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.

Assessment Part 2

2006-06-20T00:47:00.000-07:00

The latest issue of the Papers and Proceedings of the American Economic Review contains three articles on 'research on teaching innovations' in economics. The idea is that the effects of the innovations are measurable because the economists who introduced the innovations, or who analyzed the innovations, used randomized trials. The papers find that the effects of the innovations are on the order of 2 percentage point increases in final overall scores, leading to half-letter grade change for about 25% of class (in the case of the first innovation). The three innovations are: (1) requiring that Econ students take a math skills course and test online prior to their work in the Econ class; (2) using an interactive software to enable experiments and feedback real time in the classroom; and (3) having problem sets be graded rather than optional. The papers are striking, and typical of the assessment literature. To wit: they elevate the virtue of careful measurement of results (through randomization in these cases) while completely ignoring the most fundamental principle taught in economics, that of opportunity cost. Each one acts as if their innovation was costless and produced a 2% return, so why not do it everywhere? If students are taking a math skills class online, sure their Econ grade might go up- but might they not have done worse on their history assignment? Won't grades go up with practically *any* assignment? Don't instructors try to strike a balance between the work they think is important for their class, and an understanding that students are working on other classes at the same time? Moreover, signing students up for an on-line tutorial and math exam is not free- who is paying for that? If someone is paying for that, might the money not yield higher scores by bringing in high-quality tutors? The same goes for the grading requirement- mightn't the learning effect be even greater if the professor were not grading but rather were doing more review sessions? And the interactive software? How many class sessions are spent teaching students an obscure proprietary software that has no applications outside the Econ classroom. Isn't there an opportunity cost in terms of Econ material not covered? Maybe students perform better because they do less 'work' and have more fun (i.e. non-work), and the exams are ratcheted downwards? Anyway, food for the assessment skeptic to digest.

Problems and remedies in assessing general education or core learning outcomes, part 1

2006-06-15T10:57:00.000-07:00

One frequently encountered problem with 'final reports' of an assessment of a general education or core learning outcome is that both the quantitative data presented and the narrative thrust of the report focus on average performance. But general education or core learning outcomes are concerned about qualities that all graduates of the program will have, not their average performance. So the relevant quantitative data is what percent of students are not meeting the threshold of quality performance, sometimes called proficiency, and a clear communication of what that proficiency is. One rarely sees both of these elements in final assessment reports. There are obvious reasons for their absence: if the threshold is set too high, then the report will end up with a statement, "30% of students do not meet the proficiency standard." If the threshold is set too low, then the report will end up with a statement, "All students demonstrated a consistent ability to add four digit numbers without a calculator in a short period of time." Do you have good and bad examples of this kind of report? Please post on the comments section.

Core curriculum or core learning outcomes

2006-05-25T21:11:00.000-07:00

As we go through some very extensive discussions on campus, they are prompting me to wonder aloud (right here!) about the Writing Across the Curriculum model, where instead of having, say, two required writing courses, core learning outcomes are attained by infusing writing in a vigorous way throughout the curriculum. The implication is to get away from the idea that the only way to have a core is to have a curriculum with 100% compliance- all students must check all the boxes- and instead have a core that does not pretend to promise to deliver "the 18 things you will (must) master" but rather hybridizes somewhat by delivering university resources to ensuring outcomes rather than ensuring checked boxes. This involves asking a realistic and honest question: What would make us comfortable as a faculty? Having a system of 100% "exposure" (we have evidence that every student has checked every box by obtaining a passing grade- a D!- in the core requirements) versus having a system of 93% success (we have evidence that for some core learning outcomes 100% of students passed the course, while for other core learning outcomes we have evidence through assessment that 93% of students attain satisfactory mastery of core learning objectives, while 5% attain less than satisfactory though still improved mastery, and 2% regress ;-)? In a sense most universities do this, of course, by requiring not just passing grades in each course but also an overall GPA above some level. So the idea has always been that you can compensate on your less than adequate core learning in some courses by better than adequate learning elsewhere (in majors, electives, or other core courses). One key core learning outcome of many core curricula across the country's universities is that students learn to "tolerate ambiguity." Mightn't a core curriculum do the same?

PS: University of South Indiana has a nice page full of links to assessment issues and practices.

Terrific set of links

2006-05-22T09:23:00.000-07:00

A great website created some time ago with links to lots of useful documents on reforming general education requirements was created by Wichita State University, and is available here.

