哈佛大学核心课程 通识教育基于哈佛大学的经验.pdf

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1、通识教育基于哈佛大学的经验P r o g r a m i n G e n e r a l Ed u c a t i o nThe new Program goes into effect for the Class of 2013.The HarvardCollege Handbook for Students states:Students must complete one letter-graded course in each of the eightcategories in General Education(click on the categories for their re

2、spective descriptions):Aesthetic and Interpretive Understanding(A&I),Culture and Belief(C&B),Empirical and Mathematical Reasoning(EMR),Ethical Reasoning(ER),Science of Living Systems(SLS),Science of the Physical Universe(SPU),Societies of the World(SW),and United States in the World(US/W).One of the

3、se eight courses must also engage substantially with theIn general,students should plan to take one General Education course perterm.There are,however,no requirements regarding the timing of therequirements as long as all are completed by graduation.First-yearstudents often find that General Educati

4、on courses are useful forexploring potential concentrations.Other students use the GeneralEducation requirements to add some variety to their course of study.Ae s t h e t i c a n d I n t e r p r e t i v eU n d e r s t a n d i n gOne of the goals of general education is to help students understandthe

5、mselves and others as products of and participants in traditions ofculture and belief.One step toward achieving this understanding is thedevelopment of aesthetic responsiveness and the ability to interpretforms of cultural expression literary or religious texts,paintings,sculpture,architecture,music

6、,film,dance,decorative arts.Theseskills allow students to engage intelligently and critically with theworld of art and ideas,and they are necessary for understanding howmeanings are produced and received.Reading a poem,looking at a painting,and listening to a piece of music are complex capacities th

7、at build aninformed sensitivity,an interaction between the intellect and the senses.And students need to know how to interpret cultural works-to know,forexample,how to distinguish the literal and symbolic,something that iscrucial to evaluating and making sense of everything from religious textsand l

8、yric poems to pop songs and motion pictures.Knowing something aboutlanguage and perception can heighten studentsJ aesthetic responses toand interpretation of cultural objects.Exploring theoretical andphilosophical issues concerning the production and reception of meaningsand the formation of aesthet

9、ic judgment enhances students awareness ofways in which cultural objects acquire value and significance.Courses in Aesthetic and Interpretive Understanding should:Develop skills in criticism,that is,aesthetic responsiveness andinterpretive ability;develop skills in understanding written,aural,visual

10、,kinaesthetic,or other forms by examining primary texts in anylanguage,linguistic structures,and/or works of art in one or moremedia;teach how to analyze these works in a contextual framework,suchas critical theory,aesthetics,philosophy of art,rhetoric,theories of language and meaning,or theories of

11、 perception;and where practicable and appropriate,include experiences out of theclassroom,such as visits to exhibitions,performances,andreadings,or interactions with performers,directors,and curators,or allow students to undertake creative work.List of courses that satisfy the AI category.Cu l t u r

12、 e a n d Be l i e fIn developing an awareness of themselves and other people as products ofand participants in traditions of culture and belief,students need todo more than acquire skills in interpreting and responding to art andideas-the aim of courses in the Aesthetic and Interpretive Understandin

13、gsubject area,above.They need to put these works in context一to see howsocial,political,religious,and economic,and cross-culturalconditions shape the production and reception of ideas and works of art.They also need to learn about the ways in which cultures and beliefsmediate people s understanding o

14、f themselves and the world.The role of culture and belief in shaping identities and communities isnot simple:culture and belief can cause change,and they can also besources of resistance to change.Cultural expressions have never been morewidely disseminated.Music,images,and literature of all kinds a

15、reaccessible to an extent unheard of even twenty years ago,and this hasaltered the way we think about cultures.W e are more aware than ever ofthe degree to which cultures feed off one another across national,regional,religious,and ethnic boundaries.Yet it is often in the nameof their culture that na

16、tional and ethnic groups engage in conflict withother groups.Religious beliefs and practices are topics that some courses in thiscategory should address.Religion has historically been,and continuesto be,a force shaping identity and behavior throughout the world.Harvardis a secular institution,but re

17、ligion is an important part of ourstudents lives.(Ninety-four percent of Harvards incoming studentsreport that they discuss religion“frequently”or occasionally,“andseventy-one percent say that they attend religious services.)W hen theyget to college,students often struggle to sort out the relationsh

18、ipbetween their own beliefs and practices and those of fellow students,andthe relationship of religious belief to the resolutely secular world ofthe academy.It is also important for students to have the opportunityto learn something about the impact that religious belief and practicehas on the world

19、,as well as on themselves.There are many topics of wide practical and intellectual interest thatcourses in Culture and Belief might address:problems of translation,theconcept of authorship(its significance for claims about plagiarism orcopyright),censorship,conflicting interpretations of religious a

