Combining Two Cultures

McMaster University's Arts and Science Programme

Inbunden, Engelska, 2004

Av Herb Jenkins, Barbara Ferrier, Michael T. Ross

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Research-intensive universities have long struggled to reconcile the imperative of specialized learning with the need for a broader, more liberal education. Combining Two Cultures provides a comprehensive account of a degree program at a distinguished Canadian university, McMaster, aimed at accomplishing this synthesis. This innovative program has stood up well over more than two decades. It has a curriculum balanced between arts and sciences and is committed to developing broadly applicable intellectual skills, above all those that underlie scholarly inquiry into questions of importance to students and to the society they live in. It attempts to harmonize the excitement of exploring a broad range of fields with students' needs to meet the requirements for advanced study in professional and academic graduate disciplines. This book offers insights into the challenges of planning and establishing a program of this kind. Brief personal reflections from many of the program's graduates, firsthand observations from current students, and instructors' accounts of their experiences give a vivid sense of what the program has meant to its participants.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2004-09-15
Mått184 x 221 x 28 mm
Vikt476 g
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
Antal sidor300
FörlagUniversity Press of America
ISBN9780761829287

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Herb Jenkins was the founding Director of the Arts and Science Program and subsequently of the Engineering and Society Program at McMaster University. Now Professor Emeritus in the Department of Psychology, he holds a doctorate in Psychology from Harvard University. Barbara Ferrier was the second Director of the Arts and Science Program and for many years led the first-year inquiry course. Now Professor Emeritus in the Department of Biochemistry at McMaster University, she holds a doctorate in Chemistry from the University of Edinburgh. Michael Ross was the first instructor of the course, Literature, in the Arts and Science Program. He is Professor Emeritus in the Department of English, McMaster University, and holds a doctorate in English from Harvard University.

Chapter 1 Preface Chapter 2 Quest for Meaning in Undergraduate Education Chapter 3 Planning and Approval of the Arts and Science Programme Chapter 4 The Programme in Practice Chapter 5 Western Civilization Courses Chapter 6 Writing and Informal Logic Chapter 7 Inquiry Courses Chapter 8 Mathematics and Physics Courses Chapter 9 Literature, Technology, and Society Chapter 10 The Human Face of the Programme Chapter 11 What Have We Achieved? Chapter 12 Future Directions Chapter 13 Reflections Chapter 14 Contributors

Since C.P. Snow coined a famous term for an old dichotomy?namely, the Two Cultures?attempts have been made to overcome the great divide between the humanities and the sciences in the modern university and in modern culture. Most attempts have failed topay anything more than lipservice?the divide remains enormous. But since 1981, McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, has put its money where its mouth is by offering the justifiably prestigious undergraduate degree programme (students selected from amongst some of the best in the country) combines a thorough liberal arts and humanities schooling intertwined witha comprehensive science education (including math, physics, and biology). Unique in its origins, the Arts and Science programme has becomea model for fully integrated science and liberal arts programmes across North America. 'Combining Two Cultures', collectively written to commemorate the 25th year of this exemplary programme, brings together past and present Arts and Sciencesfounders, instructors, directors and commentators to explore in detail the birth, history,. structure, meaning, place, and future of this uniquely integrated programme? its instructional philosophy, the structure of its instruction, and its place in the u