Two links of interest to Santa Clara University faculty

2006-05-06T05:35:00.000-07:00

Eric Hanson has a nice reflection on his experience as director of the Core, and academic issues thereof, at:
http://www.sju.edu/academics/cr/docs/Hanson.pdf

Also extremely useful I think to peruse is the self-study done in 1999 by the university- the best statement of current core learning outcomes I have seen.
http://www.scu.edu/strategicplan/selfstudy/

Oddly, I may be blogging more while I am here in Rumbek, South Sudan, for a week-long course. Sponsored by the Rift Valley Institute, the students are 30 diplomats and aid officials, while the teachers are people like me, who have been writing about Sudan for several decades now. The course starts tomorrow. Rumbek is now very well-developed, with a large tent camp and, guess what, an internet center....

Michael Buckley on the character of a Catholic, Jesuit university

2006-04-23T23:36:00.000-07:00

Michael Buckley, a theologian at Boston College, has a nice book from 1998, The Catholic University as Promise and Project: Reflections in a Jesuit Idiom. (See a rather negative, and therefore quite intriguing, review here.) His thoughts on the place of theology in the curriculum were especially interesting to me. He grounds his characterization with a close reading of the "intent" of St. Ignatius- it's a bit like the originalism idea in U.S. Constitutional law- what did the founder have in mind- but he's explicit in arguing that originalism divorced from contemporary understandings is a failed enterprise. Resonant of a nice piece by someone I don't normally like (when he dabbles in international issues), but this time enjoyed immensely- Stanley Fish on originalism. So where does theology end up? At the summit, for Buckley, of a Catholic education. Theology is the synthesis, or architectonic capstone, of humanistic studies. Would Paul Crowley agree? We'll see!

Boston College, by the way, has an excellent website with links to first-rate readings on the idea of a Catholic University- a great resource.

Internationalizing the curriculum and Western Culture requirements

2006-04-17T12:22:00.000-07:00

After five countries in three weeks, and then a quick return to Santa Clara just in time for the Working Group on African Political Economy quarterly workshop, I feel refreshed and able to continue blogging about core curriculum issues. One of the exciting things I did just before my trip, and that is a direct result of reading Edwired, was to create a Google Video on the Darfur issue. The process was indeed very easy, and my UnderstandingSudan.org project will incorporate more short videos on topics of interest to Sudanist scholars and teachers. Very exciting new direction for higher education.

Many campuses face significant debate over a supposed tradeoff between Western Culture and Global Studies requirements (to use two very broad labels). At SCU, a three-course Western Culture sequence (two-courses for science, engineering and business students) is intended to "introduce students to the intellectual traditions of the West through significant cultural monuments, tests and events studies within their historical contexts." The outcomes of the course are: greater cultural literacy, improved reflective abilities regarding Western intellectual and cultural traditions, and engagement of disciplinary and interdisciplinary methodologies. The latter two outcomes could clearly be achieved in comparative courses, so really the first learning outcome is the relevant one: greater cultural literacy about the West. There is no point to asking whether it is more or less important to have deeper understanding of the West (as opposed to the Rest, as cute journal article titles remind us). the relevant question, to me, is whether deepened cultural literacy is achieved through exclusive focus on the West, or through explicitly comparative focus. This is clearly (to me) dependent on two things: (1) the broad answer to the empirical question of whether generally at univiersities across the U.S. do students in more comparative/broad foundational courses attain a greater degree of cultural literacy, and (2) whether the particular faculty mix at a particular institution is able to achieve a result different from the general result. If the answer to both parts is yes, then to attain the learning outcome there is no tradeoff. It the answer is no, then there is a tradeoff. I wonder what the experts say?

Change in higher education

2006-03-21T23:42:00.000-08:00

A nice article by Daniel Yankelovich in the Chronicle of Higher Education outlines some of the interesting forces at work changing the university in the United States. In particular, his point about the increasingly non-traditional student- the student who combines working and studying over a longer period of time, and who makes life-vocation choices at 30 rather than 20, suggests the increasingly desirability of college as a place of experimentation and methods-learning (learning to learn) rather than place of imparting vocational knowledge... But at the same time, Yankelovich laments the low numbers of engineering graduates... how to reconcile those two?

Nicholas Kristof on study abroad...

2006-03-21T22:54:00.000-08:00

A great column on getting a real education... in Chad.

