Liberal Learning As A Quest For Purpose

What happens when higher education is introduced to the exploration of meaning and purpose? Liberal Learning as a Quest for Purpose analyzes a remarkable experiment--lasting over a decade and encompassing 88 independent campuses--to reconfigure undergraduate education as a journey toward life purpose. It ties together the liberal arts, personal development, and preparation for life all through the exploration of vocation. -- Provided by publisher.

The book's theme is helping students find meaning, purpose, and vocation in their education. Its focus is on enhancing and amplifying the pedagogy and curricula of collegiate professional and technical education programs to meet the goals of this theme.

Demonstrates how students and educators can resist narrow, utilitarian views of higher education’s purpose. While the search for meaning and purpose appears to be a constant throughout human history, there are characteristics about our current time period that make this search different from any other previous time, particularly for college students. In this book, Perry L. Glanzer, Jonathan P. Hill, and Byron R. Johnson explore college students’ search for meaning and purpose and the role that higher education plays. To shed empirical light on this complex issue, the authors draw on in-depth interviews with four hundred college students from different types of institutions across the United States. They also analyze three sets of national survey data: the National Study of Youth and Religion, College Students Beliefs and Values, and their own Gallup-conducted survey of 2,500 college students. Their research identifies important social, educational, and cultural influences that shape students’ quests and the answers they find. Arguing against a utilitarian view of education, Glanzer, Hill, and Johnson conclude that colleges and universities can and should cultivate and aid students in their journeys, and they offer suggestions for doing so. Perry L. Glanzer is Professor of Educational Foundations at Baylor University and a Resident Scholar with the Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion. His books include Restoring the Soul of the University: Unifying Christian Higher Education in a Fragmented Age (coauthored with Nathan F. Alleman and Todd C. Ream). Jonathan P. Hill is Associate Professor of Sociology at Calvin College and the coauthor (with Christian Smith, Kyle Longest, and Kari Christoffersen) of Young Catholic America: Emerging Adults In, Out of, and Gone from the Church. Byron R. Johnson is Distinguished Professor of the Social Sciences at Baylor University and the author of More God, Less Crime: Why Faith Matters and How It Could Matter More.

How our colleges and universities can respond to the changing hopes and needs of society In recent decades, cognitive psychologists have cast new light on human development and given colleges new possibilities for helping students acquire skills and qualities that will enhance their lives and increase their contributions to society. In this landmark book, Derek Bok explores how colleges can reap the benefits of these discoveries and create a more robust undergraduate curriculum for the twenty-first century. Prior to this century, most psychologists thought that creativity, empathy, resilience, conscientiousness, and most personality traits were largely fixed by early childhood. What researchers have now discovered is that virtually all of these qualities continue to change through early adulthood and often well beyond. Such findings suggest that educators may be able to do much more than was previously thought possible to teach students to develop these important characteristics and thereby enable them to flourish in later life. How prepared are educators to cultivate these qualities of mind and behavior? What do they need to learn to capitalize on the possibilities? Will college faculties embrace these opportunities and make the necessary changes in their curricula and teaching methods? What can be done to hasten the process of innovation and application? In providing answers to these questions, Bok identifies the hurdles to institutional change, proposes sensible reforms, and demonstrates how our colleges can help students lead more successful, productive, and meaningful lives.

A Georgetown professor’s look at the subjects one needs to study for a truly well-rounded education. A Student’s Guide to Liberal Learning is an inviting conversation with a learned scholar about the content of an authentic liberal arts education. It surveys ideas and books central to the tradition of humanistic education that has fundamentally shaped our country and our civilization. This accessible volume argues for an order and integration of knowledge so that meaning might be restored to the haphazard approach to study currently dominating higher education. Freshly conveying the excitement of learning from the acknowledged masters of intellectual life, this guide is also an excellent blueprint for building one’s own library of books that matter.

Assesses the challenges plaguing our higher education system through selections of Ernest L. Boyer’s writings Having served as chancellor of the State University of New York, the United States commissioner of education, and president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Ernest L. Boyer (1928–1995) was one of the most prominent leaders in the history of American higher education. Arguably more aware of the challenges facing colleges and universities than any of his peers, the administrative decisions and the writings he left behind provide a wealth of possibilities for subsequent generations of administrators and faculty members. In this book noted higher education scholars examine some of the most pressing crises in higher education today, pairing their thoughts with relevant selections from Boyer’s important writings—some published here for the first time. The volume provides answers to questions perceived to be plaguing academe, while reintroducing readers to the optimistic and insightful wisdom of Ernest L. Boyer. Todd C. Ream is Professor of Higher Education at Taylor University and Research Fellow with Baylor University’s Institute for Studies of Religion. He is the coauthor of several books, including The Idea of a Christian College: A Reexamination for Today’s University and Christian Faith and Scholarship: An Exploration of Contemporary Developments. John M. Braxton is Professor of Education at Vanderbilt University. He is the coeditor of several books, including Rethinking College Student Retention and Professors Behaving Badly: Faculty Misconduct in Graduate Education.

Many if not most of the students who enroll in Bachelor of Arts programs do so without a clear sense of purpose. This book introduces new or prospective university students to the B.A. degree. It seeks to explain the nature and purpose of liberal education, and discusses how liberal education is being undermined in today's university.

General education is widely touted as an enduring distinctive of higher education, but what do we actually mean by general education? Differing perspectives not only make it challenging to consider its significance, but also open it up to a wide range of determinations regarding its effectiveness. This volume aims to sharpen understanding of the complex picture of general education by: describing how various conceptions of general education evolved historically, identifying various functions expected of general education in the contemporary context, and pointing out the educational practices that fulfill general education’s aims in the current context. The conceptions of, and aspirations for, general education are consequential. This volume disentangles the divergent conceptions that hinder its renewal and considers the range of avenues for realizing its effectiveness. This is the second issue of the 42nd volume of the Jossey-Bass series ASHE Higher Education Report. Each monograph is the definitive analysis of a tough higher education issue, based on thorough research of pertinent literature and institutional experiences. Topics are identified by a national survey. Noted practitioners and scholars are then commissioned to write the reports, with experts providing critical reviews of each manuscript before publication.