IDS 801 Introduction to Graduate Liberal Studies

COURSE DESCRIPTION
An orientation to the M.L.S. as an opportunity to enhance the critical thinking, analytical, and writing skills so valued in today's world and workplace. The purpose of the course is to help the student become acquainted with the concept of interdisciplinary liberal education and understand its potential in fostering intellectual growth, personal satisfaction, and the ability to enhance employablity in a world where knowledge has become the key resource.

Instructor: Dr. Arthur L. Morin
                 amorin@fhsu.edu
                 785 628-5578
                 Davis Hall 206

Instructor's goals:
1) To respond to student e-mails within one business day, unless notified otherwise (for example, this means if an e-mail is received on Friday, a response may not be sent until Monday).
2) Provide feedback on student assignments within two business days, unless notified otherwise.

This course will introduce you to interdisciplinary liberal education in three ways.  First, it will introduce you to the MLS program: it will provide a brief description of each of the four core MLS courses (IDS 801, IDS 802, IDS 803, and IDS 804).  Second, it will afford you an opportunity to hear how liberal education is personally, and/or professionally advantageous from the perspectives of six guest lecturers.  Third, taken as a whole, the reading assignments are interdisciplinary.  Course reading and writing assignments will help you develop and enhance your analytical (critical thinking) skills and your writing skills.  One consequence of all this should be intellectual growth and personal satisfaction.  It is hoped that the development and enhancement of analytical and writing skills will improve your employability, but this should be considered a happy coincidence and biproduct.

IDS 801 has several reading and writing assignments.  Aim for perfection in writing.  No late assignments will be accepted, unless the instructor can be convinced that there is a good reason for a late assignment.  If you use an attachment to submit a writing assignment, you must use either a “doc” or an “rtf” file.  The class calendar explains each assignment.  The class calendar can be found in the "Assignments" section of this course's Blackboard site. Please study and become familiar with the class calendar: do that today. I strongly recommend that one of the first actions you take this summer is to develop a study/assignment calendar for the summer.

Please contact me if you have questions about any of the assignments
.

The abbreviated class calendar for assignments. All assignments are explained in the class calendar, available in the "Assignments" section of the this course's Blackboard site.

ASSIGNMENT 1: Introduction. Due June 4.  Worth 100 points.
ASSIGNMENT 2: Essay on the six guest lecturers.  Due June 13.  Worth 100 points.
ASSIGNMENT 3: Responses to questions in First List; comments on responses. Due June 20.  Worth 100 points.
ASSIGNMENT 4: Responses to questions in Second List; comments on responses. Due June 30.  Worth 100 points.
ASSIGNMENT 5: Responses to questions in Third List; comments on responses.  Due July 7.  Worth 100 points.
ASSIGNMENT 6: Responses to questions in Fourth List; comments on responses.  Due July 11.  Worth 100 points.
ASSIGNMENT 7: Responses to questions in Fifth List; comments on responses.  Due July 18.  Worth 100 points.
ASSIGNMENT 8: Critique of assigned article. Due July 22.  Worth 100 points.
ASSIGNMENT 9: Critique of assigned article. Due July 24.  Worth 100 points.
      Total points possible: 900 points.

810-900 points = A
747-809 points = B
630-746 points = C
549-629 points = D
Students earning a "D" or "U" in the class will be required to retake the class.

The MLS program has several expected learning outcomes (listed below).  In IDS 801, we will work toward the following MLS expected learning outcomes:  1a, 1c, 4a, 4b, and 4e.

Goal 1 – To develop an improved ability to understand an intellectual work in any field

a) -To determine the subject matter and theme of an individual work.

b) -To recognize the basic principle upon which a work is based.

c) -To recognize the conclusions of a given work and determine whether the conclusions are warranted.

 
Goal 2 – To recognize the methods of knowing in various disciplines

 -To identify how truth/knowledge is determined in the humanities, social/behavioral sciences, and natural sciences.

 
Goal 3 – To become a wise consumer of knowledge

a) -To improve the student’s ability to differentiate between knowledge and data.

b) -To recognize how the values of a society affects the search for knowledge.

c) -To recognize how new knowledge can change the values of society.

d) -To enhance the student’s ability to understand the importance and uses of knowledge in an emerging knowledge paradigm.

 
Goal 4 – To become a broad-based critical thinker and problem solver

a) -To improve the ability to read and write critically and at an advanced level.

b) -To improve the ability to frame and develop an argument logically dependent on the context.

c) -To develop the student’s oral communication skills.

d) -To increase the level of information literacy and research acumen to make informed choices and conduct lifelong learning.

e) -To develop the ability to deal with ambiguity in problems which have no right or wrong answers.


Sources of interest

 
Mortimer Adler. Labor, leisure, and liberal education http://www.sourcetext.com/grammarian/adler2.html

John J. Doherty, Mary Anne Hansen, and Kathryn K. Kaya. 1999. Teaching information skills in the information age: The need for critical thinking. Library Philosophy and Practice. Spring, Vol 1, Issue #2  http://www.webpages.uidaho.edu/~mbolin/doherty.htm

Peter Drucker. Nov 1996. The age of social transformation. The Atlantic Monthly. http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/ecbig/soctrans.htm

Richard W. Paul. Critical thinking: what, why, and how. http://www.outopia.org/teach/resources/CritThink1.pdf

Plato's Allegory of the Cave http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/world_civ_reader/world_civ_reader_1/plato.html
    Chapter Nine in Plato's The Republic contains an argument related to Dr. Faber's discussion of True Freedom http://www.constitution.org/pla/repub_09.htm

Theo Röhle. September 2007. Desperately seeking the consumer: Personalized search engines and the commercial exploitation of consumer data. First Monday Volume 12, Number 9 http://www.firstmonday.org/issues/issue12_9/rohle/index.html).