"Universities are — oh so slowly — recognizing that they need to prepare students to survive globalization. But most overseas studies programs are both too short and too tame. They typically involve sending a herd of students for a term in France or Italy, where they study a little and drink a lot together, amid occasional sightings of locals. That's why I bring up Ndjamena, this dusty capital of one of the poorest countries in the world. A student living independently here could learn French and Arabic, and would emerge with a much richer understanding of the world than could be taught in any classroom."

He goes on to announce a contest where he will take a university student on a foreign reporting trip... will an SCU student win?

School uniforms?

2006-03-21T05:31:00.000-08:00

I am in Oxford for the biannual conference of the Center for the Study of African Economies... great fun! Met some people I have been reading and got to hear some nice papers and get comments on my own research on the impact of libraries. One paper in my session was on the impact of distributing school uniforms to students in Kenya... 4.5% increase in attendance, fairly cost-effective way to get extra schooling. Apply to SCU?

The conference is at St. Catherine's college, a very new part of the the Oxford conglomeration. The buildings were designed by Danish architect Arne Jacobsen... I find them quite striking, for all the little details. In my room I am sitting on one of his chairs. Would be a bit out of place in San Jose though...

While I am gone and from now on, some of the other members of the Core Committee will start blogging (hopefully!) so we'll start signing our names to the postings,

Michael

Study abroad for experiencing "gritty" immersion...

2006-03-16T09:33:00.000-08:00

Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, Superior General of the Jesuits, urged Jesuit universities to give students the opportunity to experience the gritty reality of poverty. No program at Santa Clara does that better than Casa de la Solidaridad, the study abroad program in El Salvador. But therein lies a conundrum: one of the things that makes Casa so great is the incredible self-motivation of the students- a very small number of students. How can the experiences in Casa be generalized to a university-wide experience?

How does a university know when it needs a revision of its core/general education?

2006-03-15T23:27:00.000-08:00

One interesting tool is the AACU diagnostic questionnaire Assessing General Education. I strongly urge every person interested in these issues to truthfully answer the 28 questions; they lay out quite sharply (and in ways a bit depressing) how far from ideal are the typical campus institutions and processes for maximizing the value of a general education/core requirement. In some sense, it is a similar exercise to reading Bok (we/you could be doing so much more...) and yet the shortcomings are the same (a university has limited resources and manpower, and can't have a great core and also a nice pony too).

By the way, UC San Diego has an interesting setup, with six colleges on campus, each one embodying a slightly different general education approach. The descriptions are a bit vague (and there is something slightly creepy about the way many of the colleges emphasize that they are "friendly"... is that something the marketing research focus group told them to put in there?) but nevertheless convey a sense of a different model, abandoning the idea that higher education should have one core, and instead facilitating room for student choice among various general education experiences.

Environmental Studies as a core requirement...

2006-03-14T08:23:00.000-08:00

There is a perception that environmental studies is growing as a general education requirement at universities. In looking through the core requirements of fifty schools (links to their cores are available at our "sister" blog site coreresources.blogspot.com), I cannot find any, however, that have environmental studies as a stand-alone requirement. So American universities are not there yet, it seems.

Certainly there is a strong case to be made, pedagogically, for a good survey course in environmental studies. In the old days it was easy of compartmentalize environmental studies as something that "experts" could take care of, but it is clear that environmental issues are now firmly on the political agenda and thus environmental outcomes are driven, in part, by public perceptions of environmental processes. So citizens need to be well-informed critical thinkers on enviornmental issues.

But the hard question: is environmental studies more urgent than all of the other issues vying for position on a core? (See Derek Bok's positions below). And since I am a bit of a nose-tweaker, I found myself thinking that in terms of the human race, shouldn't our students have a good introduction to military and security issues viewed through a peace studies lens, since we seem unable to stop ourselves from killing each other directly, let alone indirectly through pollution.

Student panel on diversity and gender studies in the core

2006-03-10T14:23:00.000-08:00

Last week we had a well-attended panel on the issue of diversity and gender studies in the core. One of the interesting things I heard was the pressure that student groups feel that they are responsible (implicitly) for diversity and gender education on campus, but this is something best accomplished with a trained educator. Following Derek Bok's discussion, it does make me wonder what the data says about the effects of greater support for multicultural and feminist extracurricular activities as opposed to extra resources needed by beefing up a diversity and/or gender requirement. I will follow through and report on what I find.

