About 90 UCCS faculty members attended a Nov. 18 retreat to discuss the university’s general education requirements and found a dynamic speaker and assigned seating there to inspire them.
“A Faculty Retreat – To Advance” was an opportunity for UCCS faculty to exchange ideas on how to best address the general education goals faculty approved in fall 2010. Paul L. Gaston of Kent State University gave a keynote presentation on general education reform and the general education task force presented preliminary ideas about implementing the general education curriculum.
Some faculty members were surprised to discover assigned seating that placed them at tables with unfamiliar people. Peg Bacon, provost, explained the purpose of the seating was to get faculty away from their usual colleagues and individual departments to facilitate exchanges between the stewards of different disciplines, as well as emphasize the cross-disciplinary function of general education requirements.
Gaston, Trustees Professor, Kent State University, is a highly regarded general education authority. He called his presentation to UCCS faculty “Academically Adroit” to articulate the need for flexibility and continuous adjustment of general education offerings to fit changing needs of evolving disciplines and academic practices. In an era where education is delivered on-line, and new careers are emerging to meet the needs of a 21st century society, he said, academic programs must be fresh, innovative and strong.
Gaston declared four words to be of paramount importance to any general education implementation: intentionality, vision, coherence and integration.
Intentionality, he said, is defining and declaring the program’s objective. Vision is foreseeing upcoming developments in the world and accordingly connecting liberal arts and professional learning. Coherence is continuity, competence and understandability, and integration is maintaining the interdependence between general education requirements and those of a student’s major.
His presentation included acknowledging a number of national universities with highly successful general education components. Gaston noted that the various institutions use different styles or approaches to implementing general education and it may be helpful to UCCS faculty to consider practices that work well elsewhere.
Faculty broke into table discussion groups briefly to share perspectives and compose questions for Gaston. One salient point that consistently emerged was how to engage students and make them understand the value of courses outside their major fields of study. Various faculty reported that students have voiced displeasure with having liberal arts requirements as part of a curriculum that focuses on science, mathematics, engineering or accounting. One suggestion called for the professional colleges to emphasize the need for social science courses in any field or profession, as well as the courses building toward a professional degree.
Among his responses to specific questions, Gaston noted that the successful for-profit educational institutions are recognizing the need to instruct students in the value of cross-discipline lessons. He cited a gateway course required by one of the for-profit colleges entitled “Being a Citizen in the Modern World.” The class, he said, presents the interconnection and value of seemingly dissimilar disciplines in functioning in a global society that encompasses so many aspects.
On behalf of the task force, Jeff Ferguson, professor, College of Business, and Christina Jimenez, associate professor, Department of History, presented the group’s activities so far in revising the university’s general education curriculum. The task force proposed an entry “gateway” course, a core course for each of the sophomore and junior years, and a capstone course. The table groups discussed these ideas and provided feedback.
The task force presentation gave an overview of current general education practices and preliminary ideas for change. No proposals have been made yet and Jimenez stressed that the task force continues to solicit faculty input, ideas and feedback. The general education vision is about preparing students to be successful and viable in a modern world, focusing on three learning competencies: evaluate and create, know and explore, and act and interact.
“This was an exciting day,” Bacon said. “We had faculty from a wide range of disciplines talking about how to create a curriculum that would engage our UCCS students.”
According to David Moon, senior associate vice chancellor, Academic Affairs, “this retreat is just the first of many opportunities for faculty to interact with the task force. A major focus of the group going forward will be to involve faculty more broadly in guiding the task force’s work.”
Individual faculty are invited to provide input and feedback on general education goals to task force members from 2-4 p.m., Dec. 7, 8, and 9 at the Overlook Cafe. Slides from Gaston’s presentation and the committee’s report are available at http://www.uccs.edu/~provost/general-education/General-Education-Faculty-Retreat-111811.html.
The core general education goals are available at http://www.uccs.edu/provost/General-Education.html.
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