The new SAS Core Curriculum

1. The new SAS Core Curriculum

2. The Ad Hoc Core Curriculum Committee Membership, 2007-8 Chair:Randy Gallistel, Psychology SAS Faculty Members: Dennis Bathory, Political Science Harriet Davidson, English and WGS Monica Driscoll, MBB Frances Egan, Philosophy Jane Grimshaw, Linguistics Dorothy Hodgson, Anthropology Jane Junn, Poli. Science Mohan Kalelkar, Physics and Astronomy Elizabeth Leake, Italian James Masschaele, History Terry McGuire, Genetics Lorraine Piroux, French Thomas Prusa, Economics Ben Sifuentes-Jáuregui, American Studies Kathryn Uhrich, Chemistry Andrew Vershon, MBB Appointed Members from other Units: Warren Crown, Learning & Teaching, GSE Martin Markowitz, Associate Dean of NB Undergraduate Program, RBS Patricia Mayer, Dance, MGSA Brent Ruben, Communication, SCILS Paula Voos, Labor Studies, SMLR Ex-Officio Members (non-voting): Peter Klein, Acting Executive Vice Dean Michael Beals, Vice Dean for Undergraduate Education Susan E. Lawrence, Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education Vic Tulli, Associate Dean of SAS (staffing) Student Members (non-voting): Chad Kim SAS-LC ’09 Brenna Krieger SAS-DC ’09 Aaron McKay SAS-UC ’10 (until Feb. 2008)

3. Approved by the faculty May 5, 2008

4. Implementation: certification of courses Stewart Mohr Lenore Neigeborn Jeff Rubin Louisa Schein Kathleen Scott John Taylor Julie Traxler Gail Triner Paula Voss Core Requirements Committee Membership, 2008-11 • Chair – Larry Scanlon • Ousseina Alidou • Tamar Brill • Barbara Cooper • Martha Haviland • Mary Hawkesworth • Douglas Johnson • Mohan Kalelkar • John Kolassa • Susan Lawrence • Elizabeth Leake • Jennifer Mandelbaum

5. Points of Agreement Distribution Requirements

6. Points of Agreement

7. Hanging over us was Assessment This meant that: What ever way we defined “critical thinking” --- or any other general education goal --- we were going to have to have and assess student learning outcome goals. • Student learning goals • Method of assessment

8. Resources on Assessment for SAS faculty

9. ONESOLUTION A goal-based Core Curriculum with authentic, minimally invasive, efficient, and valid formative assessment tools suited to our specific learning goals. This is an innovative, but unfamiliar, approach to General Education. While this poses some implementation challenges, it also makes SAS well poised to be a national leader in 21st C curricular design.

10. The SAS Core is based on overlapping and mutually reinforcing learning goals that form the core of a modern liberal arts and sciences education at a leading 21st C research university. • The learning goals clearly articulate what SAS students are able to do upon completion of the Core, incorporating the reasons for these requirements right into the requirements themselves.

11. 21ST CENTURY CHALLENGES (≥ 6 credits) Students will meet two goals. [21C] Students will be able to: • Analyze the degree to which forms of human difference shape a person’s experiences of and perspectives on the world. • Analyze a contemporary global issue from a multidisciplinary perspective. • Analyze the relationship that science and technology have to a contemporary social issue. • Analyze issues of social justice across local and global contexts.

12. All courses meet the first goal and at least one more AREAS OF INQUIRYNatural Sciences (≥6 credits) All courses meet the first goal and at least one other. Students must meet two goals. [NS] Students will be able to: • Understand and apply basic principles and concepts in the physical or biological sciences. • Explain and be able to assess the relationship among assumptions, method, evidence, arguments, and theory in scientific analysis. • Identify and critically assess ethical and societal issues in science.

13. AREAS OF INQUIRYSocial [SCL] and Historical [HST] Analysis All SCL and HST courses meet at least one of the first three goals.Students will be able to:• Understand the bases and development of human and societal endeavors across time and place.• Explain and be able to assess the relationship among assumptions, method, evidence, arguments, and theory in social and historical analysis.• Identify and critically assess ethical issues in social science and history. All Historical Analysis courses also meet one of the three shared goals Historical Analysis (≥3 credits) Students must meet one goal. [HST] Students will be able to: • Explain the development of some aspect of a society or culture over time, including the history of ideas or history of science. • Employ historical reasoning to study human endeavors.

