BA Liberal Arts with International Study

Liberal Arts is both an ancient and revived area of study, engaging with well-established traditions in humanities as well as new interdisciplinary formations. Central to the study of Liberal Arts is a practice of critical reflexivity in which students develop skills in negotiating and narrating their position in relation to different theoretical, and experiential challenges and inspirations. 

In this module, students will develop and analyse models and metaphors of cross-disciplinary synthesis and outline their own understandings of the connections made across their studies. Students will draw on concepts of reflective practice and reflexivity to consider how they have been shaped as responsive researchers through their passions, experiences, contexts, and communities. 

Students will engage with a range of interactive and creative resources and develop their critical and reflective responses. The assignment enables students to choose a topic and medium of their choice to best showcase their learning.

•    To enable students to synthesis and connect a broad range of theories and methods from across a student’s interdisciplinary undergraduate career;
•    To equip students with theoretical understandings of and skills in reflective practice and reflexivity 
•    To support students in creative and reflective strategies for interacting with their contexts and reimagining disciplinary texts and traditions 

Across their degree programme, Liberal Arts students take core liberal arts courses, but then select a range of courses relevant to their interests. This course gives students opportunity to identify and reflect on key themes and issues in degree that they have put together, which may be very different to their Liberal Arts peers. The course therefore focuses on the overlapping practices in Liberal Arts, enabling students to consider the act of making their Liberal Arts degree and interdisciplinary learning. Inspired by both the Routledge Handbook of Interdisciplinary Research Methods where each chapter is focused around a particular verb, and by the students who have described Liberal Arts as a ‘DIY’ programme, each section of the course focuses on a different verb that works both practically and metaphorically for understanding Liberal Arts.  

The course also encourages students to consider how different mediums are used for exploring and communicating their chosen themes and issues. 

The course will focus on reflective learning as a pedagogical tool. Seminars will feature different approaches to reflective learning, and students will be encouraged to use these insights as part of their own reflections on their interdisciplinary learning in group discussions. Students will also be trained to develop learning resources to aid new students to use reflective learning in their own studies. The course assessment will bring together reflective learning as a pedagogical tool with an emphasis on students’ own courses and learning throughout their degree. E-learning tools will be provided to facilitate students’ reflections as required, including discussion forums to discuss seminar readings outside of classes, and a personal reflection journal to build notes ahead of the final assessment task.

• Critically assess and apply different theories of interdisciplinarity
• Identify a key theme or issue relevant to the student’s choice of courses over their undergraduate career
• Evaluate possible future directions for disciplinary and interdisciplinary knowledge 

• Synthesise a range of materials
• Analyse and select different genres and mediums for communicating ideas
• Address and reflect on their own subjectivity in the construction of knowledge

• Ability to implement reflective learning in own process (I.e. research, project, task)
• Ability to lead reflective learning and aid others to implement it in their processes
• Communication of key ideas and themes  

• Self-reflection that is suitable for a range of contexts
• Awareness of suitability of different modes and mediums for communicating learning
• Receiving and offering suitable feedback to others 

•    Evelyn M. Boyd and Ann W. Fales, ‘Reflective Learning: Key to Learning from Experience’, Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Vol. 23, No. 2 (1983), pp. 99-117.
•    Jennifer A. Moon, A Handbook of Reflective and Experiential Learning: Theory and Practice (Oxon: Routledge, 2004).
•    Ann Brockbank and Ian McGill, Reflective Learning in Practice (London: Routledge, 2002).
•    Jeni Wilson and Lesley Wing Jan, Thinking for Themselves: Developing Strategies for Reflective Learning (London: Heinemann, 1993).
•    Maxine Alterio and Janice McDrury, Learning Through Storytelling in Higher Education: Using Reflection and Experience to Improve Learning (London: Kogan Page, 2004).
•    Deborah Sugerman, Kathryn Doherty, Daniel Garvey, and Michael Gass, Reflective Learning: Theory and Practice (Dubuque: Kendall/Hunt, 2000).
•    The Routledge International Handbook of Practice-Based Research, edited Craig Vear (London: Routledge, 2021).