Creating a New Core Curriculum

Is the SCU proposal in line with best practice? A resounding "yes"

2007-01-11T08:48:00.000-08:00

An article New Definition for Liberal Education by Scott Jaschik published in Inside Higher Education summarizes a new AACU report calling for college curricula that... look a lot like what the SCU committee is proposing for the core at Santa Clara. Integrative and interdisciplinary learning is the proper counterweight to the specialization of majors. We don't serve students well by encouraging "bad dabbling" which is what many distribution requirement-oriented cores do (we've all heard the story of the student who takes Chem 5 in the summer and sleeps through every class and barely passes).

Ed Glaeser again on the Scientific Method in the Core

2006-11-14T21:35:00.000-08:00

Now that the rubber hits the road at Harvard, Glaeser tries mightily to change the direction of the revision... from an article in the Harvard Crimson:

A thorough general education requirement on the scientific approach to society would require two courses. First, students should take a course that teaches the crafting of rigorous hypotheses. This could be a class on evolutionary theory and human nature, psychology, political theory, or even economics. The key requirement should be a focus on rigorous theory about mankind. I tend to think rigor improves with mathematics, but I am perfectly willing to accept that there are verbal substitutes.

Second, students should take a class on evidence and statistical inference. This could either be pure statistics or empirical tools taught through the lens of a particular topic. Decent citizenship of the world is incompatible with statistical ignorance. A Harvard education must train people to separate compelling evidence from froth. Statisticians do have a comparative advantage in this, but I can readily imagine great core courses taught by Florence Professor of Government Gary King or Ford Professor of the Social Sciences Robert J. Sampson teaching students empirical methods with a focus on politics or sociology. The analytical reasoning component of the proposed system includes such courses but comes up short of mandating them. While other methods of analytical reasoning like logic are important, a statistics-oriented course should be required.

The scientific method should not be an afterthought at Harvard and it should not be confined to the physical sciences. Whether Harvard students are going to be running non-governmental organizations in Africa, hedge funds in Greenwich, or even academic institutions in Cambridge, they will need to analyze situations and process data. In considering a new system of general education, the Faculty should embrace the scientific methodology that will enable students to do this effectively.

Core Revision Proposal available

2006-11-13T15:24:00.000-08:00

The Core Committee's proposal has been sent out via email in PDF format. If you want to cut-and-paste because you really want to rewrite a paragraph or two, here is an online version. This version does not preserve all of the formatting, but is perfectly legible.

"Spock, we're only human..."

2006-11-06T17:02:00.000-08:00

Bones McCoy of Star Trek always had a mild expletive before that, but since we're modeling civility on this blog I thought I'd leave it out. What did he mean? We have children, we teach classes, we go to movies... and putting final touches on a draft proposal just doesn't happen automatically... we're looking at end of the week...

What kind of courses enable a student to learn the Scientific Method?

2006-11-06T02:10:00.000-08:00

The Scientific Method is a common learning goal of most core curricula around the country. Of course we want our students to understand this most important achievement of scientists. How best to ensure that understanding? Are hands-on experiments in laboratories the only way possible?

Here is a syllabus from psychology that addresses the scientific method.

A graduate course in political science at Duke... is this not the scientific method?

A UCSD grad course in social science research methods.

A hilariously over-ambitious UC Berkeley course in advanced econometric methods for undergraduates... by a great researcher, but really, could more than a handful of undergraduates succeed here?

SCU proposal out next week

2006-11-02T07:40:00.000-08:00

We are trying to put the final touches on a proposal that will have minimal typos and maximum clarity, for distribution to faculty early next week, to then begin our next round of feedback and revision.... We look forward to your comments.

Stanley Fish writes about our jobs...

2006-10-28T15:13:00.000-07:00

Stanley Fish's blog on the New York Times is great as provocation.

Of course, before you can do your job, you have to know what it is. And you will not be helped by your college’s mission statement, which will lead you to think that your job is to cure every ill the world has ever known – not only illiteracy, bad writing and cultural ignorance, which are at least in the ballpark, but poverty, racism, ageism, sexism, war, exploitation, colonialism, discrimination, intolerance, pollution and bad character. (The list could be much longer.) I call this the save-the-world theory of academic performance and you can see it on display in a recent book by Derek Bok, the former and now once-again president of Harvard. Bok’s book is titled “Our Underachieving Colleges,” and here are some of the things he thinks colleges should be trying to achieve: “[H]elp develop such virtues as racial tolerance, honesty and social responsibility”; “prepare … students to be active, knowledgeable citizens in a democracy”; and “nurture such behavioral traits as good moral character.”

