Beyond the dichotomy of liberal and vocational education

Jeong, Yeon Jae

Korean Journal of General Education 2019;13(1):11-29.
Published online February 28, 2019.

Yeon Jae Jeong

자유교육과 직업교육의 이분법을 넘어서

정연재

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to envision the essential feature of Good Educational Practice(GEP) as a effective and innovative model for balanced education. More specifically, it aims at fostering good educational practices which overcome the traditional dichotomy of ‘liberal’ and ‘vocational’ education and link general education to major education. The GEP is intended to suggest undergraduate students how to enhance creative and convergent thinking and how to apply their knowledge to new problems and unexpected situations across the curriculum. This study is organized as follows. The first section analyzes the crises of university education in the fast-changing society. The second section summarize the feature of GEP. The GEP initiative promotes (1) process-centered education which encourages a student’s development through knowledge (2) practice-centered education which does not separate learning from its application in ethical context, (3) education to enhance the formation of tacit knowledge, (4) student-initiated education based on self-directed learning. The third section summarizes the general education plan of Frontier College. Frontier College sets educational objective as ‘Balanced Education’ by considering the core elements of liberal education and tries to accomplish the educational objective through six strategies. The final section clarifies the importance of professor’s role in charge of general education. Educational excellence can be demonstrated in the shared responsibility which requires organizational collaboration as well as professor’s individual effort.

Key Words: Good Educational Practice(GEP), Balanced education, Process-centered education, Practicecentered education, Educational excellence