20、ndother texts,institutional mediation of aesthetic experience(art museums,the music industry,the church),canon formation,the tensions betweenmodernity and reactionary thinking,violence and its representation.Courses in Culture and Belief should:Develop an understanding of and appreciation for tradit

21、ions ofculture and belief in human societies;introduce students to primary texts in any language,works of artin one or more media,or ethnographies,social histories,or othersecondary texts;develop the ability to analyze these works in the light of theirhistorical,social,political,economic,religious,a

22、nd/orcross-cultural conditions of production and reception;examine ways in which traditions of culture and belief shape theidentities of individuals and communities;and draw connections between the material covered in the course andcultural issues of concern or interest that are likely to arise inst

23、udents own lives.Lisi of courses that satisfy the CB category.Empirical and MathematicalReasoningAfter they graduate,students will be making important decisions,forthemselves and others,under conditions of uncertainty.They will haveto decide,for example,what medical treatments to undergo,when adefen

24、dant in court has been proven guilty,whether to support a policyproposal,and how to manage their personal finances.They also will becalled upon,as individuals and as citizens,to evaluate empirical claimsmade by others.Courses in empirical reasoning help students learn howto make decisions and draw i

25、nferences in matters like these that involvethe evaluation of empirical data.They teach students how to gather andassess information,weigh evidence,understand estimates ofprobabilities,solve problems,draw inferences from the data available,and also how to recognize when an issue cannot be settled on

26、 the basisof the available evidence.To develop these abilities,students need tolearn how to apply the abstract principles and concepts of probabilitytheory,statistics,decision theory,logic,and mathematics to concreteproblems.Ordinarily,they will learn to do this in the form of hands-onexercises.Just

27、 as one doesn,t become a marathon runner by reading aboutthe Boston Marathon,so,too,one doesn t become a good problem solverby listening to lectures or reading about statistics.Students shouldlearn empirical reasoning by practicing it.Empirical reasoning is not a discrete body of knowledge.It is a s

28、et ofrelated conceptual skills that guide valid reasoning and decision-making.To take just a few examples,students might learn the statisticalprinciple that exceptional cases will regress to the mean;that relaxingthe standards for reporting an uncertain event will increase both hitsand false alarms;

29、that a person with the typical symptoms of a rarecondition probably does not have that condition;that in certaininteractions the best option for each individual can bring about the worstoutcome for all of them.It is also helpful for students to become awareof the many mistakes that human beings are

30、prone to making in theirreasoning,such as mistaking correlation for causation,ignoring baserates in estimating probabilities,overinterpret!ng coincidences,andthe like.Knowing common pitfalls in inference-making can help studentsavoid them.Empirical reasoning should be taught in the context of a vari

31、ety ofsubjects so that students can work on topics of intrinsic interest to them,such as medicine and disease,public policy and political behavior,andlegal or economic decision-making.We expect that many students willfulfill the requirement with courses in the statistical and analyticalmethods of th

32、eir field.Mathematics and logic courses that demonstratethe applicability of their methods to concrete problems should also counttoward this requirement.Courses in Empirical and Mathematical Reasoning should:Teach the conceptual and theoretical tools used in reasoning andproblem solving,such as stat

33、istics,probability,mathematics,logic,and decision theory;provide exercises in which students apply these tools to concreteproblems of wide concern;and where practicable,familiarize students with some of the mistakeshuman beings typically make in reasoning and problem solving.List of courses that sat

34、isfy the EM category.Ethical ReasoningMany of the decisions our students will make in their personal andprofessional lives will have ethical implications:choosing a politicalcandidate to support;assessing public policies;negotiatingprofessional interactions;resolving family dilemmas;and,ultimately,c

35、hoosing among different life projects.Courses in Ethical Reasoningteach students to reason in a principled way about moral and politicalbeliefs and practices,and to deliberate and assess claims for themselvesabout ethical issues.These courses will examine competing conceptionsand theories of liberty

36、,justice,equality,democracy,rights,obligations,the good life,and the like,illustrating how they bear onthe sorts of concrete ethical dilemmas students may encounter in theirpublic,professional,and personal lives.Because they explicitly linktheory and practice,some courses in this category might prof

37、itably engageprofessional school faculty.I n l e a r n i n g h o w t o w r e s t l e w i t h e t h i c a l i s s u e s,i t i s o f t e n h e l p f u l f o rs t u d e n t s t o e n c o u n t e r a v a l u e s y s t e m v e r y d i f f e r e n t f r o m t h e i r o w n,o n et h a t c a l l s a t t e n

38、 t i o n t o t h e m a n y e t h i c a l a s s u m p t i o n s t h a t t h e y m a k ew i t h o u t r e a l i z i n g i t.T h i s e n c o u n t e r m a y b e w i t h a v a l u e s y s t e m f r o m t h ep a s t o r f r o m a d i f f e r e n t c u l t u r e,a n d i t m a y b e w i t h i n t h e c o n