Fish says all he can do is "academize" these virtues, not achieve them. As a great many comments to his blog suggest, this is a deliberate misunderstanding of what universities do. Critical thinking about these virtues is exactly what is meant, at the university, by achieving them. What does Fish think that Socrates was trying to do when he engaged his community in reasoned dialogue. Was he a simple moralist? Still, Fish's broader point, perhaps clumsily made, is that some professors think that moralizing is the same thing as academizing. Some students that I advise have told me that they have had the following experience: (1) they expressed the opinion that raises in the minimum wage were perhaps not the "no-brainer"* way to reduce poverty; (2) the comments are received with stunned hostility by a faculty member; (3) discussion is ended. The point is, even if raising the minimum wage in the United States is an effective way to redistribute income to reduce poverty, it is not the only way (an earned income tax credit might be more effective, say), and the point of learning in the classroom is to find out why it might be effective or ineffective in particular places and times.

*On the "no-brainer." Vice-President Cheney's recently remark, accurately quoted, apparently, that "dunking" people in water was a "no-brainer" if the purpose was to save lives... well, it just shows why we need Ethics requirements more than ever, right?

Resources for understanding what quantitative literacy is...

2006-10-22T23:41:00.000-07:00

A St. Olaf's site gives summaries of QL at a good group of universities. There is no great consunsus, everyone seems to be muddling about.

A sample assessment test from Whittier suggests, to me, that QL is almost absurd as a college course. All of these questions are items that a student should pick up in a normal course of study with a reasonable set of distribution requirements, including a math requirement.

Michigan State University's final report on QL.... nice set of learning outcomes. They call for a QL Foundations course (rememdial math plus other stuff) and then Applied QL courses through the majors... interesting.

What makes for a great lecture?

2006-10-13T13:57:00.000-07:00

Not necessarily active learning. But then again, we can't all be like Richard Feynman...

Responsibility and engagement

2006-10-11T10:09:00.000-07:00

As part of my own academic work on Sudan and Darfur I keep coming across the word 'responsibility,' in the context of the general responsibility to protect that is increasingly becoming a rhetorical norms for the world community. Empirical studies are lacking on whether the incidence of humanitarian interventions are on the rise or not; one of the problems is that under the Cold War the two powers took care of their clients and the problems of their clients, while under the new order the U.N. and regional organizations are now doing that work, to an increaing degree, and of course the nature of conflicts changed to more violent and civilian-targeting civil wars.

I find it interesting then that the theme of responsibility and engagement is also preoccupying academia and curricular revision. The AACU has launched a new initiative called Core Commitments to get 20 schools onboard to create and pilot some new ideas in this area. Their website is a good introduction.

Where the Committee is early October

2006-10-11T10:07:00.000-07:00

The committee in the next two weeks is going to be thinking hard and coming up with a very preliminary draft of structural suggestions. Included will be some suggestions for how Core classes get 're-envisioned' and the process for going from Core goals to actual classes. I can honestly say that we do not know right now how that is going to look- we have lots of ideas, and some favorites, but things can easily change, esp. as faculty continuously give us input. The major learning outcomes however seem to be pretty stable (we have not gotten the survey results back, so that may be premature, but from the comments at numerous meetings it seems like they may not change all that much). So in terms of program review, one might start by thinking about how to assess whether courses in the program that are primarily addressed to the Core are focusing on those learning objectives.

I think in about three weeks we're going to be in a position to say a lot more...

Scientific method, much faith in it.

2006-10-04T23:04:00.000-07:00

Continuing with the Harvard theme, their website of papers on general education makes for great reading. Two unforgettable quotes from Ed Glaeser's otherwise fine essay on the importance of scientific method in general education.

After all, the claim that a floral still life symbolizes the crucifixion is as much a testable hypothesis as anything in string theory.

