Trends in General Education Reform (September 2003)

Report from the Asheville Conference, September 2003

Trends focused on content of the program
- – stress on students learning skills, such as writing or information literacy
(Elon, students must demonstrate five competencies)

- – offering students new approaches to understanding culture and
multiple societies

- – stress on moral and ethical questions

- – emphasizing the goal of educating students for citizenship

Trends focusing on the structure of requirements
- – developing all-campus requirements which are not distributional
(Duke, students must take courses which satisfy intellectual goals,
for example, learning about a mode of inquiry or learning a skill)

- – creating a tighter curricular structure, fewer but more purposeful courses
(Wagner, learning communities focused on NYC area)

- – connecting student learning across courses
(Farleigh Dickinson, seminars which explicitly integrate methods
of investigation)

- – creating interdisciplinary courses as requirements
(Colgate, 4 interdisciplinary courses at introductory level)

- – requiring satisfactory demonstration of learning of skills and abilities
(Kings College, PA, assessment of cumulative learning)

- – introducing new elements
(Indiana Univ. Purdue Univ. Indianapolis, FYS taught by a team
of faculty member, academic advisor, student mentor, librarian)

- – raising standards and increasing requirements
(Northeastern, whole faculty developed goals, departments decided
on implementation in their units)

- – having general education goals for all four years, including first-year
seminars and capstone courses
(Augsburg, keystone course)

Trends focused on pedagogy

- – training faculty in how students learn

- – moving from stressing learning content to stressing learning methods
of inquiry
(Duke)

- – emphasizing practical applications of what students learn
(Portland State)

- – creating opportunities for collaborative learning

Trends focused on the process of making general education reforms

- – close attention to the process of developing and implementing reforms

- – faculty act as trustees for entire curriculum

- – including plans for faculty to develop new courses and skills, if called
for in reforms
(Northeastern, provost provided money for interdisciplinary reading
groups of faculty)

- – using multiple strategies for change

- – integrating assessment into program at beginning
(Alverno, connects assessment to general education goals)

- – connecting general education content and structure to the guiding
philosophy of the college