Utilizing Open Space Technology, the following questions/issues were generated at the Retreat. People interested in the topics gathered in groups for discussion and presented the results of their discussions at the end of the day. Questions/issues generated are presented below followed by the summary of the discussion.
Do we need a GE (faculty) supervisor? Would this threaten academic freedom?
Can "shared vision" of GE be sufficient? Or does a centralized "office" help facilitate teaching - making us more efficient at (self) assessment and less time re-inventing the processes?
Discussion summary:
Need/role of GE coordinator?"slippery slope" - faculty peer review
"sell" GE to students
is learning really happening
role of outside discipline evaluation
given limited resources is this a good use
What are goals of GE?
Recognize historical conditions
Writing skills/oral skills
Open choice of courses?
Interdisciplinary/discipline specific
How do we assess GE as it stands now? Less Holism, bore bricolage! Is part of the problems that we are trying to do too much? Do we know enough about other disciplines to judge their importance/significance in a GE education? (Are we generally educated?)
Discussion summary:
Do we know enough about other disciplines to judge their contributionNewspaper metaphor - teach skills necessary to read New York Times.
Tension between GE and prereq/majors.
Major advising could better address role/importance of GE
Assessment - does one size fit all work?
Help students learn how to ask questions about what is important to them
(No) consensus among faculty about what GE should include
Will integration happen without direction/context?
Contradiction - GE is the "core" of who we (the univ) are, yet
It is primarily taught by part time instructors (check assumptions - lecturers not necessarily part time or less involved in SSU) who my not be an integral part of the university community.
The classes are large
It is designed in such a way that depts and schools compete for FTE and course content (turf)
It doesn't count as much toward RTP or FMI issues (get grant money)
Are turf problems avoided in any system?
Discussion summary:
GE as "core" of university vs.GE as primary FTE generator;
GE devalued in RTP, etc.;
Taught by less invested part timers;
In large classes, resulting in less involvement, less creativity by students
Causing "turf" competition between depts and schools
Solutions and Suggtions -
Create incentives for tenure-track faculty to teach GE
Create integrated foundational freshman year experience
Explore relationship between GE and EMT
Create opportunities for interdisciplinary team teaching
Beyond GE - how do we do planning? Integrate fiscal and curricular planning Hire more tenure-track faculty
Don't different disciplines have different interests (in both senses)? Is a goal of integration realistic or even honorable? How can we objectively design a GE program that reflects the ideals of a liberal arts education, and at the same time preserves the survival of individual disciplines (both philosophy and money)
Integration is desirable in a global society. It calls for a better communication and understanding of diversity, a way to peace. Let's advocate for bilingual communities as a grassroot for international harmony. Knowledge of other languages will improve integration and intercomunicaton. Ephermal part-time faculty equals integrated GE?? Integration rules out the exciting crinkly edges.
Why shouldn't every class (major, general elective, or GE) seek to articulate its connection to the University Mission(s) of liberal education (Why have identified GE courses?) Shouldn't we let students assemble their own "tool kit?" Will the "one size fits all" work? What is integration? What does it look like? How can we tell its happening/happened? Isn't integration often superficial? Coordination in GE wastes time, money, resources and stifles passion. In an integrated system different components have different structures and serve different functins. We need to realize that there is strength in diversity. To achieve integration we need to identify the components that serve as basis, components that serve to connect different areas, etc. How do we help transfer students "integrate" their learning experiences?
Discussion summary:
We do not distinguish between the missions of general education and liberal education.Liberal education should empower students to understand, ariculate and critique values and claims about the real.
Liberal education enables students to learn a variety of skills and modes of
multi-, inter - and disciplinary inquiry and fosters inductive synthesis.
Honor incoherence.
Institution concerns:
SFR in GE courses currently
Full support and academic citizenship for all who teach LE
- Support programs and departs because of their importance to a liberal arts education
- More student-centered choices about which courses to take (have very few specifically required LE courses)
- Have depts identify courses appropriate for GE each semester.
