Penn State kicked off its next round of General Education change with a retreat of the full task force and subcommittees yesterday afternoon.  I thought it was a day of good discussion and, more importantly, listening.

As subcommittees met with students, faculty and staff in the Spring semester, it seemed evident that there were some significant concerns and questions about reform. At least some of that centered on the idea of themes. Some of it also centered on the question of whether the Task Force was truly listening to concerns and trying to be responsive. Ann Taylor’s excellent memo summarized the concerns and helped to focus attention on the topic.

As the discussion developed, it appeared to me that the idea that integration can and does happen in many ways–through themes, through individual interdisciplinary courses, through experiential learning opportunities, through integrative capstone courses, through research with faculty, through co-curricular programs, through learning communities–began to surface.

So, maybe the path forward is to discover a way to give students, faculty, and campuses the freedom to offer several different ways to develop integrative thinking, with themes an option among others. A creative approach like this–while certainly much more challenging to assess–might be just the unique Penn State approach needed. With campuses or colleges trying different approaches, we might just learn which ones work for different students, providing an evidence-based contribution to research on this topic.