Is the claim that the symbolic representations of artists are as much testable hypotheses as the 'things' in string theory itself a testable hypothesis? I wonder how Glaeser would propose testing his claim? Let's see. There is a phenomenon called, "Making claims about what are testable hypotheses." We submit that it is a testable hypotheses that any relationship conceived of by humans (A is related to B) is a testable hypothesis. God cast Lucifer... etc. Testable. Before Big Bang was a Merry-go-round. Testable. Perhaps Glaeser is being sarcastic. Neither is testable? Could we test that "many claims by humans are not testable hypotheses"?

One paragraph earlier:

My faith in the scientific method and my belief that Harvard’s goal should be to teach the
ability to apply this method seriously outside the classroom and beyond Harvard is the basis of this essay.

Neat that the basis for the goal is belief and faith. Not testable?

Harvard following where others fear to tread... ;-)

2006-10-04T22:39:00.000-07:00

A short article in the Harvard Crimson nicely captures some of the spirit of discussions at Harvard on their Oct. 2006 roposal for revision of core curriculum. With Louis Menand leading the revision committee, one expects much that is sensible. But the emphasis still seems to be: one theme, one course, without much thought (or attempt) to structure the Core. Almost inevitably, then, it will revert back to the distribution requirement it claims to be replacing.

An earlier article from 2005 discusses an earlier proposal:

The draft report recommends replacing the current Core Curriculum’s 11 fields of study with three broad disciplines—Arts and Humanities, Study of Societies, and Science and Technology—and requiring students to take three courses in each of the two areas most different from their concentration. The report also outlines year-long “portal” courses that students could take to fulfill the requirement for one of the three areas, according to a copy viewed by The Crimson last month.

And the 2005 Harvard reform proposal is still available on the Harvard website... Here's the "portal" idea:

At the same time, the Committee believes that the curriculum should assist students
in shaping their education by providing discrete opportunities for more intensive,
foundational courses in general education. These courses would provide integrative and
synoptic introductions to important knowledge and texts as well as orienting conceptual
frameworks in each of the broad divisional areas articulated above. Without prescribing a
common body of knowledge for all Harvard College students, they could contribute to a
common set of intellectual and academic experiences in which large numbers of students might engage in debate, discussion, and disagreement about important issues in the realms of art, culture, politics, science, and technology. The courses would reside outside of any specific departmental home and would be listed in a separate section of the catalogue called “Courses in General Education.” They would also count towards the fulfillment of distribution requirements.

New technologies - YouTube

2006-09-25T22:01:00.000-07:00

YouTube is just phenomenal for teaching. All it takes is borrowing a digital camera from media services, buying a mini-DV cassette, making a short film:
e.g. see below Dr. Ali Dinar speaking on the crisis in Darfur and targeting of civilians... an undergrad who knows how to use imovie (or learn yourself- it takes 30 minutes to learn the basics) and then you just post the video to YouTube in about 3 minutes. The benefit is that now the clip is easily available to embed in your blog (as I have done) but also to share with others (in fact, with practically the entire world- the community of Sudanese using YouTube, for example, is apparently enormous judging by the quantity and viewing of music videos from Sudan being posted). Imagine teaching a music class on Sudanese music and having 1000s of clips available.

NYTimes series on teaching and learning

2006-09-25T21:56:00.000-07:00

The New York Times regular series on classroom observations by high school teachers is a great source of inspiration for people interested in learning and techniques for improving learning. Here's how Bill Evans describes classroom discussion:

My classes are a kind of feudal democracy. In the classroom, I reign – at least theoretically. I pretty much organize things and direct, piping in as needed. But I generally try to get the kids to run the show. I try to draw important points that I want made out of their own observations and opinions, and many times they come up with truly brilliant things about the text that I’ve never even considered. During discussion, everybody gets to speak. If faced with a sea of hands, I order the flow. “O.K., you, then you, then you, then you, then me, then you, then you.” When faced with less than a sea or no sea, I call on people. That’s the beauty of the highlighted passages. During discussion, I can always ask a quieter participant to pick something they’ve highlighted and share it. I really try not to put people on the spot. I tend to warn people before I call on them. If a student really has nothing to say, I try to get him or her off the hook. “You know what? Think about it, and we’ll come back to you.”

I like that line, "Think about it, and we'll come back to you." A nice one to commit to memory. I remember a visiting prof. who gave a seminar at SCU... after every question from the audience, no matter what it was, he always started with a riff on, "That's a great observation, and..."

What is the virtue of "coherence" in the Core Curriculum?

