Curriculum and Instruction Commons^™

The Future Of Early College: An Interview With Dr. Leon Botstein, Dumaine Williams

Early College Folio

The first public, tuition-free Bard High School Early College (BHSEC) opened in Brooklyn in 2001. Today, an entire network of Bard Early Colleges operates in partnership with public school systems to offer students affordable access to higher education in a cohesive, engaging environment. Simultaneously, alternative takes on early college (Early College High Schools, dual enrollment, early entrance) have proliferated across the United States, providing even more opportunities for younger students to earn college credit.

In December 2022, the author, Dean of Bard Early College, sat down with Bard College President Leon Botstein to examine how the pandemic made new demands …

It Turned Into A Bioblitz: Urban Data Collection For Building Scientific Literacy And Environmental Connection, Kelly O'Donnell, Lisa Brundage

Publications and Research

In 2013, Macaulay Honors College redesigned its required science curriculum to focus on scientific literacy skills rather than content. Central to this shift was inclusion of a data collection event, a BioBlitz, to provide students with the basis for their own semester-long research projects. Students are teamed with naturalists in an urban green space to find as many species as they can in 24 h and to contribute to a global biodiversity database via the app iNaturalist. We have learned two important lessons: (1) developing an interdisciplinary curriculum with a high degree of experiential learning is more successful when both …

The Capability Approach: A Proposed Framework For Experiential Learning In The Faculty Of Arts, Humanities And Social Sciences, Timothy A. Brunet, Hassan Shaban, Stephanie Gonçalves

Centre for Teaching and Learning Publications

This qualitative case study uses the Capability Approach (CA) as a framework for experiential learning courses in the Faculty of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Windsor, in Ontario, Canada. Specifically, this is a case study of two courses titled Ways of Knowing and Ways of Doing that are offered as undergraduate general credit electives. In this paper, we describe the case study context and provide a brief introduction to the CA. The lead author presents the case study courses' pedagogical framework and describes the materials and methods of the case. Next, we provide a summary of …

Confessions Of A Media Literacy Scholar-Practitioner: Job Market Advantages, Research Agenda Challenges, And Theory-Driven Production, Christopher Boulton

Journal of Media Literacy Education

This essay explores how higher education’s move away from the liberal arts tradition of learning by thinking and towards more vocational “experiential” approaches has implications for media literacy educators’ career options, scholarly identities, and teaching strategies. Specifically, I consider my own negotiation of increasing administrative and student demands for “hands-on” production courses by confessing both my advantages on the job market and my post-hire challenges in articulating a clear research agenda. I then conclude with a case study of how I repurposed my scholar-practitioner identity and used critical theory to drive production by bringing film students into a cultural studies …

Creating The Capable Public: A Call For Liberal Arts Education In Public Schools, Olivia R. Keithley

Educational Studies Honors Papers

I argue that liberal arts education is critically important to the creation of a capable public in a democratic society. I draw on David Labaree and Henry Giroux to assert that education is a public good and must serve the purpose of promoting democratic equality. By promoting democratic equality, public education is capable of creating publicly minded citizens. Publicly minded citizens of a democracy must also be free-thinking. Liberal arts education has at its core the aim of creating individuals who are able to think freely and autonomously. In a democratic society where freethinking citizens are necessary in order to …

Diversity In Times Of Austerity: Documenting Resistance In The Academy, David Moscowitz, Terri Jett, Terri Carney, Tamara Leech, Ann M. Savage

Terri M. Carney

What happens to feminism in the university is parallel to what happens to feminism in other venues under economic restructuring: while the impoverished nation is forced to cut social services and thereby send women back to the hierarchy of the family, the academy likewise reduces its footprint in interdisciplinary structures and contains academic feminists back to the hierarchy of departments and disciplines. When the family and the department become powerful arbiters of cultural values, women and feminist academics by and large suffer: they either accept a diminished role or are pushed to compete in a system they recognize as antithetical …

How Service-Learning In Spanish Speaks To The Crisis In The Humanities, Terri Carney

Terri M. Carney

Service-learning is a transformational pedagogy with timely application to the teaching and learning of foreign languages. In our current climate of assessment outcomes, language study and the humanities more generally tend to be devalued and rendered invisible by utilitarian models of evaluation. Incorporating service-learning courses and experiences into the foreign language classroom provides real- world immersion for students in their local linguistic and cultural communities, satisfies teachers’ desires to connect teaching and research to local community issues, and allows departments to meet institutional and educational goals. Indeed, service-learning points us to new definitions of old concepts—such as the role of …

Farming: It's Not Just For Farmers Anymore, Jennifer Schmidt

Pomona Senior Theses

Agricultural education, originally the province of land grant institutions, has recently entered the liberal arts curriculum. This represents a profound shift from the origins of agricultural education, when it was intended primarily as vocational training for future farmers, and has important implications for the future of the American food system. The first chapter of this thesis addresses the history of agricultural education: what was it originally like, and why did it come to be heavily criticized in the late twentieth century? Formal agricultural education changed significantly in response to these criticisms, making it more environmentally sustainable and bringing it into …