Study Abroad

2006-03-10T13:58:00.000-08:00

At the University of Texas, apparently, the provost tells all incoming students only two things: do not decide your major until sophomore year, and study abroad.

An interesting debate in study abroad circles is how to integrate diversity/multicultural education with intercultural competence/communication. Diversity studies tends to emphasize how differences among students and within societies are the result of inequalities of power, while intercultural competence tends to be about learning how elite groups communicate with one another. How much common ground is there in these two approaches/themes? Not very much it would seem. So there would seem to be no sound "learning objective reason" for having the two themes be part of a single requirement, as some schools do.

Service learning

2006-03-10T13:45:00.000-08:00

Service learning is a growing component of both coursework and general education requirements at universities around the country. But just what does service learning hope to accomplish? I am in Chicago for two days doing curriculum work with the International Education of Students (IES) study abroad outfit, and the topic came up, and a member of the consortium distributed information about SCU's Arrupe Center as a place that is "getting it right." Certainly in Jesuit education one can view serving as an important education outcome for students. One has to learn how to serve, and to serve effectively. This is something that educators can teach, and a good way to teach "how to serve effectively" is in the context of practical activities. Service learning does other things too, and there is certainly much disagreement whether this is a key learning outcome for the curriculum to take charge of (as opposed to extra-curricular or hybrid programming).

Internationalizing the curriculum...

2006-03-06T23:02:00.000-08:00

I was reading a new report by the American Council on Education, "Building a Strategic Framework for Comprehensive Internationalization" and some passages in the report I found interesting. First, a short observation in the report on language learning: "A concrete example of adding outcome measures to input measures- or substituting for inputs entirely- can be found in foreign language teaching. Many institutions express their language requirements in terms of course requirements or "seat time", but few actually set these requirements in terms of proficiency in listening, comprehension, speaking, reading, and writing." This echoes Derek Bok's point of view.

More interestingly, on p. 11 of the report is a list of possible learning objectives from internationalizing the curriculum, and among them we find, "appreciates the language, art, religion, philosophy, and material culture of different cultures; accepts the cultural differences and tolerates cultural ambiguity; demonstrates an ongoing willingness to seek out international or intercultural oppportunities." Now these learning objectives are, I submit for discussion, profoundly liberal. They are profoundly anti-conservative. A conservative does not urgently want or sense the value in being exposed to other cultures; a conservative thinks that his or her own tradition is good enough. A conservative is wary of being seduced, is nervous about relativistic thinking, and believes that the need is for more respect rather than more understanding.

This conservative view is quite different, I hasten to add, from the view of libertarians like Tyler Cowen (see his blog Marginal Revolution), who celebrate the internationalization of culture, where Safeway sells sushi and taquitos and one might possibly become convinced, after listening fourteen times to Raquel Zozaya's rendition of Cuban troubadour Silvio Rodriguez' song La Gota de Rocio, that maybe the island of Cuba is experiencing a different history from the one that one thought.

That is one way of seeing these issues. Another way to see them is through the conservative lens; in this view internationalizing the curriculum amounts to devaluing the best of American society. American studies, in this view, are profoundly anti-liberal. A liberal does not want to embrace the 200+ years of history of the United States as a unique and inspiring achievement; a liberal thinks his or her own tradition is just as shameful as that of other countries. A liberal is wary of hurting the feelings of others by making value judgements, is nervous about truthfulness, and believes that the need is for courtesy and curtsies rather than a finger in the face.

I am not making political statements here, rather provocations. My own views I keep close; the purpose of this blog is to present issues of curriculum choice in their full complexity and with eyes open about their implications. There should be no other way to conduct this kind of public discussion in an open society.

iTunes U

2006-03-04T00:02:00.000-08:00

The ability to make video of course lectures super easy to access is a subject that fascinates me for some reason... A good discussion is available at Endless Hybrids.
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For SCU people-Student run panel on Monday March 6, 5pm

2006-03-04T00:00:00.000-08:00

Representatives of Feminists United, the Multicultural Center, the Women’s and Gender Studies Club and the Ethnic Studies Club are organizing a student initiated Student Speak event this coming Monday, March 6th at 5pm in the Kennedy Commons. It will be a panel discussion on the Core Curriculum requirements relating to Ethnic Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies.

Units of inquiry as organizing model for Core?