2006-09-07T23:42:00.000-07:00

Would you know it when you saw it? Surely incoherence is when a hundred courses qualify to meet a core learning objective, and the instructors never get together to work out a common purpose, never see each other's syllabi, and do not think, when designing their courses, about tying their course to other core courses. The courses are fantastic, no doubt. But cohere, they do not (Yodaspeak).

If you are interested in what a "structure document" looks like, here is a nice, clear example from the University of Wyoming. Does it inspire you?

By the way... here's a nice rationale for World Civilizations... rebuttals, anyone?

Assessment... do you want THIS one or THAT one...

2006-09-07T11:01:00.000-07:00

ETS has a new assessment tool, called the "MAPP - Measure of Academic Proficiency and Progress" Some kind of multiple choice test. And they even are offering an essay test that is graded by computer. Imagine that. (Here picture of old man sitting on rocking chair on front porch of midwestern town, smoking corncob pipe, as the automatic essay grading machine rolls by...."What in tarnation will they think of next?")

For a interesting discussion of assessment- mostly of the cranky negative kind- see the blog run by the Chronicle of Higher Education ; the links there will also take you to lots of other relevant discussions.

Where is the proposed structure?

2006-09-07T00:04:00.000-07:00

Some faculty wonder where in the process do they get to see a proposed structure. The facetious answer: Right now. Each faculty member might be thinking about how to structure the core to best realize the learning outcomes that faculty members agree on as key, essential outcomes for every undergraduate. A blank piece of paper, and you may craft your own blueprint. Do not be a Howard Hughes with his Spruce Goose though. Be realistic. We are a real university, after all... The long-winded answer: The right way to proceed, in revising a core curriculum, is to discuss and agree upon a set of learning outcomes that will then later be the basis for discussion of structure. That is where we are now: agreeing upon learning outcomes. After agreement, we move to thinking about proposals for structure.

Edwired comments on scrapbooks for Western Civilization

2006-09-05T02:43:00.000-07:00

I enjoy reading this guy a lot, and he has such pertinent things to say, including recently a confirmation of my longstanding belief that techniques like scrapbooks and portfolios, while generating better learning, do so at enormous costs...

Yet another slightly different approach to Western Civ

Those who read this blog regularly know that last semester in my introductory survey course I had my students produce scrapbooks of their learning throughout the semester. As a teaching and learning tool, my approach worked very well. As a group my students produced much better work and, based on my end of semester survey, they enjoyed the scrapbook approach more than others they had experienced in prior history classes. A number of them talked about how the format of the scrapbook really helped them to tie together everything they'd learned during the semester--a result that pleased me very much.

But I'm not going to do it again. Read more...

What kind of communication skills do we want? Oral in addition to written?

2006-09-01T11:41:00.001-07:00

A faculty member writes:

Your email, in particular the Habits of Mind component of your pdf, reminded me Stanford now requires an oral component in addition to a written component in the equivalent of their core, in, as I vaguely recall, a two quarter Writing and Rhetoric Program, supported by their Oral Communication Program at Stanford (see http://ctl.stanford.edu/Oralcomm/ ). The program helps students with their presentations, among other things.

It does seem to me that SCU might consider incorporating an oral communication component in part of any new English 2 course for the core, or somewhere else. Oral communication in addition to written communication is becoming increasingly important in our world.

What kind of communication skills do we want? Oral in addition to written?

2006-09-01T11:41:00.000-07:00

A faculty member writes:

Your email, in particular the Habits of Mind component of your pdf, reminded me Stanford now requires an oral component in addition to a written component in the equivalent of their core, in, as I vaguely recall, a two quarter Writing and Rhetoric Program, supported by their Oral Communication Program at Stanford (see http://ctl.stanford.edu/Oralcomm/ ). The program helps students with their presentations, among other things.

It does seem to me that SCU might consider incorporating an oral communication component in part of any new English 2 course for the core, or somewhere else. Oral communication in addition to written communication is becoming increasingly important in our world.

How technology is changing education...

2006-08-31T16:34:00.000-07:00

Brad deLong blogs embedded apps (you must follow the link Gapminder):

Chris Anderson writes:

The Long Tail: Google Apps and the power of embedded functionality: There been a lot of talk today about Google releasing a suite of hosted applications.... As Anil Dash discusses here, these web-based apps are not meant to replace Office but to compliment it by doing things online that desktop software just can't do well. What might those things be? I think we have a hint in the spread of embedded video, courtesy of YouTube. The ability to easily embed into any blog page a full-featured videoplayer dedicated to a single video is a large part of YouTube's success. It doesn't require you to go elsewhere or download anything--it just works.

