Reflections on the State of General Education in the 1980s : Focused on the Evaluation and Research on General Education

This article aims to reflect on the state of general education in Korean universities in the 1980s, focusing on the assessment of general education conducted by the Korean Council for University Education in 1984 and 1986 and the results of a study to improve the organization and operation of general education curricula in 1988. In the early 1980s, Korean universities began to pay attention to issues surrounding general education as a starting point for solving long-standing problems in higher education and as a prelude to exploring a new future. Studies by Seoul National University, Yonsei University, and Hanyang University on how to improve general education are representative examples. Meanwhile, in 1984, the Korean Council for University Education conducted an assessment of the general education and the education of national ethics and ideological criticism as part of the assessment of each academic area, and in 1986, it conducted an assessment of the national courses and college courses along with the assessment of the general education as a whole. The two assessments summarized the state of general education in 1980s as follows. First, general education had two goals: the perfection of personality and basic education for majors, with more weight given to the latter than the former. Second, with the introduction of the pilot system, institutions dedicated to general education were abolished, and general education became the responsibility of the office of academic affairs or individual departments. Third, the general education curriculum consisted of two-thirds of compulsory courses such as national courses and college courses, and the remaining one-third was dominated by basic courses for majors. Fourth, as full-time professors and senior professors avoided teaching general education courses, part-time lecturers with short teaching experience were responsible for nearly half of general education. Fifth, general education courses had an average class size of more than 100 students, and were dominated by one-sided lectures by professors who focused on delivering fragmented knowledge. Sixth, while individual courses had their own problems, they were either organized by the departments involved or by the office of academic affairs, so there was no single entity dedicated to curriculum or course development. A policy study was conducted to improve this situation, and 14 proposals were made in six areas, including the essential status of general education, the goals of general education, the selection of contents of general education, the type and organization of general education courses, the number of general education courses, and the management system of general education courses, but it took time to be implemented. The abolition of national courses in 1989 paved the way for new changes, but as basic courses for majors took their place, general education went through another period of struggle.