THE FUTURE OF GENERAL EDUCATION
at
SONOMA STATE
QQQQQ
STATEMENT ON
THE MISSION, GOALS & 0BJECTIVES OF
GENERAL EDUCATION AT SONOMA STATE UNIVERSITY (Fall 2002)
Unanimously approved by the GE Subcommittee, and
sent to EPC, October 23, 2002.
Unanimously approved by EPC, November 14, 2002
Unanimously approved by the Faculty Senate, March
6, 2003 (as revised)
MISSION
General Education (GE) at Sonoma State University
(SSU) investigates the complexity of human experience in a diverse natural
and social world, and promotes informed and ethical participation as citizens
of the world.
TEACHING GOALS
To achieve this mission, in concert with the specific
needs of various GE Areas of Study, the GE program asserts the following
fundamental goals for all GE approved classes:
I. Teach students to think independently,
ethically, critically and creatively
II. Teach students to communicate clearly
to many audiences
III. Teach students to gain an understanding
of connections between the past and the present, and to look to the future
IV. Teach students to appreciate intellectual,
scientific, and artistic accomplishment
V. Teach and/or build upon reading,
writing, research, and critical thinking skills
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
1. Acquire a foundation of intellectual skills
and capacities
a. Develop intellectual curiosity
(Supports Goals I, II, III, IV, and V)
b. Develop research skills (I, III, IV, V)
c. Write and speak effectively to various
audiences (I, II, V)
d. Evaluate everyday experiences critically
(I, III, IV, V)
e. Develop capacity to reason quantitatively
(I, IV, V)
f. Work collaboratively to achieve defined
goals and objectives (I, II, V)
g. Develop skill in the use of information
technology (I, II, V)
h. Imagine, design, and execute scholarly
and creative projects (I, II, IV, V)
i. Translate problems into common language
(I, II, V)
2. Develop social and global knowledge
a. Understand and appreciate human
diversity and multicultural perspectives (I, II, III, V)
b. Prepare for active engagement in the community
(I, II, III, V)
c. Understand and be sensitive to the global
environment (I, II, III, IV, V)
d. Understand social justice issues (I, III,
IV, V)
e. Engage with challenging moral and ethical
human dilemmas (I, II, III, IV, V)
3. Understand and use multiple methods of inquiry
and approaches to knowledge
a. Understand and appreciate mathematics
and science (I, II, III, IV, V)
b. Understand and appreciate fine and performing
arts (I, II, III, IV, V)
c. Understand and appreciate historical and
social phenomena (I, II, III, IV, V)
d. Recognize and use perspectives of diverse
disciplines (I, II, III, IV, V)
4. Develop capacities for integration and lifelong
learning
a. Evaluate alternative career choices
(I, III, IV, V)
b. Recognize the importance of lifelong learning
(I, II, III, IV, V)
c. Integrate general education experiences
(I, II, III, IV, V)
d. Cultivate ways to empower the learning
of others (I, II, III, IV, V)
e. Engage in responsible citizenship (I, II,
III, IV, V)
Report of the Joint EPC/GE Subcommittee Task Force on General Education,
May 5, 2003
The Context for Planning the Future
of G.E.
General Education-Breadth
Requirements -- Executive Order 595
(Nov. 20, 1992--pdf file)
WORKING DRAFT 11/1/01: General Education
at Sonoma State University (Proposed revision of the Asheville Report by
Robert Eyler, Chair, GE Subcommittee)
Leslie Deming (Office of Analytical Studies). Are
We Achieving Our Mission?
BOOKS ON RESERVE IN THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY (Under APC/EPC)
-
Kenneth A. Bruffee. CollaborativeLearning: Higher Education, Interdependence,
and the Authority of Knowledge. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins
University Press, 1993.
-
Scott H. Forbes. Holistic Education.Brandon, VT: Foundation fo
Educational Renewal, 2003.
-
Donald R. Gerth, James O. Haehn & Associates. An Invisible Giant:
The California State Colleges. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1971.
-
Debora Hammond. The Science of Synthesis. Boulder, CO: University
of Colorado, 2003.
-
Jean MacGregor, James L. Cooper, Karl A. Smith & Pamela Robinson,
Eds. Strategies for Energizing Large Classes: From Small Groups to LearningCommunities.
San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2000.
G.E. FACULTY RETREAT - Jan 24, 2002
POSITION PAPERS
This section is for more formal position statements.
E-mail your contributions to Art Warmoth, APC-EPC Liaison, at <art.warmoth@sonoma.edu>,
preferably as a Microsoft Word attachment.
-
GE Faculty Lab Area A Forum Final Report
"We came to realize that Area A was in fact a coherent course of study,
and should be characterized as such in a mission statement.
-
Area A studies provide students with foundational concepts and experiences
that are vital to human communication and critical thinking. These studies
encourage the development of an intellectual practice through active engagement
with and analysis of language."