39、 t e x t o f ar e l i g i o u s t r a d i t i o n.By c h a l l e n g i n g s t u d e n t s t o e v a l u a t e,a n d p o s s i b l y c h a n g e,t h e a s s u m p t i o n sa n d v a l u e s t h e y g r e w u p w i t h,t h e s e c o u r s e s p r o m o t e o u r s t u d e n t s p e r s o n a l d e v

40、e l o p m e n t a n d b u i l d t h e c a p a c i t i e s f o r a r g u m e n t a n dd e l i b e r a t i o n e s s e n t i a l f o r e f f e c t i v e c i v i c a g e n c y.Ad v a n c e s i n s c i e n c ea n d t e c h n o l o g y w i l l c o n t i n u e t o r a i s e d i f f i c u l t a n d u n a n

41、 t i c i p a t e d e t h i c a lq u e s t i o n s i n t o t h e f u t u r e,a n d t h e i m p a c t o f s o c i a l a n d e c o n o m i cg l o b a l i z a t i o n i s f e l t p e r h a p s m o s t k e e n l y w h e n e t h i c a l c o n v i c t i o n s o fd i f f e r e n t c u l t u r e s c o l l i

42、d e.S t u d e n t s m u s t b e e q u i p p e d t o e n g a g e w i t h t h ec h a l l e n g e s t h a t t h e s e t w e n t y-f i r s t-c e n t u r y r e a l i t i e s w i l l r a i s e.Co u r s e s i n Et h i c a l R e a s o n i n g s h o u l d:T e a c h h o w t o r e a s o n a b o u t m o r a l a

43、 n d p o l i t i c a l b e l i e f s a n d p r a c t i c e s,a n d h o w t o d e l i b e r a t e a n d a s s e s s c l a i m s a b o u t e t h i c a l i s s u e s;e x a m i n e c o m p e t i n g c o n c e p t i o n s a n d t h e o r i e s o f e t h i c a l c o n c e p t s s u c ha s t h e g o o d l

44、i f e,o b l i g a t i o n,r i g h t s,j u s t i c e,a n d l i b e r t y;t e a c h h o w t o a s s e s s a n d w e i g h t h e r e a s o n s f o r a n d a g a i n s t a d o p t i n gt h e s e v a r i o u s c o n c e p t i o n s a n d t h e o r i e s;a p p l y t h e s e c o n c e p t i o n s a n d t h

45、 e o r i e s t o c o n c r e t e e t h i c a l d i l e m m a so f t h e s o r t s t u d e n t s w i l l e n c o u n t e r i n t h e i r l i v e s,s u c h a s t h o s et h a t a r i s e i n m e d i c i n e,l a w,b u s i n e s s,p o l i t i c s,a n d d a i l y l i f e;a n d w h e r e a p p r o p r i a

46、 t e,a c q u a i n t s t u d e n t s w i t h v a l u e s y s t e m s d i f f e r e n tf r o m t h e i r o w n,s u c h a s t h o s e o f d i f f e r e n t r e l i g i o n s o r d i f f e r e n th i s t o r i c a l p e r i o d s a n d t h o s e e x p r e s s e d i n d i f f e r e n t l a n g u a g e s

47、,o rw i t h e m p i r i c a l s t u d i e s o f m o r a l l i f e.L i s t o f c o u r s e s t h a t s a t i s f y t h e ER c a t e g o r y.S c i e n c e o f L i v i n g S y s t e m sT h e e x p o n e n t i a l g r o w t h o f s c i e n t i f i c k n o w l e d g e h a s b e e n a c c o m p a n i e d

48、b ya c o r r e s p o n d i n g i n c r e a s e i n t h e i m p a c t o f s c i e n c e a n d e n g i n e e r i n g o n a l lm e m b e r s o f s o c i e t y,s c i e n t i s t s a n d n o n-s c i e n t i s t s a l i k e.W i t h i n t h es p e c t r u m o f s c i e n c e a n d e n g i n e e r i n g a c

49、 t i v i t i e s,u n d e r s t a n d i n g l i f e-i t so r i g i n s,t h e w a y i t c h a n g e s a n d i s c h a n g e d b y t h e e n v i r o n m e n t,a n d t h ew a y s i n w h i c h i t s s p a n i n h u m a n s c a n b e e x t e n d e d c o n t i n u e s t o b e a n a r e aof enormous activi

50、ty.The science and engineering that study livingorganisms have affected our students in many ways:such studies have ledto life-saving medicines,technologies for diagnosing and understandinghuman disease,genetically engineered plants and animals as new foodsources,and the invention of biological warf