Month: February 2021

Part 1:

UNE’s core handbook describes their model of liberal education as a way that “develop[s] students’ skills in social and cultural literacy, including historically grounded understanding of the diversity of societies across the globe from a variety of disciplinary perspectives across the liberal arts and sciences” (page 2). This corresponds with Ungar’s perception that “the liberal arts encompass the broadest possible range of disciplines in the natural sciences, humanities, and the social sciences” (para. 11).  The curriculum contains topics ranging from STEM to history, art, theatre, and multiple other subjects, and it considers them equal in importance. The core handbook goes into further detail to express the multitude of subjects that they want students to engage in, not only to be better scholars, but to be better citizens as well. It expresses that “by actively participating in service-learning projects, campus events, and other extracurricular activities that express Core themes, UNE students are prepared to act as informed, engaged citizens” (page 2).  With knowledge on a broad range of subjects, UNE students are able to make connections between different topics, think and inquire critically, and be more socially and culturally aware in order to freely involve themselves as citizens in a successful manner. This corresponds with Scheuer’s theory that “the overall goal [for successful citizens] 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). When a community is able to coexist despite their differences, it is usually due to the people being able to mutually understand each other through knowledge and contribution.

Part 2:

For this assignment I wanted to look at my Calculus class and Marine Science class. My calculus class is placed in the mathematics section in the Core handbook. Students who take a mathematics course are introduced to “three primary themes…[which] are problem solving, decision-making, and mathematical communication” (page 16). I believe that these themes fall into the “Critical Thinking/Human Responses to Problems and Challenges” Core theme of the handbook. The ability to problem-solve and make decisions in an efficient manner demonstrates the ability to think critically and approach challenges with a fresh and inquisitive view. The handbook states that by “centering on the thinking process, as well as on the issues, students research and identify causes of problems, generate and evaluate possible solutions, and decide a plan of action” (page 3). Through a mathematical approach, challenges can seem less intimidating to students, and having the proper guidance on how to do so will benefit both the student and their environment. My marine science class falls under the laboratory science section in the Core handbook. Taking a laboratory science class will introduce students to “the scientific method as an approach to knowledge and may include topics relating natural sciences to human interactions with local and global surroundings” (page 14). I argue that this requirement falls under multiple Core themes given in the handbook, an example being the theme of “Environmental Awareness.” The handbook states that “[this theme] emphasizes that humans are part of an ecosystem with interdependent cycles that involve other organisms, air, water, chemicals, and energy” (page 3). Marine science is a perfect example of teaching students about different ecosystems on our planet and going into detail on how we as a species impact our oceans and surrounding environment. Knowledge of how the world works on a scientific level can ultimately benefit students because it teaches them to inquire about subjects unfamiliar to them and develop a hypothesis and possible discover new information.

Paragraph 1:

Both Scheuer and Ungar agree that even though it is a big investment, a liberal arts education is worth the cost. Ungar states that “it is far wiser for students to prepare for changeーand the multiple careers they are likely to haveーthan to search for a single job track that might one day become a dead end” (Ungar para. 5). With the rise of technology incorporated in work environments, simple jobs can easily become machine-based processes which could put multiple one job-track people out of work. It is better to be well rounded in all subjects instead of a master in only one. Scheuer states that “the liberal arts form such 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” (Scheuer para. 14). This relates to Ungar’s statement that a liberal education is worth the cost because it contributes more than just knowledge to students. A liberal education can help to further develop a student’s communication and critical inquiry skills, while also allowing them to be culturally and socially aware.

Paragraph 2:

Both Scheuer and Ungar believe that universities that focus on the liberal arts most often do not limit the curriculum to humanities, they also expand on elements of STEM, but instead of solely focusing on one topic they cover a broader range of topics. Ungar states that “the liberal arts encompass the broadest possible range of disciplines in the natural sciences, humanities, and the social sciences” (Ungar para. 11).  Scheuer states that “the STEM disciplines are obviously important to economic productivity, but so is the entire rainbow of human knowledge and the ability to think critically” (Scheuer para. 35). This relates to Ungar’s statement that the liberal arts are not limited to the humanities, they can include elements of STEM and colleges actually encourage that the STEM field be included in all curriculum in some way or another.

Today we talked mostly about catching up on homework and her role in the classroom. It was really nice to get the reassurance from someone who has knowledge on the content specifically, and feel like I have someone to relate to. We also discussed finished homework assignments and a future meeting for the paper if needed.

