What Is a 21st Century Liberal Education?
Liberal Education is an approach to learning that empowers individuals and prepares them to deal with complexity, diversity, and change. It provides students with broad knowledge of the wider world (e.g. science, culture, and society) as well as in-depth study in a specific area of interest. A liberal education helps students develop a sense of social responsibility, as well as strong and transferable intellectual and practical skills such as communication, analytical and problem-solving skills, and a demonstrated ability to apply knowledge and skills in real-world settings.
The broad goals of liberal education have been enduring even as the courses and requirements that comprise a liberal education have changed over the years. Today, a liberal education usually includes a general education curriculum that provides broad learning in multiple disciplines and ways of knowing, along with more in-depth study in a major.
To learn how liberal education is adapting to 21st century needs, read about The LEAP Challenge and engaging all college students in signature work on significant questions and problems important to them and to society.
Essential Learning Outcomes
Through LEAP, AAC&U has defined a robust set of "Essential Learning Outcomes" that students develop through a 21st century liberal education. Beginning in school, and continuing at successively higher levels across their college studies, students can prepare for both responsible citizenship and a global economy by achieving the essential learning outcomes.
See the "economic case" for liberal education and the Essential Learning Outcomes.
See the "civic case" for liberal education and the Essential Learning Outcomes.
Often-Confused Terms
Liberal Education: An approach to college learning that empowers individuals and prepares them to deal with complexity, diversity, and change. This approach emphasizes broad knowledge of the wider world (e.g., science, culture, and society) as well as in-depth achievement in a specific field of interest. It helps students develop a sense of social responsibility; strong intellectual and practical skills that span all major fields of study, such as communication, analytical, and problem-solving skills; and the demonstrated ability to apply knowledge and skills in real-world settings.1
Liberal Arts: Specific disciplines (i.e., the humanities, sciences, and social sciences).
Liberal Arts College: A particular type of institution—often small, often residential—that facilitates close interaction between faculty and students, and whose curriculum is grounded in the liberal arts disciplines.
Artes Liberales: The historical basis for the modern liberal arts, consisting of the trivium (grammar, logic, and rhetoric) and the quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music).
General Education: That part of a liberal education curriculum that is shared by all students. It provides broad exposure to multiple disciplines and forms the basis for developing essential intellectual, civic, and practical capacities. General education can take many forms, and increasingly includes introductory, advanced, and integrative forms of learning.
The Changing Nature of Liberal Education
Liberal Education in the
Twentieth Century
Liberal Education in the Twenty-First Century
What
intellectual and personal development
an option for the fortunate
viewed as non-vocational
intellectual and personal development
a necessity for all students
essential for success in a global economy and for informed citizenship
How
through studies in arts and sciences disciplines ("the major") and/or through general education in the initial years of college
through studies that emphasize the essential learning outcomes across the entire educational continuum—from school through college—at progressively higher levels of achievement (recommended)
Where
liberal arts colleges or colleges of arts and sciences in larger institutions
all schools, community colleges, colleges, and universities, as well as across all fields of study (recommended)
Adapted from College Learning for the New Global Century, Association of American Colleges and Universities, 2007, page 18, figure 5.