Diversity In Times Of Austerity: Documenting Resistance In The Academy, David Moscowitz, Terri Jett, Terri Carney, Tamara Leech, Ann M. Savage

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

What happens to feminism in the university is parallel to what happens to feminism in other venues under economic restructuring: while the impoverished nation is forced to cut social services and thereby send women back to the hierarchy of the family, the academy likewise reduces its footprint in interdisciplinary structures and contains academic feminists back to the hierarchy of departments and disciplines. When the family and the department become powerful arbiters of cultural values, women and feminist academics by and large suffer: they either accept a diminished role or are pushed to compete in a system they recognize as antithetical …

Susan Bauer's 2003 Theory Of Well-Educated Mind: Could The Classical Approach To Teaching History Work In Southern California History K12 Classrooms?, Tomasz B. Stanek

LUX: A Journal of Transdisciplinary Writing and Research from Claremont Graduate University

The main purpose of this research evolved from the publication of S. W. Bauer Well-educated mind, a study of the significance of new methods of teaching history course. Bauer (2003) argues that the grammarian approach of simple recognition and memorization removes students from reading primary sources. This theory suggests a new methodology for the instructors and students through the three-stage process of grammar, dialectic, and rhetoric preparation with aid of primary sources or “great books list”. This paper supports Bauer’s thesis and provides evidence through extensive interviews that indeed this concept of pedagogy is present in Southern California schools.

The Workplace Relevance Of The Liberal Arts Political Science Ba And How It Might Be Enhanced: Reflections On An Exploratory Survey Of The Ngo Sector, Andrew M. Robinson

Contemporary Studies

Reflecting on a survey of employees of NGOs based in Ontario, Canada, the article considers two questions: How well are our BA programs preparing students for the workplace? Can we enhance workplace relevance without sacrificing our commitment to liberal education? Key findings are presented, including the BA continues to be a desired and employable degree and skills associated with it are valued; employers are not convinced that graduates with BAs necessarily possess these skills; and respondents associate their formal education with individual skills and extracurricular activities with interpersonal skills. Three strategies to enhance the workplace relevance of BA programs without …

Get Rich U Or Get Transformed U: Reflections On Catholic Liberal Arts Education In The 21st Century, Thomas G. Plante

Psychology

Catholic liberal arts educators can proclaim boldly that we are in the business of formation and transformation of students at multiple levels and in multiple ways. We want our students to be competent, ethical, and compassionate global citizens who are thoughtful, savvy, deep thinkers who love learning and who love helping others. Research and best practices support the claim that the virtues cultivated by the liberal arts contribute to the flourishing of individuals and society as a whole. Catholic colleges and universities have a long history of promoting the liberal arts, and data from various sources suggest that we are …

Do We Teach Disciplines Or Do We Teach Students?—What Difference Does It Make?, Marshall W. Gregory

Marshall W. Gregory

The single most difficult notion for graduate students and new professors to grasp about teaching--and, indeed, many experienced teachers never grasp this point either--is that successful teaching to undergraduates has little to do with the degree of one's mastery of disciplinary knowledge.

Do We Teach Disciplines Or Do We Teach Students?—What Difference Does It Make?, Marshall W. Gregory

Scholarship and Professional Work - LAS

The single most difficult notion for graduate students and new professors to grasp about teaching--and, indeed, many experienced teachers never grasp this point either--is that successful teaching to undergraduates has little to do with the degree of one's mastery of disciplinary knowledge.

Developing And Implementing An Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Research Symposium At A Small Liberal Arts College, Philip J. Nyhus, F R. Cole, D H. Firmage, E H. Yeterian

Philip J. Nyhus

No abstract provided.

Who Owns Our Values? Back To School, John Strassburger

Publications

This is the sixth in a series of occasional papers about the challenges confronting students and what Ursinus is doing to help them enter adult life.

Counting Quality, John Strassburger

Publications

This is the fifth in a series of occasional papers about the challenges confronting students and what Ursinus is doing to help them enter adult life.

Transforming Experiences: The Benefits Of Intellectual Risk, John Strassburger

Publications

This is the fourth in a series of occasional papers about the challenges confronting students and what Ursinus is doing to help them enter adult life.

Tales Out Of School: Six Secrets From Successful Teachers, John Strassburger

Publications

This is the third in a series of occasional papers about the challenges confronting students and what Ursinus is doing to help them enter adult life.

Writing For Their Lives, John Strassburger

Publications

This is the second in a series of occasional papers about the challenges confronting students and what Ursinus is doing to help them enter adult life.

Education For Self-Reliance, Responsibility And Hope, John Strassburger

Publications

This is the first in a series of occasional papers about the challenges confronting students and what Ursinus is doing to help them enter adult life.

Holy Cross 100 Books, College Of The Holy Cross

Holy Cross Bookshelf

In the early 1980s, Holy Cross faculty compiled a list of 100 books that are considered some of the fundamental classics of Western literature and beyond, and elements of a classic liberal arts education.