2006-03-03T12:27:00.000-08:00

Sometimes faculty like the idea of organizing a Core Curriculum as a set of themes that will be addressed in a wide variety of courses. Instead of selecting from a pre-existing menu of courses shaped by the disciplinary concerns of faculty in separate departments, faculty would craft courses that "spoke to each other" by emphasizing, reinforcing and deepening common themes. Derek Bok calls this the "modes-of inquiry" approach, in his book Our Underachieving Colleges. The approach de-emphasizes "knowledge" and favors "methods", broadly speaking. Bok has four criticisms of the approach: Too superficial? Too little emphasis on major, important knowledge? Too hard for a disciplined-based faculty to accomplish? Too hard to monitor for continuous quality?

Bok advocates thinking about curriculum review as a process rather than an attempt to attain the perfect curriculum. He is skeptical of perfection and purists, and cites (p. 273) research by Astin who concludes, "the varieties of general education programs currently used in American higher education do not seem to make much difference in any aspect of a student's cognitive or affective development." One wonders how rigorous Astin's study was? Something to look for.

Bok comes down against general education, to the extent that he reaches a conclusion. His presumable preference (p. 277) is: quantitative literacy, world cultures and international relations, moral reasoning, American government and political philosophy, and economics. There it is: from 5-7 classes. He's clear about what is left out: literature and the arts, science, and history. But he notes (p. 279): "Educators should have good reason to believe that the goal will actually be accomplished to a meaningful degree within the time alloted in the curriculum. it is on this basis that general education progams must be judged and on this basis that they are most vulnerable."

Changes in core curriculum will have effects...

2006-03-02T00:22:00.000-08:00

Any serious change to the existing core will have significant effects. One of the best things a revision committee can do is try to think systematically about these effects. Here’s a partial illustrative list, emerging from recent discussions (and in no order of significance):

(1) Faculty recruitment. Hypothesis: Greater emphasis on real “core” courses, broad interdisciplinary courses taught by tenure-track faculty, has drawback that many new Ph.D.’s, emerging from the cocoons of 5-6 years in their discipline, may not be attracted to the prospect of teaching a broad interdisciplinary core.
(2) Department majors and faculty lines. Hypothesis: Smaller and perennially less popular Departments recruit from students obligated to sample their courses, and without the obligation few students may become majors.
(3) Double majoring. Hypothesis: In today’s credentialed society, students value the diploma-enhancing double major. A more onerous Core (in terms of coursework) imperils double majoring and may reduce attractiveness of the University.
(4) Transfer students. Hypothesis: If a core is guided by learning outcomes, a Core risks being undermined if transfer students can obtain credit for Core work when other colleges offer similar sounding coursework that nevertheless may not have the same rigor and depth of a Santa Clara core course.
(5) Length of study on campus. Hypothesis: A lighter Core may induce students to graduate even earlier, with financial implications for the University.

The hypotheses enumerated above are worth investigating; but they do not preclude there being other hypotheses (polar opposites, even) than may be just a likely. To reiterate, evidence-based research is necessary in sorting out some of the less likely or less substantial hypotheses from those that do find validation in the experiences of a broad sample of universities.

David Brooks has a pet Core Curriculum

2006-03-02T00:16:00.000-08:00

NY Times columnist David Brooks provides his core education: read Reinhold Neibuhr, Plato's Gorgias, take a class on ancient Greece, foreign language mastery, learn statistics, spend a year abroad, a course in neuroscience, dabble away from major.

If you thought universities were not in a competitive environment... think again

2006-03-01T01:12:00.000-08:00

"It took just a few paragraphs in a budget bill for Congress to open a new frontier in education: Colleges will no longer be required to deliver at least half their courses on a campus instead of online to qualify for federal student aid...." Read more.... Online Colleges Receive a Boost From Congress New York Times. The article notes that the assistant secretary of education for higher education is a former lobbyist for the University of Phoenix.

Women's Crossroads: Endless Diversity Battles Sap Our Strength

2006-03-01T00:59:00.000-08:00

Women's Crossroads: Endless Diversity Battles Sap Our Strength A short but pointed post that hashes out some of the beginner's discourse on diversity in the curriculum. "My canon is better than your alternative; my canon is more important than your alternative." "No its not, and besides, my alternative is not the canon because it wasn't allowed to compete in the marketplace of ideas." As author Jennifer Browdy de Hernandez notes, it would be nice to not have to engage in the debate at this level. But, she hasn't taken us to the next level.

Swerve Left: Mandatory testing for colleges?

