Core Programs--These are programs that require all students to
take a set of courses in common as part of their educational
experience. In whole-core programs, students must take a defined set
of courses throughout their career. Examples of whole-core
approaches include the Great Books Program at St. John's College and the
Humanities Program at UNCA. Other whole-core approaches include
discipline-based foundation courses (Columbia College's Core Curriculum)
and interdisciplinary courses (Colgate University).
Distribution Programs--These are programs that require students
to take courses from a menu of options. Options are usually, but not
always, disciplinary in nature.
Goals Across the Curriculum--These programs often use prescribed
categories of courses to assist students in developing the skills required
of liberal learning. Students must take one or (often) more courses
in each category. Categories may focus on skill development and on
content area. Programs using this sort of approach may incorporate
elements of core-programs, but frequently they lean toward distribution
models. These programs tend to have a large number of credit hours
devoted to general education.
Competency-based--These programs are intended to help students
develop a broad range of abilities, determined by faculty to be central to
a students academic and co-curricular development. Alverno College
is a leader in this Competency-based General Education. The faculty at
Alverno decided upon the following eight abilities as central to their
students: communication, analysis, problem solving, values in
decision-making, social interaction, global perspectives, effective
citizenship, and aesthetic response.
Complex Models--These programs are very tailored to the
particular missions of their institutions and often employ elements from
many of the models above. The facets of such General Education
approaches tend to be subsumed under a single conceptual framework which
gives the curriculum a strong core identity. Examples include the
Practical Liberal Arts Program at Wagner College, which incorporates
learning communities and experiential service learning; and Portland State
University's program, which combines inquiry-based linked courses and
interdisciplinary teamwork, frequently requiring students to apply their
learning to community projects. Learning communities are often
joined to linked-course approaches, where students chose a series of
classes around a single topic or theme, in order to learn how different
disciplines study a common problem. Examples of learning-community programs
include those at Evergreen State College, SUNY-Long Island, and Pacific
University (Oregon).
Writing Across the Curriculum--Although not itself a General
Education approach, Writing Across the Curriculum [WAC] is becoming more a
part of curricular programming and an important facet of General Education
development. WAC programs generally incorporate an introductory
writing course or set of courses, and then require two or more upper-level
writing-intensive courses, both in and outside the major. Examples
of WAC programs include those at Cornell University, Sarah Lawrence
College, King's College, Mary Washington College, and the University of
Cincinnati.