Core class requirements may change

The University Senate recently approved a plan that could change GCSU’s core requirements for future students.

“(The Senate) passed the proposed Conceptual Framework for revision of general education,” said Dr. Jane Rose, assistant to the Vice-President for Academic Assessment. “This means that further development and working out of details can occur. Much more still needs to be worked out.”

Rose said President Dr. Dorothy Leland plans to charge a committee during the summer to develop a time line for the project. The committee will determine what still needs to be considered.

“Then, depending on what work that team identifies, one or more groups will be charged with developing a fully detailed proposal, and perhaps some pilot courses, during the course of next year,” Rose said.

According to Rose, the modification of core curriculums, also known as general education programs, is a national movement. Universities all over the United States are revising their general education.

“There is a whole, well-developed plan that is going forward to revise our approach to general education,” Rose said. “Most universities in the country right now are reevaluating their general education programs.”

For the past three years, many different faculty committees
have looked at the core curriculum. GCSU wants to revise their general education to make it more distinctive among other Georgia universities.

“The university is looking to make (students’) core experience a unique experience and in keeping with the liberal arts mission of the university,” said John Swinton, assistant professor.

The proposal hoped to establish a model for general education that reflects the liberal arts mission of GCSU. The proposed plan has four characteristics of distinction: seminars that deal with an array of topics and issues, a curriculum with a wide range of course options, introduction to a foreign language and culture and several exposures to the essential skills and values of a liberal arts education.

“One of the problems that we face with our current core is that it was not developed on outcomes,” said Rose. “We have outcomes, but they were really developed after the fact. If we are developing a new core, we want to do it where the kind of courses we offer are motivated by the outcomes we want to see in our students.”

This plan aims to offer exposure to many areas of knowledge as needed for significant and creative study. Students will be able to select courses that they find interesting. This may give students a better opportunity to take responsibility for their own education.

Aspects known as emphases are also part of the plan. These include writing and speaking, global and diversity, information literacy and technology, aesthetics, quantitative and analytical, health, and citizenship and ethics.

According to Rose, instead of having English 1101 and 1102 the way they are currently offered, a student would have English 1101 and in place of English 1102 as a separate course, there would be a writing intensive asset to another course where the student would write about the material from the class. More writing and public speaking intensive courses and diversity courses would be required.

“We will assure that everybody has had exposure to (diversity) ideas,” Rose said. “We see that as achieving two things: it does a better job than our core of assuring the students will be exposed to different ideas, but it also recognizes that you can be exposed to these ideas in a number of different contexts.”

Mass Communication sophomore Ajayi Monell said he also thinks there should be more emphasis on diversity at GCSU.

“I am from the Virgin Islands where we have to learn about our history, Caribbean history, and all types of U.S. History,” Monell said. “It has always puzzled me that in the U.S., they basically only learn about their history and maybe a geography class. I definitely think this would be a positive influence on the campus and students all together.”

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Apr 14 2006. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry