General Education Essentials

General Education Essentials

"Full-time and part-time faculty in any discipline and at any
size campus with any type of mission can pick up this volume and
learn something that will help her or him improve teaching and
learning.???"--From the Foreword by Terrel L. Rhodes, vice
president for Curriculum, Quality, and Assessment, Association of
American Colleges and Universities

Every year, hundreds of small colleges, state schools, and
large, research-oriented universities across the United States
(and, increasingly, Europe and Asia) revisit their core and general
education curricula, often moving toward more integrative models.
And every year, faculty members who are highly skilled in narrowly
defined fields ask two simple questions: "Why?" and "How is this
going to affect me?"

General Education Essentials seeks to answer these and other
questions by providing a much-needed overview of and a rationale
for the recent shift in general education curricular design, a
sense of how this shift can affect a faculty member's teaching, and
an understanding of how all of this might impact course and student
assessment.

Filled with examples from a variety of disciplines that will
spark insights, General Education Essentials explores the
techniques that can be used to ensure that students are gaining the
skills they need to be perceptive scholars and productive
citizens.

"This is THE ONE BOOK for academics to get up to speed about
reforming general education." --Jerry Gaff, senior scholar,
Association of American Colleges and Universities

Auteur

Paul Hanstedt is a professor of English at Roanoke College and
the recipient of a FIPSE grant for sustainable faculty development,
several teaching awards from three different institutions, and an
Innovation Award for helping to create greater collaboration among
faculty at his home institution.

Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) is
the leading national association concerned with the quality,
vitality, and public standing of undergraduate liberal
education.

Résumé

General Education Essentials

"Full-time and part-time faculty in any discipline and at any size campus with any type of mission can pick up this volume and learn something that will help her or him improve teaching and learning.???"—From the Foreword by Terrel L. Rhodes, vice president for Curriculum, Quality, and Assessment, Association of American Colleges and Universities

Every year, hundreds of small colleges, state schools, and large, research-oriented universities across the United States (and, increasingly, Europe and Asia) revisit their core and general education curricula, often moving toward more integrative models. And every year, faculty members who are highly skilled in narrowly defined fields ask two simple questions: "Why?" and "How is this going to affect me?"

General Education Essentials seeks to answer these and other questions by providing a much-needed overview of and a rationale for the recent shift in general education curricular design, a sense of how this shift can affect a faculty member's teaching, and an understanding of how all of this might impact course and student assessment.

Filled with examples from a variety of disciplines that will spark insights, General Education Essentials explores the techniques that can be used to ensure that students are gaining the skills they need to be perceptive scholars and productive citizens.

"This is THE ONE BOOK for academics to get up to speed about reforming general education." —Jerry Gaff, senior scholar, Association of American Colleges and Universities

Contenu

Foreword xi

About the Author xv

Acknowledgments xvii

Introduction 1

PART ONE: THE BIG PICTURE 9

1 Structuring General Education 11

2 Some Examples of Integrative Curricular Models 25

PART TWO: GENERAL EDUCATION AT THE COURSE LEVEL 43

3 Designing Effective General Education Courses 45

4 How the Purposes of General Education Can Reshape a Course: Case Studies 54

PART THREE: GENERAL EDUCATION AT THE ASSIGNMENT AND ASSESSMENT LEVEL 73

5 Designing Appropriate Assignments for General Education 75

6 The Chapter You May Want to Skip: Institutional Assessment and General Education 94

Conclusion 107

Appendix A: Syllabus for Artistic and Literary Responses to Science and Technology 109

Appendix B: Syllabus for The Way Things Work: Sky Diving and Deep Sea Diving 117

Appendix C: Syllabus for Traveling Without Leaving: Global Sociology 125

Appendix D: Syllabus for Elite Deviance: Crime in the Suites 137

Appendix E: Syllabus for Does Gun Control Save Lives? 145

Appendix F: Syllabus for Statistics and Botany 151

References 157

Index 161