Implementing the General Education Reform: Our Joint Task
(Excerpted from a Dec. 2015 report by John Moore, Chair, Special Senate Committee on Implementation of General Education Reform, and Associate Professor Emeritus of English and Comparative Literature)
- Integrative Learning. Why?
There seems to be a desire to encourage students to see how the various parts of their education interact and cohere. The reform seeks to develop a respect for multiple perspectives on an issue and for the differing epistemologies required to understand it.
- Senate legislation, 4-28-15. Five points in the Senate charge.
- Recommendation 6: (a) Require 6 credits of Integrative Studies as part of the General Education Baccalaureate requirements;
- (b) create inter-domain courses as a way for students to accomplish the Integrative Studies requirement;
- (c) create linked courses as a way to offer the Integrative Studies component;
- (d) replace the “9-6-3” substitution with the more flexible “Move 3” substitution; and
- (e) allow an Integrative Studies course to satisfy the flexible 3 credits of exploration within the Associate Degree General Education Curriculum. Implementation by the Senate Special Committee on General Education Reform.
- Task of the Special Senate Committee: How to fit 6 additional credits of Integrative Studies within the existing 45 credits of General Education?
- What is the time line?
- Fall 2016: colleges propose Integrative Studies courses to SCCA , pair faculty from different domains, and select faulty to teach inter-domain courses.
- F all 2017: colleges submit scheduling materials to the Registrar for Fall 2018
- Fall 2018: new freshmen arrive under a new degree audit, one requiring 6 cr. of Integrative Studies by choosing one of two pathways: Linked or Inter-domain.
- What is a Inter Domain Course? An inter-domain course meets the criteria for two to three different Breadth of Knowledge domains (GA, GH, GHW, GN, GS) with each domain receiving approximately equal attention in the course. Topics, learning activities, assessments, and other aspects of the course will enable students to practice integrative thinking across both knowledge domains
- What is a Linked course? A Linked course is a three-credit General Education Knowledge Domain course that deals with material parallel with that found in another domain. These courses are linked by subject matter, but they may be linked by some other common interest such as methodology, an engaged scholarship project etc. Proposals for Linked Course pairings will be sent together to SCCA. TBD: Will Linked Courses come in clusters in addition to set pairs?
- Where do Linked courses come from? Proposals for new and current course pairings will be sent to SCCA for approval. Only SCCA can award the Linked or Inter-domain designation
- Ideally, the two Linked courses should occur in the same semester or in adjacent semesters. But, if necessary, they can be taken in other semesters. Flexibility is necessary.
- Where do Inter-domain courses come from? Some exist now, but most will have to be proposed to SCCA which will adopt a special Fast Track procedure. Therefore, beginning this May, various colleges must begin the process for submitting proposals for Linked or Inter-domain courses to SCCA.
- What does SCCA need in a proposal to establish either a Linked Course and an Inter-domain course?
- Does the course meet the General Education requirements (Learning Objectives -details are under development by SCCA)
- Does the course meet the criteria for domain 1?
- Does the course meet the criteria for domain 2?
- Does the course integrate the content and give approximately equal treatment to each domain?
- Who will teach these Integrative Studies courses? Faculty who teach Gen Ed courses now.
- How will students use these courses to graduate?
Starting in Fall 2018, Linked Courses will function separately within the degree audit somewhat as they do now:
- Each Linked course will fulfill 3 cr. in a Gen Ed Knowledge domain, e.g., GA, GH, GHW, GN, or GS.
- Each Linked course will also produce a check-off in the 6 cr. Integrative Studies line.
- Inter-domain courses will function somewhat as US-Il courses do now.
- Each Inter-domain course will produce a check-off in the Integrative Studies line.
- Each Inter-domain course (e.g. GA/GH) will also
1) fulfill 3cr in one of the Knowledge Domains and
2) produce a check-off or exposure in the other Knowledge Domain. That exposure fulfills a domain req. but will not earn 3cr. One earns only 3 cr for an inter domain course.
- This exposure or check off will resemble the Other Cultures check off in the BA degree program or an H course in Schreyer Honors College. It also resembles the current US-IL requirement.
- Each completed Inter-domain course will result in the opportunity to take 3 cr of Exploration, a 3 cr Gen Ed course of the student’s choosing in any domain.
- Students in both Linked and Inter domain pathways will be able to choose one 3cr course by way of Move 3.
- How will they function within the degree audit? A student who takes an inter domain course combining two domains e.g. GH and GA or GN and GS will receive a check-off in one box of Integrative Studies and 3cr in one of the domain boxes or lines. Two Inter Domain courses will result in an exposure. Each checkoff or exposure will fulfill a domain req. However, one will not be able to fulfill an entire domain, e.g. 6 cr of GH by way of two exposures.
- Students must fulfill 45 cr. of General Education coursework
- Key: students should experience the coherence between two courses from two separate domains, two ways of arriving at a true statement about the nature of things.
- The instructor in an inter domain course encourages a respect for multiple perspectives and for differing epistemologies, one of the basic goals of General Education.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.