通識教育與臺灣的大學教育

General Education and the Higher Education of Taiwan

台灣的大學教育，有一個非常顯著的傳統特色，即是在教育部指揮與管制下運作。如從學校組織到課程類型結構甚至內容，乃至教師薪資與學生學費，皆受教育部之節制。我們也見到台灣的大學校訓或辦學宗旨，能在其實際的教育活動規劃及課程安排設計上，見到兩者之間明顯與具體關聯的並不多。本文發現通識教育推動上的根本困難，其實是和各大學課程，普遍可見的零碎化學分結構有密切的關連。由於台灣的大學每門課的學分單位過於「零碎化」，因此使得學生所需學習的科目種類過多過雜。台灣通識教育面臨的另一結構限制是大學生一入學就分屬於某特定系與班這樣的制度。如此的一種教育制度結構，使得學生知識的學習，受到人為設立的專業圍牆所區隔。經由現況的探討，本文作者指出經由通識教育，將可使學生修習到具有統整社會脈絡的各種知識或技能性課程。並且透過與社會脈絡的統整，也成為可回應生活需求，並豐富生活內涵的教育。通識教育就其內涵而言，即具有的整合知識特質，因此可以說本質上就是一種需要統整各種社會學習資源的教育，也應被期待為一種可導引學生接觸各種知識或經由與社會生活脈絡結合，而有助學生獲得智慧的教育。本文針對台灣各大學在通識教育實施上常見的一些問題，及其根本限制與超越這些限制的可能方向進行探討，除了希望有助釐清通識教育未來應有的樣態，也期望引起大家對於通識教育的關注，共同探索其未來具創新性的發展方向。

The main characteristic of education for the Universities or colleges in Taiwan is that all of then are supervised by the ministry of education for everything. For instance, regardless salaries of faculties and the tuition fee or curriculum planning, all are controlled by the Government. The goal or mission of the universities or colleges, are usually detached from their educational activities in reality. We find that the biggest difficulty for improving the significanct of general education is based on the trivial structure of credits for the hightr education of Taiwan. The other obstacle for the dovelopment of general education is that there are many fixed boundaries between various disciplines and classes. Actually, general education is the kind of curriculum which can help the students to integrate the social resources and different disciplines or technology. Also, it could be an education for the students to get wisdom and to have lively lives. This article is trying to figure out the limitations for the development of general education, and also trying to find out the way of breakthrough for it.