1. The concept of a Growth Mindset shows an individual that has the ability to find inspiration in the challenges of life and will encourage themselves with phrases like, “I can always improve,” and, “it will take time, but I can learn this topic.” A person with a Growth Mindset will take the challenge head on and work through new ways to complete the trials that they face. An individual with a Fixed Mindset takes a more pessimistic approach to challenges that they encounter and will instead create roadblocks in their mind that produce excuses as to why they cannot complete a task. With a Fixed Mindset and individual might say things like “I can’t do this, it’s too hard,” or, “it’s just not my thing.” With a Fixed Mindset, challenges seem difficult, stressful, and not worth the effort to many people which can quickly allow them to feel unaccomplished.
2. In her lecture about the difference between a Growth Mindset and a Fixed Mindset, Dweck offers multiple ways that could help stimulate a Growth Mindset early on in a child’s life. One way is to “[praise] the process that kids engage in, their effort, their strategies, their focus, their perseverance, [and] their improvement” instead of their intelligence and talent. I believe this method could result in a drastic improvement in the way children approach challenges in their lifetime and will ultimately inspire them to creatively think of new ways to solve problems as they progress through life. Another way to help stimulate a Growth Mindset is to “reward yet” which is a concept introduced in studies performed on children that taught them to confront new and difficult challenges head on. In one study performed with a team of game scientists from the University of Washington the results from the children were extremely helpful in showing that rewarding yet was a helpful way in developing a Growth Mindset and they received “more effort, more strategies, more engagement over longer periods of time, and more perseverance when [the children] hit really, really hard problems.” These two methods seem reasonable for a certain group of kids, however, there may be others who work better when the are rewarded for the end-result of a challenge/project. It all comes down to how you treat the children and the priorities you set in the education system.
3. Dweck’s notion of intelligence is defined in her lecture as “[students that] engage deeply. They process the error. They learn from it and they correct it.” I somewhat agree with this statement and also believe that we should reward students on their ability to confront challenges with confidence and a willingness to learn and grow. However, I do believe that to avoid the same mistake of grouping students together with one common goal to achieve a good outcome, that we should develop a system that not only rewards the process, but also rewards the individual and unique parts of each student. There should not be a set standard that every student must meet as a whole. There should be a standard that every student should meet for themselves that can also inspire creativity and a willingness to learn.
4. I have had multiple Fixed Mindset moments in my learning history because at a young age I was taught that the letter grade was more important than the learning process. I still experience moments like that to this day and am trying to reprogram myself to think differently. A specific Fixed Mindset moment that I clearly remember from my learning history was when I took geometry during Freshmen year of high school. It was an extremely difficult class for me that challenged me to think outside of the box and process mathematics differently. I was, however, only concerned about the letter grade and did not gain much experience form the class. I would turn homework in late and never tried to correct my mistakes; I would also always take the grade that I had and never did corrections on my tests and quizzes. Looking back on that moment I realize that the class itself was very interesting and I wish I had paid more attention to the concepts I was learning instead of just trying to get a good grade. This experience is very similar to the study that Dweck performed on students when purposely giving them more difficult tests. I resorted to using websites and the internet to cheat on my homework and get a good grade instead of facing the challenge and learning the information.  

Pre-Reading Thoughts:

I think that this article is going to be about how the liberal arts help to develop critical thinking skills in students and that it is important to introduce young students to different forms of living in order to help them expand their worldview. I believe that the term “liberal arts” applies to any curriculum that does not fall into the STEM category. Anything that teaches art, language, history, and any other expansion on the expression of humanity can be considered a “liberal art” because it introduces new and unique global concepts.

Section Descriptions with Quotes:

What Are the Liberal Arts?

This section goes into detail on what the author, Jeffery Scheuer, believes the liberal arts are. He gives three different conceptions of the term; the first one describes the liberal arts as “[embracing] the ideal of the integrated curriculum, encompassing virtually all nonprofessional higher learning, from the natural and social sciences to the humanities and the performing arts” (para. 9). The next two conceptions narrow the subject down further by “[excluding] the sciences” and then by “[focusing] mainly on the humanities” (para. 12). Given the three definitions of the term, I mostly agree with the first one. The liberal arts focus on subjects that can help expand a person’s worldview and allow them to develop opinions based on their own bias and experience. By including science and nonprofessional higher learning, this allows a person to have a larger understanding of the world around them.

Why Do We Need the Liberal Arts?

