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	Volume 83 - Winter 2003	Download

President's Report The Integration of Practical and Liberal Education: Greater Expectations for the 21st Century, or Are NAACLS and Laboratory Educat by Kathy V. Waller PhD, CLS (NCA) President, NAACLS Board of Directors

Figure 1.Basic Information from the AAC&U Panel Report (p.2 and 3)

Access has increased: 75% of high school graduates continue postsecondary studies 90% of high school graduates say they hope to attend college In 2000, 57% of graduates were women; in 1961 over 60% were men

Preparation still lags: Fewer than 50% of students complete even a minimally defined college prep curriculum 40% of students in four-year colleges and 53 percent overall take remedial courses

Attendance patterns have changed: 58% of bachelor's degree recipients attend two or more colleges 73% of all undergraduates are non-traditional students

Enrollment will continue to grow, as the student body becomes more diverse: by 2015, 1 to 2 million additional young adults will seek access to college, many from low-income and minority families

Between 1960 and 2001, college enrollments expanded from 4.1 million to 14.8 million

Where should college education be going, and should  our expectations for learning differ from those of the immediate past? The Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) periodically publishes "think pieces" intended to stimulate faculty and administrators of accredited institutions of higher learning, to re-examine their roles, goals and expectations. A current think piece, Greater Expectations: The Commitment to Quality as a Nation Goes to College (2002)1, challenges educators to "reinvigorate liberal education by making it practical." (p.25). The report further states, a "liberal education is a practical education because it develops just those capacities needed by every thinking adult: analytical skills, effective communication, practical intelligence, ethical judgment, and social responsibility."

We in clinical laboratory science education, of course, think of "practical" in a somewhat different sense - combining hands-on work (practical) with the sciences and the senses. For us, the sciences also include traditional natural sciences, social sciences and the humanities.

Before approaching the philosophic objective of the integration of practical and liberal education, let us look at some of the information pieces provided by the AAC&U Report. Firstly, see Figure 1 for basic facts concerning students. The changes noted over 40 years are impressive and reflect progress toward universal participation in higher education.

The Report identifies some of the multiple barriers to a quality college education, including: under-prepared entering students, fragmented college courses, professors who are rewarded more for research than teaching, and a lack of measurements to assess student learning outcomes. (See the NAACLS News on Outcomes Assessment: Spring/Summer 2002). Moreover, more and more college students are juggling the time and costs of education with full and part-time employment and family obligations.



Despite these barriers, the AAC&U believes, "The key to successful reform is a clear focus on the kinds of learning that students need for a complex world. The panel urges an invigorated and practical liberal education as the most empowering form of learning for the twenty-first century." (Great Expectations, Executive Summary). To do so, students must become "intentional learners," who can:

Figure 2. Some Pressures on Higher Education from the AAC&U Panel Report (p.6 and 7)

A stricter regulatory environment greater call for accountability more intrusive state regulation of the curriculum in many states, the potential to expand from K-12 to college the strict standards and mandates that stress factual recall in testing accreditation emphasis on effectiveness and assessment

New educational sites and formats rapid growth in the for-profit higher education sector, with little regulation and accreditation rise of the corporate university more flexible learning formats

New accountability demands standards-based approach to learning, disconnected from how teachers are trained demand for better qualified teachers, without corresponding financial support or incentives college preparation needs misaligned with high school curricula and assessment

• "effectively communicate orally, visually, in writing, and in a second language
• understand and employ quantitative and qualitative analysis to solve problems
• interpret and evaluate information from a variety of sources
• understand and work within complex systems and with diverse groups
• demonstrate intellectual agility and the ability to manage change
• transform information into knowledge and knowledge into judgment and action."
  

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