Curriculum and Beyond Curriculum or Rolling on the General Education River Paul L. Gaston Trustees Professor, Kent St

1. Curriculum—and Beyond CurriculumorRolling on the General Education RiverPaul L. GastonTrustees Professor, Kent State University

2. Objectives To review the principal elements in an emerging curricular consensus Consulting the blueprints. To engage in an exercise calling on a rudimentary logic of curricular development Building the riverboat. To look beyond the curriculum at elements critical to the success of curricular reform Heading downriver and looking out for shoals. To share our thinking about approaches to these elements Navigating the shoals.

4. Strive for Solid Construction (1) Show respect for construction traditions . . . Are there strong elements in the current program that should be preserved? Are there appropriate elements of successful models elsewhere that might be incorporated in the modification or new design? Does the design team understand the political advantages in a degree of continuity?

5. Strive for Solid Construction (2) Agree on essential design elements . . . Does the program provide students with knowledge of human cultures and the natural and physical world? Do students develop competitive intellectual and practical skills? Do students mature in their commitment to individual and social responsibilities? Does the program offer ample opportunity for integrative learning?

6. Ensure a Reliable Source of Fuel Are actual costs, returns of current program documented? Is there potential for additional investment in program? Is there awareness of costs embedded in proposed reforms? How powerful are the constraints, present and emerging? Are there alternate paths to similar objectives?

7. Install a Focused Spotlight Are program goals communicated in view book and catalog? Are campus tour leaders on board? Are advisors well-informed and accountable? Are program goals celebrated in orientation and first-year experience programs? Is a commitment to diversity “beamed” at every opportunity? Are public events—opening convocation to commencement—used to express the general education commitment?

8. Keep the Wheelhouse Windows Clean Do course syllabi in the general education program (a) make clear the learning objectives of the course and (b) suggest the applications of the course to related fields of study? Do course syllabi in the majors make clear the general education competencies and breadth assumed in advanced study courses? Do faculty members refer frequently to such associations in teaching and advising?

9. Keep Up the Maintenance Is there a broadly shared commitment to the assessment of learning outcomes? Is that commitment understood and supported at the department level? Does assessment measure accomplishment relative to clearly stated learning outcomes? Are the results of assessment used to upgrade course design and teaching? Is there provision for regularly revisiting and, if appropriate, revising the general education program?

12. The C-worthiness check list

13. Coherence Continuity Common learning Competence development Community consciousness

14. Coherence Does the general education curriculum reflect—and influence—the institution’s mission? Are its goals clear? Well understood? Does the curriculum embody genuine choices? Does the curriculum express a conscious emphasis on learning? Are the objectives of courses clearly stated? Is there a recognizable logic to the curriculum? Do transfer students gain access to the general education values of the institution?

15. Continuity Are there clear links between general education and education in the chosen field? Are values of general education expressed in chosen field study? Vice-versa ? Are there opportunities for students and faculty to build (and cross) bridges between general education and education in the chosen field? Does the community college curriculum articulate well with four-year curricula? And vice-versa? Are the values of general education available to the transfer student?

16. Common learning What are the odds that two students, meeting at random on campus, will have read the same book? Considered similar intellectual issues? Explored analogous questions? Does the curriculum embody an overall understanding that effective common learning (what is learned) requires a deliberate focus on learning (how it is learned)?

17. Competence development, e.g. ? Can students who complete the institution’s foreign language requirement order a croissant in Paris or a latte in Florence? ? Are students who complete the quantitative reasoning requirement “numerate”? ? Are all students effective epistemologists? I.e., “computer fluent”?

18. Community consciousness Do students have the opportunity to celebrate campus and community diversity? Do students confront competing notions of the common good? Are issues of citizenship raised? Explored? Tested? Enacted? Are transfer students oriented to the culture of the community?