Information Competence. To ensure student success in our information glutted society, Information Competence is a necessary and ideal accompaniment to any GE program. Information Competence is the ability to recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information. Are students getting enough background in science and technology? (esp. science!) is GE covering compentencies that oure students need, e.g. info compentence. How much do students need to know about technology? The good thing about GE is that no one coordinates it. Assessment wastes resources which could be used in our endeavor. Good teachers don't need assessment and it doesn't change poor teachers. Proposition: All GE classes are (or should be) writing classes. Trendiness in education - do we have to buy in? It is truly "General" when we focus only on the mind? What about body and spirit? Why no inclusion of health and wellness skills and knowledge in the Asheville GE outcomes? All GE classes should be info comp classes!
Discussion Summary:
What comp needed/involved?1. Information compentence vs. technologacross depts and in classes, etc.
broader means to find information
2. Writing
3. Wellness/health
4. Science and Technology
Lifelong learning?
Need mission first, then deal with big issues
comp needed in 21st century? Update these
what do we want SSU student to "possess" when they leave?
We discussed the issue of "universal compentencies" that all faculty have responsibility for helping to inculcate:
Information competency
Language skills - writing
Wellness/physical health
Others
Technology
We made suggestions for rewording the mission statement to include these issues:
Sec. 1: Acquire I.S. and info compentenciesSec 3: More emphasis on use and know
Sec 4: Personal and physical well being
We saw the value of these conversations and of creating a mission statement for the purposes of "raising consciousness" about our broader responsibilities to students (e.g. "universal competencies")
(or at least Scott saw the value)
Why should a math class or chemistry, or syntax or computer science - concern itself with the workings of human society? (Some do and if they do it is laudable goal, but we need to realize that a course doesn't have to satisfy all of our criteria to be legitimate. E.g. art appreciation shouldn't be required to integrate technology into its curriculum.)
Shouldn't students be exposed to the best teacher in the discipline - the teacher doing the work of the discipline? (right! without regard to rank.)
Discussion summary:
Physics with plumbing values, physics without plumbing or physics with passion - "the best"
Purpose of GE
Integration?
One way. Theme based approach e.g. Biology politics - economics, etc of cancer.
U.D. interdisciplinary course
Student need practice at making connections and bringing different disciplines to bear.
"Ant farm' metaphor
Are we working from an Enlightenment model? Is this a good idea in 2002? Should we have a course in History of Western and non-Western civilization that is taught by our entire faculty and is taken by all freshman/sophmores? Any American multicultural studies course should extend over 2 year, be interdisciplinary and engage key historical, sociological, anthropological, religious, educational, etc. issues from multiple cultural perspectives. Power needs to be addressed. How can we help students appreciate ambiguity, complexity., nuance, non-lineality of diverse phenomena? Secular investigation!
Leaving one's comfort zone, having a sense that one is part of a diverse world community. Let students come to understandings of themselves and the world from knowledge positions relevant to their own lives.
Discussion summary:
What relevance?GE program that is issue-based or topic based instead of discipline based
Appreciation of complexity and ambiguity to produce change in existing power structures;
Understand strategies and complexitiesBuild self-confidence and competency
Learn to leave comfort zones and experience other's point of view
Learn about multiple knowledge traditions
Sense of moral obligation
Learn to make value judgements
Learn to question value judgements
Understanding the dominant paradigms
Appreciation of the value of your own position
Developing strategies to challenge both
Understand modern corporate values
Understand individual political responsibility
Understand the need to engage with whole world and act on one's beliefs
Importance of pedagogy - integrating and performing diff. approaches - when faculty can learn from each other in an interdisciplinary context.
Communicating GE Mission/Goals to students and getting them on board rather than bored. Transforming advising form negative/pragmatic; student/faculty major advising attitudes, "getting rid of your GE"; "get it done," to a more positive understanding of the philosophy of GE esepcially with new students ( FTF and Transfer) Capstone course?
Discussion summary:
The group voted on the top 5 of these for priority. They were: