What's so Liberal about Liberal Education : Lesson 2
So in Lesson-1 of the series, we saw how 3 students who Majored in Biology, ended up in quite different career / academic pathways. Clearly that has got something to do with their interest and the Curriculum they went through. What could be the factors?
Let us explore:
A Liberal Education programme structure will have typically the following components.
MAJOR | MINOR | COMMON CURRICULUM
Programme Structure of 4-year Honours offered at Azim Premji University
A- Depth of Major : All of them did solid Biology and have the sensibilities and academic readiness of a Biologist. What we mean here by depth is that all of them can read biological texts, skills for conducting experiments, know data analysis and visualization techniques , and understand how knowledge is created in the scientific discipline. [Students can also pursue a year long Research with a faculty guide as per the new 4-year Curricular structure]
B- The Interdisciplinary / Occupational Minor : The second component is an inter-disciplinary theme that they choose based on their interest. One may have selected Sustainability / Climate studies, other may have taken Data Science and the third student say Education.
Someone keen to be a Science Communicator will take Media and Journalism as a Minor. This freedom of choice left to the learner is probably one of the key components of a Liberal Undergrad programme. [Moreover, they can take up a full-semester internship in the theme that they have chosen in the final year of study, providing them the much-required work-readiness]
C- The Common Curriculum : This is a key component of Liberal programmes across the globe. To para-phrase NUS, Through the Common Curriculum we answer the question “ What must a young person learn in order to live a responsible life in this century”? –
I would look at this differently. Over and above this, what we need to answer from an Indian context is “What are the transferrable skills that all graduates should have irrespective of the sector /industry / domain they wish to work?”
What are those key 21st century skills that we must provide during their 4-years of study. They are:
>Critical thinking and Analytical abilities
>Sensibilities for dialogue and reflection
>Co-operative learning and interactions
Note – The Curriculum should also have a bunch of Flexible credit component so that Students can craft their own educational experience by selecting courses to understand themes outside of their Major.
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The Programme /Curricular structure is explained in the sketch below. Well, this sounds good on paper. How does this get transacted in a classroom / academic environment. Yes-The Teaching methods and Pedagogic approach. That’s in my next post.
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To summarise, so far on the topic, What's so Liberal about Liberal Education ?
Lesson-2 The Curricular structure (This blog)
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