General Education Forum on Freshman and Senior Seminars: Questions for Consideration

The second focus group of our series, centered on Freshman and Senior Seminars, will be this Thursday, 21 February, at 4:30 pm in the Laurel Forum.  The GERTF and Design Team would like to invite all interested faculty and staff members to attend this session (and the others), which will be facilitated by a GERTF member. 

 At this forum, we will participate in a conversation about some of the most common curricular models for freshman seminars and senior capstone experiences.  We will discuss the issues faculty indicated were most important to them when asked about these curricular elements during the Listening Project.  We anticipate using these discussions to assist us as we think about writing charges for the specific curricular requirements.  The Design Team has reached some preliminary conclusions about the structure and content of these requirements, but would like the benefit of your input on the following questions: 

1. In the Listening Project, faculty indicated an interest in both Freshman and Senior Capstone Seminars.  What are your desired outcomes for students taking these seminars, both at the freshman and senior levels?

2. What knowledge, skills, and awareness do you want to give students the opportunity to develop in such a requirement?

3. What interconnections to the liberal arts curriculum would you like these seminars to facilitate?

4. What criteria do you think are most important as identifying features of such seminars?

5. What issues or concerns do you have regarding the oversight of such a requirement?

 These questions will also be placed on the GERTF website.  We are eager to have the benefit of your input, ideas, and expertise as we move toward a model for the revised general education curriculum.