more basic concepts as an agenda for spe- cialized knowledge. In addition, the agenda calls for human skills: drive, initiative, persistence, risk- taking, creativity and personal flexibility, added Dr Edgerton. “So, in sum, the new expectations from looking at the economy include expecta- tions fot specialization and hard knowl- edge, but a lot of softer expectations for some of these other agendas that are imperfectly stated, but nonetheless, very important and very real.” Fundamental shift in college role When you look at the conversation going on inside academe about issues of curricu- lum, some exciting things are beginning to happen, said Dr Edgerton. More and more people are thinking in terms not simply of assuming responsibi- lity for turning out graduates who are knowledgeable, but turning out graduates who have abilities related to successful, competent, demonstrated performance. This is an old agenda in some of the applied and occupational and pre-profes- gional fields, he added, but it’s a new agenda in terms of thinking about the char- acter of liberal education. Getting at fundamental abilities is at the heart of a liberal education, he stated. A liberally educated person is one who is three-dimensional. But the dimensions go beyond knowledge, said Dr Edgerton. They are abilities, values and attitudes. And, he continued, “people are begin- ning to say what is really important is not the particular subjects that are taken, but to what extent, through those subjects, does someone operate at a high order of analytical ability.” The question comes down to: Does someone have the requisite values and atti- tudes that we would like to associate with liberal learning? Dr Edgerton added that this represents a fundamental shift from looking at the function of a college as being the trans- mission of culture to the function of a col- lege as preparing people to be effective in the world they live in. Goals must be explicit The first task in the new educational construct described by Dr Edgerton is to articulate institutional goals. Whatever you think they are, said Dr Edgerton, they need to be explicit. The institutional agendas will depend on what it is that the college or university feels is important, what it is it values. And the dialogue has to cover the campus. There must be explicit agendas, self- consciously addressed by the faculty on the one hand, he said, and understood to be the explicit agendas in the minds of the students on the other. Writing was used as an example. It would not remain the aegis of the English department in this new construct and it would not just be remedial. Every facet of the student’s academic experience would be anchored in bolstering his or her writ- ten communication skills. In all subjects, across all disciplines, educators would focus their students’ attention on analy- sis, synthesis and creative articulation. However, Dr Edgerton admitted, de- signing the conditions and settings for a liberalizing education is a different process than the transmission of information and knowledge. He noted that when he thinks about developing a liberal education curriculum he thinks more about teaching than about the subjects and “no one gets off the hook”. The teaching role shifts from one of im- parting knowledge to one of coaching. “The role of the teacher in teaching abilities is to design conditions and tasks that put students in performance situations and then comment on that performance as it goes along.” Based upon the performances required in different sectors in our changing society, Dr Edgerton said, “more than simply spe- cialized knowledge and skill is needed’’. There are values and attitudes that educa- tional institutions need to be developing in their students — the future workforce, The agenda of values and attitudes and deeper understandings and sensitivi- ties tends to be acquired through a differ- ent mode. And these abilities can be taught, he says, through intense discus- sions and personal involvement. ‘More and more, people are beginning to realize that knowledge is the ore that faculty and students mine together, but only when students apply their own refin- er's fire to that ore does it become their own. “We can teach knowledge by telling, we Developing a liberalizing education puts the emphasis on teaching rather than on subjects — the teaching role shifts from one of transmitting knowledge to one of coaching, says Russell Edgerton, president of the American Association for Higher Education. can teach abilities by coaching, but when we teach deeper understanding and shifts of attitude and values, we really have to involve the whole person.” To underscore his position, Dr Edger- ton asked his audience to think about reading a play to take an exam on it and reading a play to perform it. The ‘whole person” is engaged in the latter activity, not in the first, where information Is stored, compartmentalized, and probably lost. In concluding his address, Dr Edgerton spoke of a new excitement in academe about how a liberalizing education could shape a new workforce and citizenry for a changing society and economy. What strikes him is that the dialogue is occurring not just in liberal arts and general educa- tion programs but also in specialized areas. The visionaries are looking beyond nar- row subject or discipline confines to the outcomes of the education process. They are looking seriously at abilities like com- munication skills, creativity, and risk- taking, and putting in place a new construct for a liberalizing education across the curriculum. This is the first of a two-part series on the Ryer- son conference “Career Education for the 1990s: The Role of Liberal Studies". Part two will appear ina future issue.