Sirius Master Class in Excellence in Undergraduate Education In the first Sirius Masterclass we reflected on “Our Underachieving Colleges” with the author Prof. Derek Bok (Emeritus President of Harvard). It was chaired by Dr Michael Burke (Head of the ACC Dept at Roosevelt Academy, Middelburg).
Derek Bok is an American lawyer and educator, and the former President of Harvard University. He taught law at Harvard from 1958, where he served as dean of the law school (1968–1971) and then as university president (1971–1991). After 15 years away from the Harvard presidency, Bok returned in 2006 to lead the university on an interim basis for a year. He has written six books on higher education: Beyond the Ivory Tower, Higher Learning, Universities and the Future of America, The Shape of the River, Universities in the Marketplace, and Our Underachieving Colleges.
In “Our underachieving colleges” Professor Bok addresses eight basic goals of undergraduate education. These goals were the main focus of the first Sirius Master Class. The whole Master Class was videotaped. For every subject you will find below a few quotes from the book, followed by a link to the video. |
Part one: Communication skills - All undergraduate students need to develop the capacity to communicate well with various audiences – these skills are also essential in civic life
- Students need to write with precision and grace and they need to be able to speak clearly and persuasively
- However welcome or unwelcome the task may be colleges cannot escape this responsibility
Click here to watch this part of the Master Class |
Part two: Critical thinking skills - Another aim of every college is to enhance the ability of students to think clearly and critically (more that 90% of faculty members in the US consider it the most important purpose of undergraduate education
- The ability
- to recognize and define problems clearly
- to identify the arguments on all sides of an issue
- to gather relevant facts and appreciate their relevance
- to perceive as many plausible solutions as possible
- to exercise good judgment in choosing the best alternatives
- to test the cogency of arguments
Click here to watch this part of the Master Class |
Part three: Moral reasoning & Preparing citizens Moral reasoning
- To help students develop a clearer, stronger set of ethical principles
- The ability to think carefully about moral dilemmas – evaluating the argument on all sides and decide on the right thing to do
Preparing students for citizenship
- To prepare students to be informed and active participants in the process of democratic self-government
- Colleges must consider whether there is anything they can do to imbue undergraduates with a stronger commitment to fulfill civic responsibilities
Click here to watch this part of the Master Class |
Part four: Living with Diversity in a Global society Living with diversity
- The challenge is to determine how to help students learn to live together with understanding and mutual self-respect
Living in a more global society
- Students today need to know more than earlier generations of undergraduates about international afffairs and about other countries and cultures
Click here to watch this part of the Master Class |
Part five: Deciding what the optimum Breadth of the study program should be & how we might best Prep A breadth of interests
- Another aim of a college education is to give the students the capabilities, knowledge and breadth of interests to enable them to enjoy full and varied lives
- How to provide the breadth?
- ‘ Great books’
- ‘Survey courses on broad topics’
- ‘Methods of thought’ (by which humans have tried to understand themselves)
- Requiring students to choose a stipulated number of courses from A&H, SSC, SCI.
Preparing for work
- The aim of undergraduate education to prepare students for a career
Click here to watch this part of the Master Class |
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