Critical
thinking. Tests of critical thinking. Critical thinking tests. Critical
thinking skills. IQ. Tests. CT.
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 Learning
for heads, hand, and hearts: Random rants and reflections on liberal
education. Facione, PA. Liberal Education (2001), Vol. 87(3) Summer.
16-21 This essay is a series of reflections on undergraduate
and graduate level studies and on the concept of liberal education
as we enter the 21st Century, some optimistic, some critical, some
adventuresome. Here are four of the dozen
or so.
"The only education worth pursuing is how to think wisely and
how to live virtuously, harmoniously, and productively with others
and the world around."
"Reasons for Being. Leaders.
In contrast to managers, know that articulating a clear and compelling
vision for the institution must come before, and not after, each
department, program, and school stakes out their necessarily subordinate,
divergent, and inconsistent aspirations. Not sure where to begin?
Get a smart, fair-minded,and clear-thinking group of opinion-shapers
together and start with the assumption that you have the authority
and the means to transform the institution Then ask, whom should
you enroll as students and what would they have learned after completing
their studies with you? What problems would you use institutional
resources to investigate as scholars and teachers individually and
as an institution in the larger context of our public mission? How
might you enrich the health and life of the community in which we
exist as an institution; in other words, of what real value to the
rest of the society should you seek to be? Since your group does
not have that authority or those resources within its control, the
next step is to expand the conversation to those who do. Educators
educate. Why limit the use of your talents to only your students?"
"Head, Hand, and Heart. Liberal education aims not only
at the head, but at the hands and at the heart as well We seek to
graduate students who will certainly be more than competent in their
knowledge, but also persons with the skills and willingness of mind
to use that knowledge. We want to graduate students of conscience,
who realize that democracy and mutual respect will flounder unless
they become involved in their communities and in fostering the common
good. And we want to graduate students of compassion,who remember
that in the end only one person out of a hundred in this world will
have enjoyed the good fortune to have earned a college degree. And
that this fact, if none other, along with the sensitivities and
character that can be developed through a liberal education, should
challenge them to use that good fortune,that blessing, to seek to
make a difference for the good of the other ninety-nine."
"Liberating Education. Maybe liberal arts and sciences
education is in crisis, maybe not. Then again, so what? What's important
is that we provide the kind of education that liberates the mind
and heart. It would not bother me if that were to become a feature
of all of higher education, including professional school training
In fact, if it did, if liberal education, that is, education that
was truly liberating, were to become disinguishable from graduate
and professional education or from K-12 education, then forget talk
of crisis, for it would be a cause for joy."
"Getting
Support and Budget for Your Great Idea," Project Kaleidoscope
Essays by Peter A. Facione, published in Volume IV: What Works,
What Matters, What Lasts.
http://www.pkal.org/documents/SupportAndBudget.cfm
http://www.pkal.org/documents/SupportAndBudget3.cfm
Budgeting at too many colleges
and universities amounts to muddling from one year to the next.
This is a poor enough way to function in good times; it can be fatal
to an institution in bad economic times. Even when the national
economy is strong, few worthy of being called leaders in higher
education are genuinely satisfied with their institution’s
budget process. Many faculty, administrators, presidents, and trustees
believe that too much valuable time and energy is consumed in a
budget process that, in the end, seems to achieve nothing other
than extending the status quo for another year. People with institutional
vision lament lost opportunities. Many smart, dedicated, and responsible
people become frustrated that major questions of genuine long-term
importance to the future of the institution continue not to be adequately
addressed. It is axiomatic that all systems are perfectly designed
to produce exactly the results being attained. If the budgeting
process at your institution is working well, you are fortunate.
Perhaps your institution is already applying the philosophical and
psychological principles described in this paper. There are five
essentials:
-
Involve
people whose authority derives from responsible expertise.
-
Understand
human decision-making risks, and guard against them.
-
Address
questions of long-term importance to future of the institution.
-
Root
out budget implementation practices that have negative results.
-
Structure
positive budget incentives for all levels of the organization.
[An
abbreviated form of this essay emphasizing the principle of
responsible expertise appeared in Academe, the magazine
of the American Association of University Professors. November-December
2002, 45-48.]
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