As part of our backwards design process, the General Education Task Force established a set of Program Design Principles for any new General Education Program. These principles delineate our ideals for the content, scope, and format of a newly reimagined Stonehill College core. The principles were shared with both FOCA and Faculty Senate for feedback in Fall 2019.
REIMAGINING THE CORNERSTONE PROGRAM: FIRST PRINCIPLES
Drafted by the GenEd Task Force
The newly reimagined Stonehill Core will:
- Derive from and speak to our unique Holy Cross & Catholic mission, identity, values, and geographic place;
- Infuse global and diverse perspectives in a majority of courses (e.g. Virginia Tech [see appendix available via PDF]);
- Provide students with a clear articulation of the connections between requirements in the Core as well as between Core courses & majors courses;
- Be directly linked to institutionally-identified student learning outcomes;
- Enable students to choose their specific courses within each requirement;
- Provide a clear, straight-forward structure of at most 30-36 credits (equivalent to a Liberal Arts major);
- Model, through teaching and team-teaching, the connection and interrelatedness among disciplines;
- Be infused through four years of study as a cohesive preparation in the liberal arts (e.g. Notre Dame);
- Focus on the development of the whole person by including HIPs and co-curricular experiences (e.g. select study abroad experiences, CBL, CSU’s “Great Debates,” SURE, etc.) in the program’s scope;
- Respond to community needs by asking and exploring the big questions that challenge us;
- Incorporate various modes of delivery and innovation in teaching, learning, and scholarship;
- Include an assessment plan in which individual courses engage in assessment and revitalization every 5 years to maintain a GenEd designation, and in which overall program assessment is conducted in 6-to-7-year cycles (including assessment and revision) to adopt a process of continuous assessment, refinement, and attention to academic excellence; and,
- Build on our academic and disciplinary strengths such that all departments contribute to the Core and faculty have ownership of GenEd as part of the curriculum as a whole.
Organizational Possibilities:
- Big Questions Focused: Organized around broad questions we face (e.g. Ursinus, University of Portland)
- Student Focused: Responsive to students’ growth over four years and their developmental and generational needs as they transition from high school into college and subsequently into their careers;
- Thematic, “Pathyways” focused e.g.:
- Self and God, Self and Community, Self and Nature, Self and Technology…
- Social Justice, Peace and Conflict, Climate and Environment, Sacred Spaces, Leadership & Service…
- Example: Plymouth State University, Connecticut College
- Learning Outcomes Focused: Organized into categories synchronized with Stonehill’s Student Learning Outcomes;
- Literacies Focused: Civic, Environmental, Ethical, Spiritual, Financial, Health, Digital, etc.
- Organized by Level: e.g. Learning Outcomes in first year, Literacies in second year, Big Questions in junior seminars, integrated capstone experiences in senior courses.
Resources
The General Education Task Force, along with Assistant Dean Liz Chase and Interim Provost Molly Smith, are also engaged in a discussion of the resources needed to successfully develop and launch a reimagined Core. At a later date, we will share a budget proposal outlining anticipated program needs. Our initial conversations have included discussion related to course design, program development, and professional development. Our goal is to share this proposed budget with Senior Leadership, prior to sending a finalized GenEd proposal to the Faculty Senate for consideration.
