Re-forming Liberal Education:Reconsidering and Remapping GeneralEd., the Major, and the StudentExperience

David C. ParisVP, Integrative Liberal Learning and the Global Commons, AAC&U

AAC&U ILD Institute 2013

Overview:

*A session at a somewhat different level

*The current challenges (external/internal) to liberal/general education and the ILGC

*The need for “re-formation”?

*Content and design, curriculum and program

*Big questions, integration and pathways, the student experience, structuring transparency

A Wider Context: Challenges to Liberal (General?) Education (And A&S)….

•Declining enrollments, majors

•Throughput pressure, the completion agenda

•Questions of relevance, quality, cost

•The technological and curricular “alternative models”

•The policy follies, cutting majors, and the history premium

The AAC&U Responding to Challenges,Defending and Promoting Liberal Education

•A dual role: authority and support/development

•Professionalism and community organizing: advocacy, and the “arsenal” of AAC&U: LEAP/ELO, VALUE, HIPS…

•Support/development: networks, institutes (ILD), publications

ILGC’s “Mission”?

*The challenge restated—What is the “what” of liberal/general education? Can there be valuewithout content?

*The “big muddy” of content, design, and student experiences—revisiting some basic issues

*(New?) support/development for liberal education

Potential Elements of an Agenda/Charge

•“Big Questions”: wicked problems and globallearning

•Integrative learning, curricular coherence andconnection to programs (Remapping generaleducation/major)

•Problem-focused curricula, programs

•Transparency and portfolios

•Whither the arts and sciences?

“Big Questions” and Wicked Problems

*Perennial and contemporary issues beyonddisciplines (identity, environment, justice—understanding nature, culture, andsociety)

*What’s a wicked problem? Global learning andissues in the making (e.g. human rights, Snowden)

Integration (A): curricular pathways

*Connecting courses that touch (wicked) problems from several angles

*Horizontal and vertical integration, reconsideringgeneral ed. and the major

*U. Cal. Chico—”pathways”

Integration (B) within the institution, withother communities:

*Co-curricular programs and learning outcomes(Kuh, “experience is the best teacher”--https://chronicle.com/article/Maybe-Experience-Really-Can-Be/125433/; Guttman CC)

*The growing role of internships, preparation foremployment

*Civic engagement, service learning—building on a long tradition

*E.g.: Wake Forest “College to Career,” BToP/A Crucible Moment

Transparency, assessment, and the (whole)student experience:

*Portfolios as the new transcript/resume

*HIPS/NSSE as surrogate measures?

*VALUE rubrics assessing authentic student work—anational mode of assessment?

*Organizing the portfolio?

(At Least) Two Questions Leading to Others:

*Internal: Are we organized (content, structure, experience, assessment) in ways that can (help)re-form liberal/general education?

*External: How effectively is what we are doing (content, structure, experience, assessment) responding to public challenges and/or transfer to “new models”?

Rhetorical Provocations and Visions (Delusions):

*Is the distinction between general ed./major, breadth/depth still useful, helpful?

*What if there were only “general” education?

*What if one “majored” in an area or a problem?

Content? Knowledge for…?

*Is transmitting disciplinary knowledge (and how itis obtained), what our students need?

*How does what we teach relate to the issues and“big questions” students will confront in their personal,economic, and civic lives?

*To what extent can/should curricular, co-curricular, and community programs be integrated as improving student experience/learning?

*Do our organizational structures reflect the way we want students to understand the world?

*Should we replace departments with divisions asa way of organizing ourselves (gen. ed. vs. majors) andstructuring students’ academic experience?

*What if coursework were organized around student portfolio categories, statements/demonstrationsof outcomes in broad categories of ways of knowing and categories of knowledge?

Two Strategies: Current ILGC Initiatives (Development/Support)

*STIRS: evidence-based reasoning across the curriculum, framework and case studies

*Integrative learning: nine/fifteen college consortium with initiatives across disciplines

*Global learning: VALUE rubric, global handbook, gen. ed. as global ed.

*Bridging Cultures: nine community colleges revising humanities courses around civic issues/community engagement

Advocacy/Authority Strategy

*Do we need an updated, more prescriptive liberal learning statement?

*Is there a curricular equivalent to HIPs? (the “gathering” problem)

*Can E-portfolios establish a template for defining and demonstrating liberal learning?

*Symposium 2014:

Help Wanted!

*Please send reactions/ideas, suggestions, examples..

*How can we help you?

paris@aacu.org