Now imagine the same model working for data. Rather than me posting static jpeg charts and links to Excel spreadsheet files, what if I could post data the way I post videos: as an embedded mini-app that simply displays the data in a useful way, allowing readers to manipulate or copy it at will?... That's what I want. Not an online spreadsheet that simply replicates what Excel already does perfectly well on my laptop, but small spreadsheet elements that I can paste... in the form of a specific data set or graph. The fact that they're hosted elsewhere is what would make them simple enough to use, just as embedding YouTube video is so head-slapping easy today....

The embedded functionality era has just begun. YouTube is just the start of something much bigger.

Indeed. I had thought by now that I would be able to simply embed the spreadsheet at http://delong.typepad.com/print/20060829_Solow_growth.xls in my online lecture notes, so that people could easily see and then do their own Solow growth model calculations. But it hasn't happened--although I strongly suspect Google or Microsoft will make it possible by this time next year.

YouTube is not the only example of this working now. Consider gapminder: http://tools.google.com/gapminder/

Posted by Brad DeLong on August 29, 2006 at 0

How do learning outcomes translate to course requirements?

2006-08-31T16:29:00.000-07:00

As the faculty discuss learning outcomes, it is important to remember that learning outcomes do not necessarily translate one-to-one to course requirements. Many of the learning outcomes would be achievable through multiple courses- introduced in one, reinforced in another, synthesized later. The important thing is to ask the question, "Of the learning outcomes under consideration, are there any that are really not essential core learning outcomes that we expect of a graduate, keeping in mind the mission of the university and that these outcomes are not a one-to-one map to course requirements?"

What about area studies courses?

2006-08-31T16:13:00.000-07:00

After distributing our draft learning outcomes, a faculty member writes with a specific concern, that is useful and illustrative... My response is below (both original query and my response have been edited to make a bit more general, and cutting out the specifics). I'll call the original questioner "Sidney" since to my knowledge there is no Sidney on campus and it can be used for either gender...

Hello Michael,
Thank you for your update regarding the CORE revision. Interestingly, we are going through a program review in my Dept. to try and "bring the department into the present." I just wanted to bring your attention to one, oblique dynamic of the CORE and its triangulation with International Programs that is worth keeping on the periphery. As you know, we send students to the country of Sidonia. There are three CORE courses involved in the Sidonia program. The first two satisfy the presentUniversity CORE and the third partially fulfills the A&S Fine Arts requirement.
*Arts and Culture of Sidonia
*Arts of the Sidonian region
*Art of Sidonia Lab
What is the committee thinking about how these course might fit into a revised Core?
Cheers,
Sidney

...and my response...
Sidney,
It might be worthwhile to look at our preliminary core learning outcomes we sent in the document and think about how your current course offerings fit into those. Are they 100% aligned with those learning outcomes? 50% aligned? Alignment is strongest with which learning outcomes? (i.e., might be very high on engagement, collaborative learning, second language, impact of arts, and potentially could pay more attention to intertwined western and world institutions/cultures, just for example- I have never seen your syllabi). You might want to start talking with other area studies world cultures faculty (I myself am one) and start thinking about what the learning outcomes are from our sometimes very narrowly focused area studies courses. Many of us in area studies are very convinced of the value of area studies courses; the question is though, can we articulate what that value is? And is that articulation something like what we already have in our proposed learning outcomes, or is it something subtly different, in which case we want to think about proposing modifications. This is a useful exercise in any case, and sounds like you are already doing it as part of your departmental program review. If we do have a revision, eventually a Core coordinator would be gradually looking at how existing courses aligned (I say gradual because we're talking 2010 at earliest for upper-division courses to be "deployed", depending on transition dynamics) with the possibly new Core learning outcomes.
Best,
Michael

Summer work results in Core revision resource packet

2006-08-30T11:43:00.000-07:00

Over the summer the Core Curriculum Revision Committee at Santa Clara University met and had extensive discussions over core mission, learning outcomes, assessment, structures, etc. Some of the results of that are available in an information packet that the committee would like faculty to discuss over the coming months. The packet will be available Sept. 1 on a link to the right.