Question 1: There was not much difference that I saw between the Core Handbook and Ungar/Scheuer’s ideas. The ideas of these authors is that a liberal arts education is going to create a more well-rounded and intellectual individual who is better at oral and written presentations. And the UNE Core Handbook wants to create an environment that is going to give students a better chance at being successful and giving them knowledge that will be key for their future, meaning the way they use their words verbally or through written works. UNE wants to create a type of student that Ungar and Scheuer believe are going to be the most successful and the ones running our societies someday, because these students are going to have an advantage in the job market and workplace due to the fact that they got a liberal arts education. There is one difference that I spotted between the Handbook and Ungar and Scheuer, which is science and where it stands in a liberal arts education. Scheuer believes that science, and STEM, are not supposed to be a part of this education style and that while they are important, they are just not what should be included in this education style. While ungar believes that the liberla arts are going to create a better science student. That this background in the liberl arts, while focusing more on the science based academics, will create better employment opportunities for those students. When trying to find a job in the STEM field, this background in the humanities and communication is going to set them apart. And in the UNE Handbook, science is recommended each semester. It is a staple part of this liberl arts education that we are getting. The students here at UNE are going to be getting science related topics to learn about, while still having a more liberla arts based education.
Question 2: The two classes I talked about in the 2/26 homework were my english class and chemistry class. My chemistry class fits into the laboratory science section and my english class fits in the english section or the humanities section. Ungar believes that a background in the liberla arts, or humanities, is going to create a more well rounded student and with UNE’s handbook, I am going to become that student. With my english class and future humanities classes I am going to take, it is giving me a better foundation for my current chemistry class and future chemistry classes. This diverse background for myself is going to make me be able to do a better job conceptually understanding my chemistry and science classes, and like Ungar said, set me apart from other students.
Question 4: In the UNE Core Handbook it talks about Critical Thinking, which is a big part of Scheuer’s ideas of the liberal arts and its education style. The Handbook states, “In short, the third year core requirements invite students to accomplish the difficult tasks of integrating disciplines and applying knowledge of the core and core theme to their majors. In particular, students will be challenged to define complex problems in their major and solve them, taking into account a variety of approaches and awareness, deciding what they need to know and how to get to know it, and learning to collaborate with others” showing that critical thinking is going to become a type of thinking that is going to be developed and truly worked on during out third year here at UNE. which is something that many schools probably do not have. The students at UNE are going to be spending an entire year learning and creating this type of thinking for themselves. When critical thinking is applied like this as a core part of a student curriculum, you are going to be creating students that are going to be understanding this type of thinking and are going to be the ones who can easily access this higher level thinking. Scheuer states that, “Critical thinking is the intellectual engine of a functional democracy: the set of mental practices that lends breadth, depth, clarity, and consistency to public discourse” and this is what UNE is saying they are going to be teaching to their students. This mental practice that Scheuer talks about is going to be ingrained in our brains, making us better thinkers