大學通識教育經典閱讀課程的成效與評量研究

The Impact and Assessment of Classics Reading Courses in General Education in Taiwan's Universities

自從八○年代後通識課程逐漸吸納共同科目，使得原來大學課程中的共同科目朝向通識化發展與設計後，「經典閱讀」與「經典教育」便成為高等教育中經常被提及的課程內容，我們在從事經典閱讀或教育的過程中，恐怕忽略一個關鍵的問題－－閱讀行為固然有其方法與策略的考量規劃，但閱讀行為本質上應該屬於個人生活的一部分，但是學校在從事經典閱讀或教育時，也同時將具有客觀性與形式意義的學術框架放入閱讀行為中，使得經典閱讀或教育較容易脫離個人生活。經典閱讀的推動有其正當性與必要性，但實踐至今仍然發現其具有諸多需要釐清之處：包括經典閱讀與經典教育的分流思考、專業閱讀者所樹立的強勢詮釋姿態對非專業讀者的障礙、脫離生活的經典閱讀／教育等，都是本文討論的重心；其餘如經典閱讀／教育的驗證機制也通常以靜態（書面的、文字回饋式的）形式進行，這個部分只能呈現一部分的成果，而更重要的面向卻無法透過這個機制獲得確認。本文希望透過回顧反省目前臺灣地區高等校院推動經典閱讀的現況，在強調以學生學習成果為導向的立場上，檢討目前經典閱讀教育的檢核閱讀成果的方式，是否流於形式與僵化，以及是否有新的成效檢核方式、與評量的多元性及可能性。

Ever since general education courses started to be absorbed into common subjects in the 1980s, ＂classics reading＂ and ＂classics education＂ have received frequent mention in higher education. As each academic field has its own set of classics, ＂classics reading＂ is by definition closely related to the canon of each discipline. To promote classics education, many universities have been putting a lot of effort into creating an environment classics reading. Some created billboard signs with quotes from classics on campus; others tried to improve the reading spaces for classics. However, the more important issue at hand lies with the method of teaching classics. Universities need to realize that readers, critics, and writers of classics are three different categories of individuals that rarely overlap. Although the analysis of classics should follow certain methods and strategies, the reading of classics should be closely tied to the readers' personal experiences. Unfortunately, classics are currently taught at universities in a way that enforces impersonal, academic frameworks onto this private experience, thus detaching the act of reading from the readers' lives. While the promotion of classics reading is legitimate and necessary, there are many aspects in current classics education that can be debated. For instance, these include whether classics reading and classics education should be considered separately; whether authoritative readings of classics by field specialists would pose an obstacle to a non-specialist reader's understanding of the texts; and whether classics are divorced from the reader's personal experience, etc. These problems are at the center of concern in this article. There's also the problem of how best to assess the impact of classics education. Currently, evaluations are predominantly based on static, written feedback; this method fails to gauge the more essential impact classics education has on the readers. This article reviews the effectiveness of classics reading courses in Taiwan's higher education. It will discuss whether the current mechanisms are effective, whether they are too formulaic and rigid, and whether there are newer, more diverse, and better ways to evaluate how well students learn in these classics reading courses.