Liberal Education in Taiwan--「博雅」實踐者 腳踏文理多條船

http://vision.udn.com/storypage.jsp?f_ART_ID=1086&pno=0

「博雅」實踐者 腳踏文理多條船

聯合報記者李昭安／台北報導

「姑蘇城外寒山寺，夜半鐘聲到客船。同學不僅要了解這兩句詩的文學意義，更要搞懂背後的物理意涵。」政大講座教授錢致榕舉唐朝詩人張繼的「楓橋夜泊」為例，告訴台下六十多名學生，學習不是死讀書，要會反思，「因為我們教的不是知識本身，而是求學問的態度和方法」。

有感於台灣現行教育多數學生即使上大學還是只會考試、不知變通，且畢業後常不知何去何從。國內包括東海、清大、政大等大學近年引入西方的「博雅教育」，強調透過強化文學、物理、歷史、微積分等文理基礎課程，協助學生培養解決問題的能力。

四年多前，政大費一番工夫，找了當初協助創立香港科技大學並擔任創校副校長的錢致榕到政大，藉由推動博雅學程，進行「人才培養實驗」，希望培養出兼顧文理的多元人才；另一方面，也是想替畢業生的「就業迷航」尋找藥方。

My comments: A lofty cause!

選修「博雅書院」學程的政大生，須先通過面試，且大一、大二要修完日常物理、幾何與天文、世界文明與歷史思維等廿學分的課程。而且「一定要住校」，回宿舍後仍要進行小組提問、討論，推行「離開教室後還要繼續學習」。大三、大四的學長姊，則可申請繼續在書院擔任課程助教。

四年來，政大培養出近百位博雅教育實踐者；七月間，首次有博雅書院畢業的學生離開政大。錢致榕欣慰地說，從學生談吐就可看出他們和其他學生「不太一樣」。

剛升政大法律系四年級的吳家欣說：「博雅教育要訓練的人才，不只是傳統腳跨兩個領域的『π型人才』，更是跨越多元領域的『梳型人才』。」他表示，一旦學生把自己調整為像梳子一樣、有很多隻腳，就能跨足而立、多元發展。

My comments: Quite a good analogy, but a comb can't stand. Why not use a tree as a simile.

這樣的學習模式，提醒吳家欣學習時不能「偏食」，也不能將知識斷然二分，應該跨越知識間的藩籬，將知識融會貫通、有效整合。例如突然發生地震，就要假設身為政府官員，「該掌握哪些科學數據？怎麼危機處理？如何安撫人心？」

辦學四年，錢致榕發現，博雅書院不該只是「以台北為中心的菁英教育」，應該更全面性招收不同地區、不同階級學生。因此今年招生便放寬地區及成績限制，希望招攬更多弱勢、貧困生，增加博雅成員多元性。

但此同時，錢致榕也強調，博雅教育對學生「自學」要求非常高，修一堂一小時的課，一周至少就要花兩小時自修。「如果學生沒學好我還讓他及格，就違反了博雅的精神。」博雅的「雅」是絕對標準，不是相對標準，「在我們班上拿到八十分，在哈佛大學也應該可以拿到八十分」。

東海大學博雅書院榮譽書院長劉炯朗認為，博雅教育最重要的不是教學內容，而是培養讀書習慣、方法及態度。他指出，教學內容只是載具，重點是讓學生發現讀書的快樂。他強調，受過博雅教育的學生未必要拿證書，因為他們的談吐與態度，「本身就是證書」。

My comments: This reminds me of the speech "Have a Good Four Years"  by former Harvard President Derek Bok in 1971.

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Have a Good Four Years.php

 

Have a Good Four Years

Speech delivered atHarvardUniversity, Sep. 18, 1971

Derek C. Bok

There is a popular notion that a college education is something to be endured in order to become certified to obtain certain kinds of jobs or go to graduate school. This is not what we are trying to do at Harvard, nor would we wish to have many students here who took such a narrow view of a college career.

There are several goals we aspire to reach in our undergraduate program.

The most obvious one is to give knowledge--fairly concentrated knowledge in one field and a more general knowledge of a variety of other subject areas which you may choose. But if acquiring knowledge is a self-evident part of a college education, it is far from the most important. Remarkably few of the facts you learn here will remain in your memory for many years, and some of those that do will be discredited by new knowledge. So if we were to concentrate on conveying information, we would give you something fleeting and impermanent.

Instead, we have looked to other things we can give that will last a little longer. Among these things are certain habits of mind--the capacity for more critical analysis, for more accurate and logical use of information, the ability to derive useful concepts and generalizations, to find and process data, and so forth.

In addition to these methods of thought, it is our hope that we can instill certain attitudes of mind--a willingness to accept ambiguity, uncertainty, and the lack of definite truths; a sense of the complexity of human affairs and the variety of human experience that comes from history and literature; an independence of thought, a respect for facts and for the uncomfortable conclusions to which facts sometimes lead.

Beyond giving these intellectual qualities, a college should try to lay a foundation for the creative use of leisure time. Some of this capacity can be stimulated in the classroom--in courses in the humanities and the arts. Yet at least as much stimulation will occur outside the lecture hal--on athletic fields, in music rooms, student theaters, concert halls, and so forth.

These, then, are some of the aims of a liberal college education as I see them. I cannot resist concluding with a few private thoughts about our new careers at Harvard.

To begin with, I hope that we will think broadly about what we want to accomplish here. It would be tragic for you to set your sights on some limited goal such as getting high grades or merely getting into one or another graduate school, just as it would be unfortunate for me to settle for simply preparing students to find comfortable, prosperous jobs.

Second, I hope that you will give some thought to what you can do for others during your stay here. There are many problems waiting for your help, many people who could profit from your efforts. Nothing can take the place of the contributions to be made by working directly with individuals whose problems are immediate and elemental.

Third, I hope that we will enjoy ourselves hugely in the next few years. And when we cannot--when we endure the inevitable anxieties, the frustrations, the bewilderment about ourselves and what we are accomplishing--I hope that we will remember in one small corner of our minds that these moments of frustration and bewilderment are often indispensable to our well-being, for they are the spurs that push mind and spirit to some new and greater conception of ourselves and the world around us.

Like all useful things, anxiety and frustration can be carried to excess, and this leads me to a final bit of advice. Whatever else we do, let us remember not to take ourselves too seriously. However great our problems may seem, however urgent our complaints, they are dwarfed by the predicament of countless other people on our planet. The world is filled with self-important, obsessive people. Let us not add to the number lest we become too preoccupied to enjoy the opportunities around us, too self-indulgent to appreciate the needs of others, too overcome with the weight of our responsibilities to meet them freely and creatively.

Have a good four years.

 

【2013/09/02】