The Wonderful World of LS
CK Cheung, Faculty of Education,
HKU
Warm up exercise 1
• Raise 1 question you have about Liberal
Studies
• What comes to you mind when I say LS?
• + - 0
Understanding the generation
today
• From observing to constructing (blog); the issue of
privacy
• From a ready-made world to constructing a world (RPG,
Youtube)
• From learning to ‘playing’, entertainment –
edutainment – infotainment
• From kid to adult to kidult
• From papermedia to hypermedia to virtual media
• From outsiders to networkers (networked individualism)
• From children to child
• From no choice to plenty
• The ‘ME’, ‘THUMB’ generation
• The age of narcissism
Solution
• From globalization to glocalization (connection
and contextualization)
• From moral panic to critical thinking
• From instancy (popular culture) to constancy
(values)
• From information to formation to transformation
• From passive reception to active reflection
(participatory culture and ownership)
• Paradigm shift: teaching - learning, learning –
teaching, production – learning – teaching
• From education to leadership training
Questions
• What are the challenges ahead?
• What will become obsolete?
• What is the world like now and what will it
be like 20 years down the road? (a story
about a P.5 girl writing composition)
• How shall we then act?
3 essential skills
• Observation (known)
• Questioning (yet to be known)
• Imagination (unknown)
What is learning?
• It is the acquisition and retention of what’s
been learnt after the initial exposure has
been terminated.
• Suchman’s theory: its the interaction
between encounters and organizers
• Development of inquiry: look at rubbish
and find the answer
Why LS ?
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A changing world of young people in HK
Political change
Social change : wealth, autonomy
Globalization: interconnected world, multicultural and multi-perspective, universal
consumerist culture, homogenization and yet
fragmentation
• A need to be questioning and analytical in the
face of change, new forces and increasing
complexity
Can LS save HK?
• How is knowledge acquired?
• Is foundation knowledge needed?
• Who wrote the curriculum guide? Will it be
too visionary to know what is significant to
students, society, and the world?
• If LS is so good, why didn’t schools
implement it when it was lst introduced in
the 90s
• GS-Junior LS-Life and Society
The meanings of “liberal”
• concerned with being open-minded,
unprejudiced, free from pedantry (賣弄學
問、迂腐)
• being free and freed from narrow views;
• being willing to understand, accept and
respect the ideas, opinions, feelings and
actions of others which are different from
one's own
• willing to understand and respect the ideas
and feelings of others;
• favouring some change…
• favouring a wide general knowledge, the
broadening of the mind and wide
possibilities for self-expression
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
What is Liberal Education?
Education that enlarges and disciplines the
mind and makes it master of its own powers,
irrespective of the particular business or
profession one may follow.
Webster Dictionary
Curriculum aims
(a) to enable students to develop multiple
perspectives on perennial and contemporary
issues in different contexts (e.g. cultural,
social, economic, political and technological
contexts);
(b) to enhance students’ understanding of
themselves, their society, their nation, the
human world and the physical environment;
(c) to help students become independent thinkers
so that they can construct knowledge
appropriate to changing personal and social
circumstances;
(d) to develop in students a range of skills for life-long
learning, including critical thinking skills, creativity,
problem-solving skills, communication skills and
information technology skills;
(e) to help students appreciate and respect diversity in
cultures and views in a pluralistic society and handle
conflicting values; and
(f) to help students develop positive values and attitude
towards life, so that they can become informed and
responsible citizens of society, the country and the
world (CDC and HKEAA 2007: 5).
What can LS do?
• discussion-, question, and action-centered
• build on the existing knowledge and experience of
students
• help them understand the social forces controlling their
lives
• civic responsibility and human emancipation
• liberating, empower students and lead to social change
• raise social consciousness, instill political awareness
• “to liberate themselves…to develop a critical
attitude…which allows them to think, to question,…to
begin to re-evaluate themselves
• learning to think, to inquire, and to take action
• not impose any political doctrine