14. AREAS OF INQUIRYSocial [SCL] and Historical [HST] Analysis All SCL and HST courses meet at least one of the first three goals.Students will be able to:• Understand the bases and development of human and societal endeavors across time and place.• Explain and be able to assess the relationship among assumptions, method, evidence, arguments, and theory in social and historical analysis.• Identify and critically assess ethical issues in social science and history. All Social Analysis courses also meet one of the three shared goals Social Analysis (≥3 credits) Students must meet one goal. [SCL] Students will be able to: • Understand different theories about human culture, social identity, economic entities, political systems, & other forms of social organization. • Apply concepts about human and social behavior to particular questions or situations.

15. Courses will be identified by specific goal AREAS OF INQUIRYArts and Humanities (≥6 credits) Students must meet two goals. [AH] Students will be able to: • Examine critically philosophical and other theoretical issues concerning the nature of reality, human experience, knowledge, value, and/or cultural production. • Analyze arts and/or literatures in themselves and in relation to specific histories, values, languages, cultures, and technologies. • Understand the nature of human languages and their speakers. • Engage critically in the process of creative expression.

16. Courses are certified for multiple goals; students will meet all 5 goals in 3 courses COGNITIVE SKILLS AND PROCESSESWriting and Communication [WC] (≥9 credits: 355:101; one WCr; and one WCd.) Students will meet all goals. Students will be able to: • Communicate complex ideas effectively, in standard written English, to a general audience. • Respond effectively to editorial feedback from peers, instructors, and/or supervisors through successive drafts and revision. [WCr] • Communicate effectively in modes appropriate to a discipline or area of inquiry. [WCd] • Evaluate and critically assess sources and use the conventions of attribution and citation correctly. • Analyze and synthesize information and ideas from multiple sources to generate new insights.

17. COGNITIVE SKILLS AND PROCESSESQuantitative and Formal Reasoning (≥6 credits or ≥3 plus placement out of ≥3) Students must meet two goals. [QFR] Students will be able to: • Formulate, evaluate, and communicate conclusions and inferences from quantitative information. [QFRq] • Apply effective and efficient mathematical or other formal processes to reason and to solve problems. [QFRr] (students may meet QFRr through placing in a higher level 640 course whose prerequisite meets the goal)

18. A Word About the Quantitative and Formal Reasoning Requirements • All students still must take the math placement test. • All students who place into 640:025 will automatically be registered for it during their first semester. • When advising potential majors, be sure to note any math prerequisites they will need in order to complete the majors.

19. COGNITIVE SKILLS AND PROCESSESInformation Technology and Research (≥3 credits) Students must meet one goal. [ITR] Students will be able to: • Employ current technologies to access information, to conduct research, and to communicate findings. • Analyze and critically assess information from traditional and emergent technologies. • Understand the principles that underlie information systems. Nearly every course in this category is also certified as meeting other Core goals. We also need faculty to submit more courses in this category

20. A SINGLE COURSE MAY BE USED TO MEET MULTIPLE GOALS. • ALL COURSES MUST BE CREDIT-BEARING, GRADED COURSES CERTIFIED BY THE SAS FACULTY AS MEETING CORE GOALS. • (e.g., E credit courses cannot be used to meet goals, nor can pass/no credit courses). • Generally it will take 10–14 courses to complete the Core, some of which may also fulfill major or minor requirements.

21. What is critical thinking?verb: to think critically All of the Core goals include a specific type of kind of critical thinking activity that students will be able TO DO when they complete a Core course – Students are not simply taking courses in particular subjects. *****The goals provide students with the REASON they have to take these courses and it gives them prepackaged language for resumes, etc. • Analyze • Apply • Assess • Communicate • Employ • Engage • Evaluate • Examine • Explain • Formulate • Identify • Understand

22. Side bar on page 4 How Do We Know the Core Works? Our Commitment to a Culture of Evidence. In the School of Arts and Sciences, we don’t just require students to take courses and assume they achieve these goals. Only a special, limited group of courses is certified as meeting Core Curriculum goals. These courses put specific Core Curriculum goals front and center in their course design and regularly assess student achievement of these Core goals using state-of-the-art authentic assessment measures. Our faculty members are constantly improving their Core courses to better meet these goals. Only courses that have committed to this process are certified as Core courses. This is why some particular courses are certified while other courses that may seem to have similar or analogous foci are not. This is your assurance that SAS students develop the capabilities the Core promises. Learn more at sasoue.rutgers.edu.

23. How we assess There are several typical methods of assessment. Most of our Core courses are using some of the 28 rubrics we have created to go with each learning goal. The rubric is used to score a set of assignments or exam questions that ask the student to actually DO the goal. . You can read these rubrics and learn more about what each of these 28 goals means in the “Faculty Guide to Submitting Courses for Certification in the Core Curriculum” on the SAS OUE web page.