19. In sum, a “riverboat” curriculum… Offers passage towards a chosen destination Enables the boat to stay on course while responding to the winds of change Avoids running onto the sandbars of curricular fads Remains alert to changes in the environment Expresses a tested design while inviting adaptation

20. Let’s build a boat! Weigh your goals. Most easily achieved? Most critical? Most challenging? Select planning priorities. Low-hanging fruit? A “signature” reform? A “stretch” reform?

21. Select and state a general education curricular goal for Esoteric College. Step 1

22. Step 2 Relative to the defined goal, choose three objectives: a One likely to be easily achieved b One significant and symbolic—yet realistic c One well worth aspiring to—but perhaps a stretch within the present culture of Esoteric College

23. Step 3 Propose an initiative or curricular element that would address each of these objectives

24. For example IF THE GOAL WERE “All students who graduate from Esoteric College should do so with a keen appreciation for and the ability to function well within a world with no boundaries.”

25. objectives a Ensure that all students take at least two courses with significant international content (easy) b Provide all students with access to a one-semester international experience (significant but realistic) c Ensure that all graduates possess functional competence in at least one second language (stretch)

26. initiatives a Identify courses in all disciplines with international content and require students to include at least two in their degree plans (easy) b Create a fee-banking system that requires all students to invest towards an international experience (significant but realistic) c Require all degree applicants to demonstrate competence in a second language by appropriate performance on an nationally accepted assessment instrument (stretch)

27. blueprint 1 Select and state a general education curricular goal for Esoteric College. 2 Relative to the defined goal, choose three objectives: a One likely to be easily achieved b One significant and symbolic—yet realistic c One well worth aspiring to—but perhaps a stretch within the present culture of Esoteric College 3 Propose an initiative or curricular element that would address each of these objectives

28. Launch!

30. Three Shoals 1 Faculty resistance or indifference 2 Structural impediments 2 Inadequate or uninviting faculty development

31. THE FIRST SHOAL Faculty resistance or indifference.

32. Your institution can offer . . . A coherent curriculum that offers continuity, assures competencies, enables common learning, and encourages community consciousness Adequate classroom resources Learning opportunities outside of the classroom Rational outcomes assessment

33. . . . but unless every member of the faculty, whatever his or her field of expertise, contributes to the liberal education of every student . . .

34. The result can be disappointing For faculty members dedicated to general education For students and their families For those who will employ students or educate them in graduate school

35. What’s the bad news? Otherwise principled, knowledgeable, professional faculty members may convey the message that liberal education goals are either a harmless diversion or a meaningless distraction.

36. What makes it worse? Students are more likely to hear this message within their majors, in their third and fourth years, when they have become more clearly focused, more self-interested, and more highly motivated.

37. What’s the good news? The opportunity all of us enjoy, whatever our disciplines or degree of specialization, to further the liberal education of our students When supported by a curricular structure that is coherent, that allows for continuity between general education and the major, that provides for common learning, and that builds a sense of community, faculty members can accomplish wonders

38. NAVIGATING THE FIRST SHOAL How do we increase the odds that our colleagues will support the liberal education aims of our general education curriculum?

39. THE SECOND SHOAL “I’m sorry, but we can’t re-write the catalog.” “There’s no way we can make that work given the current budget structure.” “The state has reporting requirements that we have to meet.”

40. THE SECOND SHOAL “Our human resources system can’t handle team teaching.” “Our software is plain vanilla—and you’re proposing a chocolate macadamia nut curriculum.”

41. NAVIGATING THE SECOND SCHOALHow can we work with administrators to make certain that “the system” can absorb the results of curricular reform?

42. THE THIRD SHOAL “Assessment? I give tests, don’t I?” “Learning outcomes? I’m teaching, aren’t I?” “Learning styles? There’s just one that works: pay attention! ” “Faculty development is for junior faculty trying to earn tenure.”

43. NAVIGATING THE THIRD SCHOALHow can we ensure that faculty development is (a) adequate to the demands of the new program and (b) inviting to the faculty who have most to benefit from it?

44. You’re the captain! Consider the case study assigned to your group. Discuss possible approaches to a solution. Prepare a two-minute briefing for all the other crew members.

