Paul Hanstedt - General Education Essentials: A Guide for College Faculty

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Hanstedt, Paul, date

General education essentials : a guide for college faculty / Paul Hanstedt ;

foreword by Terrel L. Rhodes.

p. cm. (The Jossey-Bass higher and adult education series)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-118-32185-0 (pbk.); 978-1-118-32953-5 (ebk); 978-1-118-32954-2 (ebk); 978-1-118-32955-9 (ebk)

1. Universities and collegesCurriculaUnited States.Planning. 2.

General educationUnited States. I. Title.

LB2361.5H36 2012

378.199dc23

2012004824

Credits

Chapter 5:

Hollis, Midterm Assignment from Chemistry and Crime. Taught Spring 2011 at Roanoke College, Salem, VA.

Poli, DNA Cartoon Assignment from How Do Living Organisms Evolve. Taught Spring 2011 at Roanoke College, Salem, VA.

Ramesh, Second Group Presentation Assignment from Demystifying Foods: Why We Eat What We Eat. Taught May 2011 at Roanoke College, Salem, VA.

Appendix B: Price, Syllabus for INQ 250: Scientific Reasoning I: The Way Things Work: Sky Diving and Deep Sea Diving. Taught Fall 2011 at Roanoke College, Salem, VA.

Appendix C: Mehrotra, Syllabus for INQ 260: Traveling Without Leaving: Global Sociology. Taught Fall 2011 at Roanoke College, Salem, VA.

Appendix D: Brogan, Syllabus for INQ 260: Elite Deviance: Crime in the Suites. Taught Spring 2010 at Roanoke College, Salem, VA.

Appendix E: Lee, Syllabus for INQ 240: Statistical Reasoning: Does Gun Control Save Lives? Taught Fall 2009 at Roanoke College, Salem, VA.

Appendix F: Childers, Syllabus for INQ 240: Statistics and Botany. Taught Fall 2009 at Roanoke College, Salem, VA.

The Jossey-Bass

Higher and Adult Education Series

Association of American Colleges and Universities

AAC&U is the leading national association concerned with the quality, vitality, and public standing of undergraduate liberal education. Its members are committed to extending the advantages of a liberal education to all students, regardless of academic specialization or intended career. Founded in 1915, AAC&U now comprises more than 1,250 member institutionsincluding accredited public and private colleges, community colleges, and universities of every type and size.

AAC&U organizes its work around five broad goals:

• A Guiding Vision for Liberal Education
• Inclusive Excellence
• Intentional and Integrative Learning
• Civic, Diversity, and Global Engagement
• Authentic Evidence

Through its publications, meetings, public advocacy, and programs, AAC&U provides a powerful voice for liberal education. AAC&U works to reinforce the commitment to liberal education at both the national and the local level and to help individual colleges and universities keep the quality of student learning at the core of their work as they evolve to meet new economic and social challenges. With a nearly one-hundred-year history and national stature, AAC&U is an influential catalyst for educational improvement and reform.

AAC&U has worked intensively on the issue of general education reform since the early 1980s. AAC&U general education initiatives aim to ensure that every undergraduate student experiences a relevant and challenging general education curriculum. In addition to working with campuses to strengthen their general education programs overall or to reform specific aspects of them (e.g. science requirements or diversity requirements), AAC&U initiatives address strengthening general education for transfer students, embedding high expectations and meaningful assessment of student learning, and general education as essential for enhancing curricula and pedagogy. Every year, AAC&U sponsors a spring meeting on General Education and Assessment in February and a summer institute for campus teams on the same topic in June.

For information about all of AAC&U's resources, see: www.aacu.org

Foreword

As a twenty-five-year-plus faculty member, it was a pleasure to read General Education Essentials; I wish I had such a resource when I began my university teaching career. Of course I had been an undergraduate student, so I knew what general education was, what a major meant, electives, and so forth, but I had no idea that there actually were concepts and theories that underlay and justified general education as an important, integral part of a quality undergraduate education. I thought that general education was a set of courses students were required to take so we would be exposed to all the areas traditionally associated with being a well-rounded, educated person. Therefore, as a faculty member I simply had to teach my introductory course as I always did; students could take the course and learn about the basics of American government and be much better persons as a result. Little did I know at the time.

Paul Hanstedt has a deft touch in crafting this book on general educationthat too-often least-valued part of an undergraduate education. Before students enter college they are told in a variety of ways that general education is something to get out the way as soon as possible in order to get on to the really important part of their educationthe major. Hanstedt, though, manages to bring to bear the latest research on the purposes and impact of general education for student learning and a whole set of practical examples and approaches to teaching general education classes that, together, hold the potential to improve faculty pedagogy and students' undergraduate experience. As a long-time faculty member with both domestic and international teaching experience in large and small colleges, Hanstedt draws upon his experience in multiple environments for his insights into reformulating general education. As a literature and writing professor, he brings an ease with language and an ability to describe and portray general education as a living and breathing integral part of the preparation of students for success in a complex world of change; a world that also requires our approach to and representation of general education to change as well.