This section describes the relationship between critical thinking and citizenship and how they go hand-in-hand. Scheuer gives three dimensions of citizenship in this section: traditional civic citizenship, economic citizenship, and cultural citizenship. He goes into further detail on these topics, but ultimately concludes that the 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” (para. 20). I highly agree with this statement because it describes the term citizenship as a positive contribution to humanity that keeps progressing and supports everyone’s rights.

What Is Critical Thinking?

This section gives us Scheuer’s concept of critical thinking and describes it as “the intellectual engine of a functional democracy: the set of mental practices that lends breadth, depth, clarity, and consistency to public discourse” (para. 22). In other words, critical thinking is an important part of higher learning today and demonstrates a level of intellect that is encouraged and almost required for incoming college students. Having critical inquiry shows that a person is able to take in the experiences and information that they have learned and develop an opinion on them and make connections to previously discovered topics.

The Importance of Critical Inquiry

This section describes how it is important to think critically in your everyday life. Scheuer believes that all forms of human knowledge are important to learn and develop a critical inquiry mindset. He elaborates this idea by stating that “the STEM disciplines are obviously important to economic productivity, but so is the entire rainbow of human knowledge and the ability to think critically” (para. 36). I agree with this statement because the importance of learning extends to every part of the world and every culture, and the ability to recognize the beauties of our differences through the appropriate means of learning can help us to positively develop as a species.

Annotations:  

As generations come and go, new ideas have been developed and old ones have started to be questioned. What was once tolerable in the 1960s can easily be considered intolerable today. An arising issue that has been taken note of is the mental health reform. Mental health was not addressed in previous decades and present-day youth have taken it upon themselves to fill the void that was created in the past. However, this reform may be causing more harm than good in the way we educate students and go about setting up our educational programs. Where students in the past would approach and question upcoming challenges, today they tend to shy away from challenges and consider them too difficult. Two works that help to draw attention to these issues come from Carol Dweck’s TED talk “The Power of Believing You can Improve,” and Lukianoff and Haidt’s “The Coddling of the American Mind.” Dweck’s idea that school systems need to teach students to think with a growth mindset contrasts Lukianoff and Haidt’s idea that students need to understand how to work through the challenges on their own and incorporate their learning experiences into their education. However, I believe that a balance between the two ideas would benefit the students more than just one or the other.  

In Dweck’s TED talk, she describes the concepts of Growth mindsets verses Fixed mindsets. A Growth Mindset shows that an individual has the ability to find inspiration in the challenges of life and will encourage themselves with phrases like, “I can always improve,” and, “it will take time, but I can learn this topic.” A person with a Growth Mindset will face the challenge head on and work through new ways to complete the trials that they encounter. An individual with a Fixed Mindset takes a more pessimistic approach to challenges that they come across and will instead create roadblocks in their mind that produce excuses as to why they cannot complete a task. With a Fixed Mindset an individual might say things like “I can’t do this, it’s too hard,” or, “it’s just not my thing.” With a Fixed Mindset, challenges seem difficult, stressful, and not worth the effort to many people which can quickly allow them to feel unaccomplished.

Both Dweck and Lukianoff and Haidt argue that the way that students are thinking is putting them in either a fixed or growth mindset. In “The Power of Believing You can Improve,” Dweck worries about how the students are being taught and whether they are in a solution-based environment or a critical thinking-based environment. Is the school focusing on the result or the process when confronting a challenge?  She argues that the way we teach our students to go about the learning process is ultimately affecting the way they confront difficult challenges.  According to Dweck, when the education system begins to reward the result more than the process, students begin to “run from the error. They don’t engage with it” (Dweck 1:57). For Dweck, the problem is in the way we teach students to go about their education. In contrast, Lukianoff and Haidt argue that this is about students putting themselves into a fixed mindset and therefore forcing school faculty to do so as well by limiting the language and ideas that can be addressed. For Lukianoff and Haidt, “students who call for trigger warnings may be correct that some of their peers are harboring memories of trauma that could be reactivated by course readings. But they are wrong to try to prevent such reactivation” (Lukianoff and Haidt para. 37).   For me, while I share Dweck’s belief that the way in which we teach students to learn and attempt challenges should be focused more on the process rather than the outcome, I also agree with Lukianoff and Haidt’s approach on the fact that if we limit the students learning criteria by adding trigger warnings, we will push their mindset further into a fixed one and altogether prevent their growth. A balance between mental health awareness and education needs to be established in order to prepare every new-coming generation for adulthood. Exposing students to the difficulties of life and unwelcoming subjects can help them develop more progressive thoughts and ultimately help change the course of our future for the better.