This slide show was presented at a conference on The Role of Liberal Education in Higher Education and Democracy. It is based on my recent book Of Education, Fishbowls and Rabbit Holes: Rethinking Teaching and Liberal Education for an Interconnected World, published by Stylus, 2016

1. Thinking, Caring and Acting
The Liberal Arts as Education for
Democracy
4/22/16 Jane Fried, Ph.D.

2. Dewey’s Legacy
• John Dewey, one of America’s foremost
philosophers, wrote about education as
training for democracy.
• Dewey’s philosophy of education relied on the
formation of dispositions, consistent
tendencies to react in specific ways to
addressing problems of individual and
community life.
• We would probably call dispositions habits,
asking ourselves what we typically do when
we face a problem.
4/22/16 Jane Fried, Ph.D.

3. Problem Solving Strategies
• Do we act on impulse?
• Do we have a drink?
• Do we take a deep breath and try to
figure out what’s going on and what a
good resolution might be?
• Do we get angry at the world and try to
find somebody to blame?
4/22/16 Jane Fried, Ph.D.

4. Education for Intellect or
Character?
• Do we really have to choose?
• Education must involve the
development of dispositions, including
the habits of acquiring knowledge,
developing long range aims and
learning to act on the basis of
reflection. “To have this complex
disposition…is to have character. (Dewey as cited in
Frankena, 1965)
4/22/1 Jane Fried, Ph.D.

5. What learning habits have
your students developed?
• Thinking seems to go along with thumb
twitching;
• Answers are equivalent to filling in ovals
on bubble sheets;
• Instantaneous response is expected;
• Is this going to be on the test?
• How long should this paper be?
4/22/16 Jane Fried, Ph.D.

6. • Do your students know how to explain
what answers they think are accurate
and why?
• Do they know how to respond to others
in class who disagree with them?
• Are they still looking for Truth?
• What do they do when confronted with
ambiguity?
• What do you do when confronted with
all of these behaviors and expectations?
4/22/16 Jane Fried, Ph.D.

7. • What is the role of the liberal arts in
character formation?
• What do the liberal arts contribute to
reflective thinking?
• Does our political process reflect an
educated electorate that has a
propensity to think long term and
consider the welfare of our society?
• Or not??????
4/22/16 Jane Fried, Ph.D.

8. WHAT’S
MISSING?
4/22/16 Jane Fried, Ph.D.

9. Self Authorship
• Self-Authorship is the current term that
is roughly equivalent to Dewey’s
character.
• Self-Authorship involves cognitive
(knowledge and meaning),
interpersonal (relational) and
intrapersonal (identity formation)
elements.
• (Baxter-Magolda, 1999)
4/22/16 Jane Fried, Ph.D.

10. • Self authorship connects a person’s
ability to think about problems, engage
in conversations with others about
problems, maintain their sense of
personal values and identity while
simultaneously remaining open to other
experiences, identities and value
systems.
• Does this describe what you are trying
to accomplish in your classes?
4/22/16 Jane Fried, Ph.D.

11. 4/22/16 Jane Fried, Ph.D.
Who are You in your Classroom?

12. Learning, Science and Culture
• Every culture has methods for teaching,
training and enculturating its youth;
• Every culture has an idea about
wisdom, the sources of wisdom and the
people in the group who are wise;
• The Western enlightenment story of
learning is cognitive, individualistic and
does not necessarily involve wisdom or
relationship skills.
4/22/16 Jane Fried, Ph.D.

13. • The Western story of academic learning
is largely based on science and the
evidence it produces as the source of
reliable knowledge.
• Science bases its truth claims on the
availability of material evidence.
• Other cultures have other stories about
reliable knowledge which are based on
intuition and congruence between
personal experience of the elders and
current circumstances.
4/22/16 Jane Fried, Ph.D.

14. Different Ways of Knowing
• In some cultures learning always
involves self- how do I know, why do I
care, does it matter to me or my group?
• In other cultures mixing self and
learning is considered confusing.
Emotions interfere with fact recall.
Knowledge is acquired from the outside
and housed within a mind.
• Fried, J, 2016
4/22/16 Jane Fried, Ph.D.

15. • Some cultures think/feel slowly,
contextually, historically, personally and
communally. Members talk about what
they know. Listening is highly valued.
Knowledge is co-constructed.
• Others cultures describe learning as
impersonal, cognitive, individual,
relatively non-contextual, linear and
relatively non-historical. Members listen
to facts and demonstrate knowledge by
speaking about facts.
• Chavez, A. & Longerbeam,S. (2016)
4/22/16 Jane Fried, Ph.D.

16. • Cultural Stories of
Learning
• Separated
• Cognitive
• Linear
• Connected
• Affective
• Contextual
• Universal
• Scientific Evidence
of Learning
• Knowledge
acquisition
• Affective
Engagement
• Brain plasticity
• Metacognitive
4/22/16 Jane Fried, Ph.D.

17. Two Ideas About Learning
Individuated
• Private,
compartmentalized,
contextually independent.
• Based on the notion of
separate self.
• Purpose of learning is
individual competence.
• Mind as primary funnel of
knowledge.
Integrated
• Interconnected, mutual,
reflective, contextually
dependent.
• Based on group self.
• Purpose of learning is
wisdom, betterment of
self and community.
• Mind/body/spirit/emotion
s/relationships are
conduits of knowledge.
4/22/16 Jane Fried, Ph.D.

18. Two Ideas (cont.)
Individuated
• Learning is a private
individual activity.
• Learning is
compartmentalized,
abstract and measurable.
• Taken from Chavez and
Longerbeam, 2016, pp.8-9
Integrated
• Learning is a shared
activity, each responsible
for the learning of all.
• Learning is connected.
Everything affects the
whole.
• Understanding
connections is
fundamental to learning.
4/22/16 Jane Fried, Ph.D.

19. Who is in Your Classroom?
• Students from both types of cultures
are in your classroom and they process
information very differently.
4/22/16 Jane Fried, Ph.D.

20. Where Science meets Self
• Recent research (Zull, 2002) indicates
that the integrated approach to learning
is a more accurate description of the
kind of learning we would like to
support, learning that matters to
students, that they remember and use,
that they incorporate into their own
stories about who they are and what
they have to offer society.
4/22/16 Jane Fried, Ph.D.

21. Science and Learning
• Zull describes “emotion molecules” that
must be engaged for meaningful
learning to occur. “ More connections
run from the amygdala to the cortex
than run the other way…emotions tend
to overpower cognition” (74), not the
other way around.
4/22/16 Jane Fried, Ph.D.

22. Dewey in the 21st Century
• Zull is speaking to those of us who
teach in the Western individual mode in
our own language.
• He’s telling us that the integrated mode
of teaching/learning is supported by our
scientific observations of brain activity
in the learning process.
4/22/16 Jane Fried, Ph.D.

23. Learning Takes Time
• Learning, on a scientific level, is a
biochemical process. It takes time to
acquire, integrate and connect new
information into previously existing
neural networks of data that are
connected to the new information.
• Everybody’s neural networks are
different.
4/22/16 Jane Fried, Ph.D.

24. Neural Networks
• Networks that fire together wire
together.
• Our strongest neural networks are
composed of information related to who
we think we are and what we care
about.
• If you want students to learn anything,
it must be connected to previous neural
networks, theirs and yours. Specific
information has to matter to everybody.
4/22/16 Jane Fried, Ph.D.

25. Self and Learning:
The Power of Narrative
• Take some time to think about
something very important you have
learned….
• Where, when, with whom?
• What made this learning powerful?
• Did it transform your ideas about
yourself or your world?
4/22/16 Jane Fried, Ph.D.

26. What does the word Learning
mean to you? Define.
• How is your teaching related to student
learning?
• What do you really want them to learn?
• Is that related to self?
• In your experience does self enhance or
confuse learning?
4/22/16 Jane Fried, Ph.D.

27. Descartes and the Western
Narrative
• As it turns out, Descartes was correct in
a limited domain, the domain of what
we now consider science and empirical,
positivist research.
• Our understanding of our world has
become more complex, nuanced and
sophisticated.
• Descartes can take us only so far.
4/22/16 Jane Fried, Ph.D.

28. Descartes and Zull
If you want to take your students on your
journey of learning, discovering and using
what you know to enhance our world,
you have to move beyond Descartes to
applied cognitive science and our
collective search for meaning.
It’s really not that hard and is often a lot
more fun.
4/22/16 Jane Fried, Ph.D.

29. Pause for Reflection
4/22/16 Jane Fried, Ph.D.

30. Engaged, Transformative
Learning
• Is a process which includes both
academic information and connections
to students’ sense of self;
• Students learn to be curious, involved
and questioning.
• They begin to understand that
knowledge may be external (factual)
but the meaning of knowledge is
internal (phenomenlogical/personal).
4/22/16 Jane Fried, Ph.D.

31. • Since learning is biological and physical,
students need time and opportunities to
reflect on what they are learning, so
they can construct reasons why they
need to know.
• Methods use to accomplish this goal are
typically contemplative.
• Contemplative methods include
journaling, alternative modes of
expression such as poetry,drawing or
music4/22/16 Jane Fried, Ph.D.

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33. They also need practice…
• In self expression
• In active listening
• In asking questions and responding to
the questions of other students
• In emotional control
• In self-disclosure
4/22/16 Jane Fried, Ph.D.

34. Your Pedagogy
• You are an expert in your discipline;
• You may need a bit of support in
discussion process and reflection;
• If you show students why you care
about your subject, why it matters to
you,
• And then give them an opportunity to
reflect on why it could matter to them,
nobody will be bored and life will get …
4/22/16 Jane Fried, Ph.D.

35. MUCH MORE INTERESTING
• Students will see connections between
self and knowledge;
• They will be curious about different
beliefs because they don’t have to
defend themselves;
• Dewey’s dispositions will begin to
develop;
• They will be able to think before they
vote.
4/22/16 Jane Fried, Ph.D.

36. 4/22/16 Jane Fried, Ph.D.

37. References
• Baxter-Magolda, M. Creating Contexts for Learning and Self Authorship,
Vanderbilt Univ. Press, 1999
• Chavez, A. & Longerbeam, S. Teaching Across Cultural Strengths,
Stylus, 2016
• Frankena, W. Three Historical Philosophies of Education, Scott
Foresman, 1965
• Fried, J. Of Education, Fishbowls and Rabbit Holes, Stylus Publications,
2016
• Zull, J. The Art of Changing the Brain. Stylus, 2002
4/22/16 Jane Fried, Ph.D.