discussion on the establishment of liberal studies. Various published articles, most prominently on Hong Kong Teachers' Centre Journal, have already listed out the difficulties of establishing such a subject in Hong Kong, citing reasons such as (1) Lack of a clear scope for liberal studies, (2) Necessity of an adequate prerequisite base of knowledge before the appreciation of the intrinsic value of liberal studies,(3) Lack of established teaching protocols, (4) Lack of applicable teaching materials, and the detrimental effect of establishing a standard one, (5) Lack of staff development on the subject, (6) Lack of substantial guidelines, etc. [1]

Whereas some of these concerns have been addressed by the issuance of formal guidelines on the development of liberal studies, vacuum still exists (despite how the nature abhors it) even though the academic exploration of it started some 5 years ago.

Liberal studies and general education

Originally, the term to the academia was that of general education, and it is perhaps a response to the increasing specialization of undergraduate courses that spurred in the 1970s (especially in the US of A). There, it was noted that although these new graduates are extremely knowledgeable in their own field, they are often ill-informed in most other fields.

To quote, the question at the end of the 1970s was that of whether the universities and colleges could continue their strengths in specialization, and at the same time offer something more, like, a liberal, general education[2].

Difficulties

While the difficulty of establishing a general education system at a university level is to get the departments to provide manpower to the courses and to design the courses such that it is understandable to the uninitiated, the difficulty in establishing a general education (or liberal studies) system at the secondary level is the lack of scholars who are able to teach.

While the level of knowledge that would eventually be tested would not be excessively difficult, it is to the interest of students, that each element of general education (as in science, social sciences and humanities) be taught by somebody who is well informed in each of those subjects.

It is perhaps to the advantage of students that the curriculum development of liberal studies in Hong Kong has always been ignoring the scientific part of it – such that,at the very least, a student won’t be taught on, for example, the scientific method (which, unsurprisingly, is an integral part of liberal studies curriculum elsewhere) by a teacher who has not even been instructed formally for it in a tertiary setting.

The good ol’ days of liberal studies

In the olden days, students are formally required to take almost all subjects while in junior forms, including literature, history, geography, integrated science and so on. This, perhaps, is actually the ideal picture of general education, and liberal studies at work. Each subject was taught by a relatively specialized teacher, relatively knowledgeable in their own field, and was ready to answer the question in an unambiguous manner.

It is perhaps to the best interest of students that we actually divide it back into pieces, and allow each piece of knowledge to be delivered by those in the know.

[1] see H K Kwok. The implementation of Liberal Studies in Hong Kong and its strategies, published in 2007, in Hong Kong Teachers' Centre Journal (pp1-6), for further discussions.
[2] see J Scott Lee. Liberal studies and general education in the undergraduate curricula in the 21th century: their role, development and the challenges.(Presentation available from google search)

This article is an edited version of my original post in an education forum.