-
WASC Self-Study: Learning within GE Programs at
SSU
"This program offers students a set of university-approved course options
distributed among areas of learning. These areas of learning and their
goals are as follows:
-
Communication and Critical Thinking (Area A) is designed to provide students
with the level of writing, analytical and speaking proficiency appropriate
for a university education.
-
Natural Sciences and Mathematics (Area B) is designed to examine the theories,
methods and models by which scientific investigation proceeds and to imbue
students with the same sense of curiosity and wonder about the natural
world that inspires mathematicians and scientists in their work.
-
Arts and Humanities (Area C) is designed to cultivate and develop imagination,
sensibility, sensitivity and interpretative skills and to develop understanding
of the interrelationships among the creative arts, the humanities, and
the self.
-
Social Sciences (Area D) is designed to describe and explain organization,
variation, and change in social,practices and institutions.
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The Integrated Person (Area E) is designed to study both the processes
affecting individuals, such as psychological, sexual , or physiological
changes throughout the human life cycle, and the interactions between the
individual and society."
-
Mary Halavais & Arthur Warmoth. Liberal
Arts as Pedagogy
Content and character formation in the liberal arts tradition.
-
Susan McKillop. A Proposal for Combining
GE with a Minor.
A proposal to meet the general education requirements in Title 5 by
combining a breadth requirement with a minor.
-
Frank H.T. Rhodes. A Battle Plan for Professors
to Recapture the Curriculum.
"Those in higher education have to learn to live together, not concealing
their convictions, disguising their differences, or minimizing their concerns,
but sharing them, step by step, forging a larger community that unites
them in their humanity. ...Higher-education institutions must remain places
of openness, tolerance, inquiry, robust debate, generous spirit, and welcoming
inclusiveness. ...[U]niversities have some responsibility for the moral
well-being, as well as the intellectual development, of their students.
That is, after all, why most universities were founded."
-
Comments on the Asheville Draft by the
Social Sciences Curriculum Committee 9/20/01
Some pointed comments and questions by the School of Social Sciences
faculty.
-
Debora Hammond. Some Thoughts on the Role of
Dialogue in Learning Communities
Abstract: Originally conceived as part of a panel on Kenneth Boulding's
contributions to the systems field, this paper will focus on the theme
of integrity. An essential element of Boulding's thought was his concept
of the integrative function, which he saw as a critical third force in
society, mediating between the exchange function of the marketplace and
the coercive function of structures of authority and power. The integrative
function, in its task of nurturing community and connection, depends upon
the development of skills in communication, dialogue, and conflict resolution,
as well as the cultivation of a systemic awareness of the interconnectedness
and interdependence of our lives as individuals in an increasingly complex
and global social order. The dominant model of education is not well suited
to the task of nurturing such skills and awareness. Based upon my own experience
teaching in a seminar-based, interdisciplinary liberal studies program,
this paper will address the concept of learning communities in education
as an approach that can support the development of integrity and wholeness
in both individuals and society.
-
William M. Sullivan, Senior Scholar, Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement
of Teaching. Sizing Up the Predicament of Liberal
Education
The liberal education agenda, which emphasizes teaching, civic responsibility,
and public service, as well as scholarship and research, has broad implicit
public support. However, the liberal education community must craft a message
that turns this potential into active political support.
-
Bigger
Fish in Smaller Ponds: How Clusters Are Reinventing General Education at
UCLA (Link to AAC&U News, October 2003)
How UCLA solved the problem of "research universities as being out
of touch with their undergraduates" by implementing topical clusters (learning
comunities).
-
College Caught in a Vise by Stanley Fish
(The
New York Times, September 18, 2003)
The public has a hard time understadning issues of cost and outcomes.
POSITION PAPERS on EDUCATION FOR CITIZENSHIP
The American Democracy
Project (of the American Association of State Colleges and Universities--Link
to http://www.aascu.org/programs/adp/about/)
Thomas Ehrlich. Civics
and the Spirit of Liberty (Link
to The Christian Science Monitor, May 13, 2003)programs are intentionally
designed with these outcomes in mind, colleges can establish a groundwork
that students later build on. The undergraduate experience can shape the
intellectual frameworks and habits of mind that students bring to adult
experiences. It can change the way they understand responsibilities central
to their sense of self and teach them to offer and demand evidence and
justification for their moral and political positions."
Richard Guarasci. Developing the Democratic
Arts. (Reprinted from About Campus, Jan./Feb. 2001)
In a society that doesn't always live up to its ideals how can we encourage
students to live publicly involved, culturally aware lives? The answer,
says the author, is to offer students an extensive education in the "democratic
arts.
James F. Veninga. Education for Tomorrow: What
Do Citizens Need to Know?
"Cultural literacy" as a possible banner in the battle against corporate
models of higher education.
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