45. First Shoal (A) As chair of the English Department at Euphoria Community College, you have taken a prominent role in the development of the new general education curriculum. An up-or-down vote on the curriculum is scheduled for the Faculty Assembly in a week’s time. Because you believe the vote may be close, you are lobbying other chairs to vote in favor. Your colleague, the Chair of Accounting, interrupts you. “Give me three good reasons why I or my faculty should even care about this. None of us teaches any general education courses.” You accept the challenge. What three reasons do you give?

46. First Shoal (B) You are a faculty member in Chemistry at Broad Plateau University, a 33,000-student land grant research institution. Having been a member of your university’s team at the IGE, you believe deeply in every faculty member’s responsibility for the liberal education of every student. But because of the team’s concerns about the effectiveness of any administrative mandate, you and your colleagues commit to an “each one, teach one” approach. Now the fall semester has begun. You are once again among your colleagues in Chemistry. How do you put into practice the approach decided on among your team?

47. Second Shoal (A) Your Far North University team returns from MPS with a modest but distinctive plan for General Education reform—a proposed commitment to interdisciplinary instruction that would enable every student to take two team-taught courses and ask every faculty member to join in teaching one such course every two years. The Faculty Senate “fast tracks” the proposal and approves it 45-3. Then the provost asks to speak with you. “It’s an interesting idea,” she says. “But the bottom line is that we can’t do it. Our new budget model places ‘every tub on its own bottom.’ Departments have to earn their budgets by generating income in excess of their costs. Anything, and I mean anything, that appears likely to limit the earning ability of a department—and that includes courses taught with faculty members from other departments—just won’t fly.” How do you respond? What do you do next?

48. Second Shoal (B) Part of your planned GE reform at North by Northwest State is the offering of competence-based credit in two pilot areas: languages and numerancy. The Faculty Senate has approved a three-year experiment, and faculty members have defined learning outcomes that will qualify a student for credit. But the Registrar has three objections. First, the university policy manual defines three credit hours as “equivalent to” 45 hours of classroom instruction. Second, the policies of the state board contain a similar definition. Finally, she believes the university’s regional accreditor may frown on the award of credit not tied to “seat time.” She advises: “First secure changes in these institutional and state policies. Then obtain clearance from the South Central Association. Then I’ll consider your proposal.” Knowing how long it takes to bring about changes in policy, your and your colleagues want to address these concerns more directly so that you may move forward. How do you proceed?

49. Third Shoal (A) Following the approval of your general education reform proposal by the Faculty Senate at Crooked River College, the Director of Assessment meets with the IGE team. “Great!” she says. “Because of the new GE program, we can now require that every faculty member toe the line. Henceforth, every syllabus will have to list learning objectives. And every course evaluation will have to track success in achieving these objectives. This is long overdue! When should I send the memo?” As chair of the IGE team responsible for the reform proposal, how do you respond?

50. Third Shoal (B) You have returned from MSP and secured Faculty Senate approval of an impressive upgrade in the GE program of Lower Midwest University, but your team will not consider its task accomplished until your faculty colleagues understand the importance of appealing to differing learning styles among students. To this end, your team meets with the director of the Faculty Professional Development Center. You expect him to be supportive—but surprisingly he isn’t! “Our job is to help young faculty become better teachers and earn tenure. We can’t take on the thankless task of trying to persuade senior faculty to change their ways of doing business.” How do you respond to him? What do you and your team do following the meeting?

51. Three Shoals, Six Hazards 1A Three good reasons why accountancy faculty should weigh in on GE reform. 1B How to spread the GE gospel, one faculty member at a time. 2A Securing approval of interdisciplinary team teaching despite “every tub on its own bottom.” 2B Navigating red tape so as to experiment with competency-based credit. 3A Counseling the Assessment Director on the release of a mandate. 3B Ensuring adequate faculty responsiveness to different learning styles to support curricular reform.

52. Journey’s End A well-crafted boat A carefully planned launch A knowledgeable and resourceful navigation plan And before you know it . . .

53. General Education Reform is a reality(or, in other words)