2006-03-01T00:25:00.000-08:00

Swerve Left: Mandatory testing for colleges? A nice post exploring some of the broad issues in assessment at the university level. One of the tasks in formulating a new core curriculum is thinking about how (and how much) should the new emphasis on assessment be embedded in the resulting core. The comments at the end of the post constitute strong evidence of the learning outcomes that have been achieved by Swerveleft's community: critical thinking, analytical capabilities, synthesis, international mindedness, etc.

Student groups urge changes in core curriculum - News

2006-02-27T11:22:00.000-08:00

From last Thursday's The Santa Clara... Student groups urge changes in core curriculum - News: "...several groups, including Feminists United, the Women's and Gender Studies Club, the Ethnic Studies Club and the Multicultural Center, are planning to give students the chance to voice their opinions in an upcoming panel discussion.... The discussion will address ethnic and women's and gender studies in the core.The student-led panel discussing proposed core requirement changes will be held Monday, March 6, at 5 p.m. in the Kennedy Commons."

Do we need to go back to 1599 to plan for the future?

2006-02-25T20:38:00.000-08:00

This is a question that some of us will find an answer to. Perhaps very few of us though... only those brave enough to attempt a reading of the Ratio Studiorum of 1599: the Order and Method of Studies in the Society of Jesus, which is the document that guided Jesuit education in universities for centuries. Boston College's Digital Archive has a nice website with commentary and English translation. My dialup connection is too slow to access the file, so I'm off the hook for tonight! Instead, I'll finish watching the Brazilian film City of God, as close to the gritty reality of the poor as you can get with Goodfellas-style camera technique.

NYT's John Tierney's view on Summers and Harvard

2006-02-25T07:50:00.000-08:00

In John Tierney's view in his New York Times column, Harvard faculty didn't buy the "assessment and continuous improvement" trend that Summers was trying to promote because they are (1) lazy, (2) don't care much about student learning, and (3) care a lot about denigrating the U.S. (his sly, "they don't teach the American Revolution, they teach a class that treats simultaneously the American and Haitian revolutions (how dare they!)"comment). The column is more interesting for its discursive strategy than its possible factual basis (how would Tierney know what Harvard faculty thought?) and reveals Tierney to be more post-modern than the faculty he criticizes... post-modern in the way Tierney would use the term, that is.

What a diversity requirement should not be?

2006-02-24T12:34:00.000-08:00

University of Nevada-Reno has a diversity requirement that blends international with ethnic studies with disability studies... too broad? The learning objective for the requirement is: "to prepare and encourage our students to acquire what has been called intercultural competencies (foreign language acquisition and cultural sensitivity)." This is not the currently faddish language of assessment of student outcomes- the class prepares and encourages just by being a class. What measurable result is to be attained?

Core curriculum at Rhode Island College

2006-02-22T13:15:00.000-08:00

I'm visiting Rhode Island College, participating in a mini-conference on Darfur. One of the organizers is my old friend Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban, and turns out she was in charge of reorganizing RIC's core. They came up with an interesting hybrid model: four courses that everyone has to take, and then a set of distribution requirements. Turns out that one of the four core courses is more like a distribution requirement, illustrating nicely the institutional problem of designing a core but then not necessarily having the right incentives in place to have it remain a "core"... "It's growing," is the comment of one RIC prof. I was chatting with.

Harvard's hot water core curriculum and other things education...

2006-02-21T10:19:00.000-08:00

Richard Bradley, who was an editor at John F. Kennedy, Jr.'s magazine George, blogs (Shots in the Dark) about education issues at Harvard (he has a book Harvard Rules)... there lot's of interesting gossip, and more than enough marinated tofu for thought... especially now that Harvard President Larry Summers appears to have resigned today.

Edwired...

2006-02-19T22:22:00.000-08:00

I'm reading a fascinating blog called Edwired. A George Mason Univeristy history professor. Great stuff about the end of the "course" when students now have the technology to podcast and podview lectures. Who will be the first innovator?

Uh oh... modern languages don't have a friend in Derek Bok...

2006-02-19T22:14:00.000-08:00

Bok is decidely anti-language. Read on it's own, his chapter on "preparing for a global society" might not appear that way, but in contrast with what has come before, we finally arrive at something he doesn't think is worth promoting. I like the general drift of Bok's book- if you are serious about curriculum reform, then you don't just start and end with the aggregated preferences of a faculty committee. You should start and end with education research. What does the research say? Does the research support a proposed curricular innovation? Now the problem with this is that in many disciplines, the research is not definitive (Reagan's old wish for a one-handed economist comes to mind). Why would that be different in the discipline of education research? So, Bok presents studies suggesting that requiring foreign languages maybe need not be a priority. But after the diversity chapter debacle, now I no longer trust that he has properly sounded the research... I am quite sure there is more to learn.

What does Bok favor instead? A good course introducing students to the international world. Who can be opposed in principle -- though very hard to standardize across instructors. And, by the way, there seems to be no research-evidenced results presented by Bok indicating that something like that is more effective than language instruction.

Bok- something tells me to stop trusting this guy...

2006-02-19T22:04:00.000-08:00

I'm reading the chapter on diversity, and I keep bumping into something called a "Third World Center" that "blacks" want on college campuses. Hello? A quick internet search reveals that there are 779 websites mentioning "Third World Center" in the education domain .edu.... (the two prominent ones seem to be Brown and Princeton, hmmmm...). Meanwhile there are 219,000 websites refering to "Multicultural Center"... So, if Bok is this parochial on diversity, why bother reading the rest of the chapter? Because I have to- guilt compunction? So the rest is predictable, bordering on inane. He's losing credibility fast.

Preparation for Citizenship...

2006-02-12T19:46:00.000-08:00

That is the title of Ch. 7 in Derek Bok's book, Our Underachieving Colleges. I am beginning to feel a little frustrated.... some fallacies of composition are troubling me. Colleges aren't doing enough to promote good citizenship; college education is key; more college education for citizenship would promote better citizenship. But, gee, over the last 40 years vastly more Americans have gone to college, yet Bok's empirical assessment of citizenship is that there isn't enough. So... perhaps college education (no matter how much citizenship training is or is not involved) actually has little to do with citizenship outcomes. The problem is also that the outcome of interest is not carefully defined in a measurable way. Evoking Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone-- there Putnam selected a group of civic indicators important in the past and showed how they had declined. Selecting civic activities that were unimportant in the past would (more likely) mean that they had now increased.

Also, I am concerned about the general paradox of the book so far (remember, though, I skipped the intro and am digesting the marinated tofu). Bok so far has been nicely consistent- every chapter shows that the outcome is not improving, and every chapter shows the scientific studies about how the outcome might be improved. But there is no comparative assessment (maybe later?). In other words, we seem to be heading in the direction of having ten things that can be improved (all with associated costs) but little sense of which things are most cost effective. Is there are bigger bang for the buck in preparing for citizenship, or preparing for diversity? So far Bok seems to be saying that the bangs are all positive. but the magnitudes matter much.

I say this noting that the first such assessment enters the stage as a throwaway comment on p. 188: "It is surely odd to require all students to take courses in the sciences or study a foreign language while taking no steps to ensure that they have enough knowledge to understand the basic problems and processes of their democracy." A truism, but Bok aspires to more. He would be the first to say that colleges have indeed taken many steps, so it is not about "no steps" but about "more steps." It is fair to ask whether there scientific evidence that it is "odd."

Building Character as part of curriculum, broadly speaking

2006-02-10T23:30:00.000-08:00

I'm continuing to read Derek Bok, now on chapter 6, entitled "Character Building." Santa Clara is in an enviable position here- I think! I have to believe that many of our students self-select precisely because they already have through high school an above-average sense of moral awareness and reasoning, and their parents probably do too. Many of the faculty also take moral issues more seriously, and integrate them more frequently into their daily life. After two or three years, most faculty, and even some students, come to appreciate the Jesuit nuances of what are otherwise platitudes: "discernment", "solidarity", and "whole person". I'm curious whether the national survey of faculty actually shows this for Santa Clara- something to look up.
Regardless, as Bok (predictably) points out, there is always room for (much) improvement.

Aside: Is there going to be something that our underachieving colleges do too much of, and should do a little less of? Faculty already working too much- they should spend more time with their families!? Too much good food service? Too much broadband? Too many units required for graduation?

Some good suggestions throughout... useful "to do" list for university administrators. (E.g., when was the last time coaches were given a pep talk to let everyone on the team play because winning isn't everything...? Well, more like: winning through cheating is no victory.) Setting an example is important, suggests Bok. It does make me think that the Jesuit character of the university is somewhat abstract- students do not get too many profiles of present and living Jesuits and the moral examples so many strive to set. Ask a typical student: Who's a famous Jesuit? Response: None? Exceedingly moral people aren't famous?