24. Certification of Courses for the Core Curriculum • The new Core focuses on the student’s achievement • goals and attainment of capabilities at a foundational level. • By design, the SAS Core goals track nearly any reasonable articulation • of the fundamental goals of a liberal arts and sciences curriculum. • Thus, virtually all the courses we offer will, in some measure, • advance student achievement of some of these Core goals. • But, of course, we don’t want to certify every course we offer as • meeting Core goals; there was very clear faculty agreement that the Core • will be more meaningful to students if there are shorter, more focused, lists of courses than we have been accustom to under distribution requirements.

25. CRC’s Guidelines • Courses certified for the Core musthave the relevant learning goals front and center in their design. The Core goals should be highlighted on the first page of the syllabus, maximizing transparency for students and for the CRC. • Generally, courses certified for the Core should be accessible to a wide range of students and equip students to function as life long learners, global citizens, and productive members of society irrespective of their ultimate majors and minors. • The intent of the new Core is to stimulate the development of new courses particularly designed to meet the Core goals. Multidisciplinary courses are particularly encouraged. • Existing courses should be modified, putting the Core goals front and center in the course design (and on the first page of the syllabus) before submission for certification.

26. CRC’s Guidelines • Aggregate student achievement of the Core goal(s) should be demonstrable through appropriate assessment tools. • The issue is not whether the course does the activity listed in the learning goal, but rather, are the students able to do the activity listed upon completion of the course. Courses certified for the Core must include an assessment plan. Further details on assessment are provided to the faculty in the “Faculty Guide”, but basically, we’re just asking for a bit of data that shows that our students, as a group, are learning what we think we are teaching.

27. CRC’s Guidelines • Generally, certified courses will be 100 or 200 level courses. Courses will not be certified for the Core when students will necessarily have already met the proposed Core learning goals by taking the prerequisite courses. • If this results in a ludicrous situation for a particular student, write to the CRC care of slawrence@sas.rutgers.edu • But, this does not mean this we will grant waivers for students who just want to take a specialized upper-level course rather than a certified Core Curriculum course.

28. CRC’s Guidelines • Courses will only be certified when they address the learning goal(s)every time they are offered irrespective of instructor, section, semester, or particular topic of focus. • In order to be certified, “Topics” courses will need to have an embedded assessment tool geared to the Core goal(s) that will be employed in all sections of the course each time it is offered. • For each course number certified for the Core, a generic Course synopsis (or full syllabi) that includes the Core Curriculum learning goals that the course has been certified for should be available online through the department web page and the online schedule of classes at all times, updated as necessary.

29. CRC’s Guidelines The certification process --- and the requirement that courses perform and report assessments of student achievement of the Core learning goals -- is central to the Core Curriculum. Consequently, students will not be able to appeal to have a particular course added to the list of courses certified as meeting a Core Curriculum goal. It is VERY important that faculty not tell students that courses meet Core goals when in fact they have not been vetted by the CRC and certified by faculty vote.

30. Many courses certified as A&H might also be used to meet the political science major’s cognate fields requirement. Also, some foreign language courses at the intermediate level and above are AH certified Hypothetical: Guide to the Core for Political Science Majors Some Suggestions Energy & Climate Change Immigrant States Eating Right Lessons from Europe Global East Asia Sea Change War: Critical Perspectives Plantation to White Hs Study Abroad ~~~~~~~~~ In addition to Expos 101, the writing program offers a number of options appropriate for political science majors. Political Science courses certified as WCd include: 790:~~~ Also consider taking a WC courses in one of your cognate fields. Some Suggestions Energy & Climate Change Sea Change Biology, Society, & Biomedical Issues ~~~~~~~~ Many courses certified as HST might also be used to meet the political science major’s cognate fields requirement Political Science majors are strongly urged to take 640:111-112 or 115 precalc and 790:300 PoliSci methods You will meet the Social Analysis goals in the process of completing your Political Science major. Some Suggestions: Great Insights in Computer Science Statistics I The Structure of Information Computer Analysis of Social Sci Data ~~~~~~~

31. Talking about the Core Getting the message across -- A few suggestions on nomenclature: Core Curriculum / Core --- Core is always capitalized. Areas of Inquiry -- these are not disciplinary distribution requirements. Certified -- courses are certified for the Core (rather than “approved”). Front and Center – Core goals must be front and center in the course design – not merely touched on. AND, remember, courses are only certified for the Core when the faculty commits to the process of assessment and improvement . Met Core goals –students have met a Core goal, rather than that they have met a requirement. Complete –that students have completed the Core, rather than that they have fulfilled all requirements.