一直以来，通识教育所追求的“理性自由”目标要求自身超越自由教育的“自由”内涵，但由于在概念上以及历史事实上相互交集，通识教育与自由教育这二者被部分学者看作是相互捆绑甚至相通相融的关系。杜威曾站在教育民主的角度对自由教育的“阶级性”“政治符号性”“文化标志性”进行了批判，直指其“不自由的陷阱”。因此，通识教育必须超越自由教育的逻辑框架才能达到其自身的“自由”目标。在教育建构主义以及经验论的思想框架下，杜威以“建构—解构—重构”为核心的教育理念为此提供了理论基础。这种教育理念作为一种真正意义上的“自由的教育”为现代大学通识教育提供了一条通往“自由目标”的自由之路，且有望解决目前大学通识教育所面临的一系列问题。

What general education has been pursuing is “rational freedom”, which requires to transcend the conception “liberal” from “liberal education”. However, due to the intersection of definitions and historical facts, general education and liberal education are regarded as two conceptions with plenty of similarities and interactions by some scholars. Dewey criticized the “class nature”, “political symbol” and“cultural symbol” of liberal education from the perspective of educational democracy, pointing out its “traps of illiberality”. Therefore, general education must transcend the logical framework of liberal education to achieve its own goal of “liberty”. Under the ideological framework of educational constructivism and empiricism, Dewey provided the theoretical basis for his core educational concept by “construction-deconstruction-reconstruction”. This special liberal education is different from the traditional one, offering a leading direction for the modern general education in university, which is expected to solve a series of problems faced by general education.