2) What works in our current General Education program? (set 1)
The math requirement works OK. It’s good that calculus counts as general education. Generally speaking, our current program works. It provides choices that all students can manage both time wise and intellectually. Upper level science courses sometimes don’t count as general education. Any interdisciplinary science course should count, not just the lowest common intellectual denominator within the particular science discipline.The
program works quite well, overall; it’s “well-thought out,”
“well-balanced,” and reflects a “thorough liberal arts curriculum” –
only minor tweaking should be done.
The
Humanities sequence is especially appropriate and significant; keep as is (4
semester sequence). It is one of
the strongest components of gen ed.
One
lab course is certainly necessary.
Over
the years, student complaints about gen ed have diminished.
Discipline specific courses are designed for the purpose of General Education and not to be feeders into the majors. This approach is effective and should not be dismissed.
Some
faculty remarked that they have been impressed at our students’ performance at
UR and professional conferences – they can talk easily and in an interesting
way about a wide variety of ideas. This
speaks well for the current program.
Faculty
like the flexibility of the current system, which allows students a degree of
choice and allows them to take General Education courses at any point in their
college career. Some feel, however,
that there is too much focus on the various disciplines.
These faculty favor an emphasis on student outcomes in terms of skills
and knowledge acquired.
Faculty
like the fact that there is a core program, that is, that there are certain
courses all students have in common. One
problem they see with the Humanities program, however, is that students who like
a particular professor can enroll in subsequent courses with that professor, so
that they do not get the breadth of perspective they would if they studied with
different individuals.
In general, we approve of the idea of a core.
In general, we approve of Humanities program
In general, we support for having a foreign language requirement and expecting students to learn about culture as well as a language
The value of the Humanities courses is
evident in our classes that are offered to multiple campuses through
teleconferencing. Our students do much
better on issues of perspective than students from other campuses.
We like the Humanities program.
It provides our students with a common experience as a core course and
fosters faculty interaction across disciplines.
When visiting other campuses, I always
come back with great gratitude for what we have, suggesting that The GERTF
shouldn't have much to do. We model
learning for our students, we take risks, we engage in co-learning.
It is a deeply rooted and valuable component of the culture of UNCA.
We should keep the 5-hour lab science requirement.