General Education Committee Minutes 1/31/06

 

Members Present: J. Eglin S. Gaskill K. Hill, S. Kalm, T. Manuel, M. McClintock, G. Smith

 

Members Excused/ Absent: L. Hayes, D. Pletscher, K. Shanley

Ex-Officio Present:  L. Carlyon, A. Walker-Andrews

 Approval of the minutes was postponed.

 

Communication:

§    Merinda McClure, the First Year Experience and Instruction Coordinator at the Mansfield Library, is interested in the work of the committee and will be attending meetings.

§    Louis Hayes, Political Science will be filling in for the Social Sciences for spring semester.

§    The Regent’s General Education Council will be meeting on February 10th.  Karen Hill was appointed to the Council.

 

Business Items:

 

Chair-Elect, Steve Gaskill was unanimously approved as acting chair in response to Chair Winkler’s recent resignation from the committee.

 

The workgroups will meet next week to complete their models and discuss how to best present to ASCRC (justifying why the model is a better than the current model-advantages and disadvantages). The following week the committee will review in preparation for forwarding the models to ASCRC.  The meetings will take place in the following locations.
            Montana Cultural Model                       Music 102

            Citizenship Model                                 GBB 339

            Modified Model *                                UH 221
                        *Garon Smith will send email requesting an alternative time

 

The committee’s biggest challenge will be in creating criteria that will sustain the review process. There was the suggestion of implementing a general education department or program, similar to Women’s Studies, which would be responsible for the general education curriculum.  This would provide a structure with continuity.  Other universities have taken this approach.

At a recent conference of the Association of American Colleges and Universities, the innovative program adopted by Wheaton College, MA was presented.  It uniquely connects a topic or theme in two or three courses in varying disciplines.   There were questions regarding the intermediate step of such a change.  The implementation took a total of four years.   If needed additional details can be gathered after a model is selected and the committee moves to the implementation stage.    


The meeting was adjourned at 10:40.

The Wheaton Curriculum

A liberal arts curriculum prepares students to make knowledgeable choices, to solve problems and to lead enriched lives. Wheaton's unique Connections curriculum invites students to see how different disciplines approach similar issues, and therefore to look at problems from multiple perspectives. Students at Wheaton are also encouraged to see the connections among their academic, co-curricular and work experiences, and to think, learn, analyze, evaluate, understand and express themselves within and about all aspects of their lives.

These goals are accomplished through both the structure of the curriculum and the intellectual process that takes place inside and outside the classroom. A first-year seminar and foundational courses in writing, quantitative analysis, foreign language and the world beyond the Western tradition are followed or accompanied by students' choosing or even creating their course Connections. From this breadth of vision students move to an in-depth look at a discipline through choosing a major field of interest. The intensity of discourse inside the classroom and the active learning promoted by a distinguished faculty are matched by out-of-class learning with one's peers in a multitude of settings on and off campus.

Connections

Wheaton's unique Connections program provides an exciting way to explore different areas of knowledge and different approaches to problems. All Wheaton students must take either two sets of two-course connections (a total of four courses), or one set of three connected courses. Courses are linked across any two of six academic areas: creative arts, humanities, history, math and computer science, natural sciences, and social sciences.

Each linked course is a regular Wheaton course that has been approved as part of a Connection. For example, the Connection Darwin, Evolution, Race and Culture links English 235 (Empire, Race, and the Victorians) with Biology 111 (Evolution and Ecology); African Worlds links Anthropology 225 (African Cultures in Transition) with English 245 (African Literature) and/or Music 124 (World Music: Africa and the Americas) and/or History 143 (Africans on Africa) and/or Political Science 203 (African Politics). Genes in Contexts links Computer Science 121 (DNA) with Philosophy 111 (Ethics). For a complete list, see: http://www.wheatoncollege.edu/Catalog/CONX/

Students are normally expected to take a pair or set of linked courses in the same or adjoining semesters. Students are also invited to discover their own possible linked courses, and to approach the faculty and propose a Connection.

Students are encouraged to think about possible connections early on, though many will prefer to fulfill this requirement in their sophomore year. (Note that if the chosen Connections do not include courses from all three of the traditional academic divisions--arts and humanities, natural sciences, and social sciences--students will be expected to take at least one course in the missing division[s]. Faculty advisors help students plan accordingly.)


The Wheaton curriculum consists of four parts:

  • Foundations, to assure sophisticated skills in writing and quantitative analysis, and a knowledgeable approach to the broader world.
  • Connections, pairs or sets of courses connected across disciplinary boundaries to provide a broad view of the world of knowledge.
  • The Major and an optional Minor, to ensure students an in-depth exploration of their interests.
  • Electives, to allow students to expand their intellectual and creative interests.