Bok does have some straight talk about the role of cheating and faculty/administration response. Definitely something to monitor closely with students. But straying a little far from curriculum issues.

Last note: A little David Brooks bashing in this chapter. Good. I find him a willful perpetrator of "massive unsubstantiated generalizations." (Here, that colleges do little about moral reasoning, which, as Bok points out, is a baloney statement- most colleges do far more than they used to.)

What does Costa-Gavras have in common with Derek Bok?

2006-02-09T09:35:00.000-08:00

Watched Costa-Gavras film 'Z' last night, and read Bok's chapter on critical thinking. As Costa-Gavras points out in the director's commentary on the DVD, the film was an expression of hate against the Greek colonels who took power in 1967 - the "imbeciles". Shouldn't critical thinking at a Jesuit, Catholic university be intended in part to prevent people from accepting "imbeciles" in power? The film does a great job of presenting the rhetoric of the colonels- for God and country. Could their rhetoric withstand a healthy does of critical thought? (Rhetoric of the leftists, however, is left unexplored.) Worth remembering that in most countries of the world students (in Burkina Faso, the high school students!) are typically the first to question the rhetoric of oppression.

So what does Bok have to say about teaching critical thinking? A bit more than teaching English composition. Active learning is what Bok believes is clearly important. Teachers simply have to get away from the one hour lecture, and use classroom time to stimulate group work and discussion. He give three wonderful examples: Halloum and Hestenes who find that understanding of physics principles advances little in the standard physics course; Triesman who finds that group problem-solving is extrememly effective; and Mazur who required advance reading and left classes for very structured discussion.

After two chapters (4 and 5), I think a theme is beginning to emerge: focus less on changing curriculum and more on changing courses. Use educational research to improve teaching. The neglectful zookeepers of the present should not be entrusted with new animals.

Good news for English composition - Derek Bok's "Our Underachieving Colleges"

2006-02-08T13:29:00.000-08:00

I've started to read Bok's book, Our Underachieving Colleges, and skipped the introductory chapters and went right to the marinated tofu (as vegetarians say). Chapter 4, entitled "Learning to Communicate," offers Bok's thoughts on the importance of English writing and composition in the curriculum. I do not need to be convinced of the importance of writing well, nor of the difficulties in teaching composition. I was a little startled by Bok's insistence (three separate times) that correcting grammar mistakes is "discredited." Should the period go in or out of the apostrophe? Is it better to not correct grammar mistakes? Could writing be improved without any attention to grammar? Is grammar something one learns on one's own? Similarly glib was Bok's solution to the problem: have a "facultywide forum"and find out what your goals are in teaching writing (p. 97). (Just 7 pages later, he notes that in the related field of oral communication one could never get a consensus on an ideal curriculum (p. 104). So much for the forum idea.) Then initate a process to weed out bad teaching of English composition (outmoded practices must be extirpated). Then add a lot more resources. Well, this isn't very useful advice: "Pay attention and work better!" One begins to wonder what the budget for implementing the rest of the book is going to look like...

Just finished reading Louis Menand's article (in links section)

2006-02-07T15:42:00.000-08:00

Menand's cogent sociological explanation of how "The Marketplace of Ideas" has evolved (in the humanities) is convincing without being overbearing. He makes too much of what he calls postdisciplinarity- the status in the humanities of having lost one's disciplinary way (his example is the English professor's de rigueur second book on the history of carrots). Coining an unneeded word, there. The important thing is to get beyond a politics of resentment on university campuses (pithily summarized as "when women and nonwhites came into the system, traditional notions of scholarly rigor disappeared"), especially perhaps in the humanities, and to see that larger forces are shaping university curricula all over the country, and that change on one's own campus is not due to an obnoxious empire-builder or a loudmouthed activist.

At the end of the short article, he introduces the university as a counterweight to what he calls public culture. He does not explain what public culture is (we know it when we see it?). I guess I am less convinced that we have a single public culture that needs a counterweight of an institution that is the collectivity of universities. Silicon Valley in particular seems to consist of a myriad of different public cultures, reflected partly and differently by its universities.

Creating a new core curriculum

2006-02-06T00:33:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the blog site of people interested in a new core curriculum for Santa Clara University, a Jesuit, Catholic University located in Silicon Valley.