Trends in the Liberal Arts Core and James Madison University's 'The Human Community'

1. Trends in the Liberal Arts Core and James Madison University's 'The Human Community' James Madison’s General Education Requirements in relation to the former FIPSE/Mellon/AALE Project: “Trends in the Liberal Arts Core: A Vision for the 21st Century” Now, an ACTC Project

2. Two Main Sources for this Presentation • “Trends in the Liberal Arts Core: A Vision for the 21st Century” • “Pew Knight Educational Effectiveness Accreditation Project” -- an accreditation assessment project of AALE • This talk will open with information from Trends and close with information about Pew Knight

3. Trends in the Liberal Arts Core: A Vision for the 21st Century • First Phase, a three-year, $ 310,000 FIPSE Grant, 1998-2001 • Second Phase, a three-year ACTC study, 2002-2005, for Gen Ed Review and Reform • Documents and Disseminates Evolution of General Education Programs in 66 original and 36 additional institutions from 1978-1998 • Over 20 site visits to learn causes of change in GE and to present findings and innovative practices

4. AALE Pew-Knight Educational Effectiveness Accreditation Project • 4-year, performance-based, student learning outcomes assessment accreditation project • Focuses upon evidence of student learning and accomplishment in liberal education • Provides a model for using data routinely gathered by institution in as partial replacement for separate self-study • Cluster 3 sites SCHEV use of AALE Standards to build rubric for assessment.

5. Trends & Pew Knight Complement Each Other • Provide latest documentation on general education trends and innovations • Provide latest in modeling assessment processes for liberal education that weigh the outcomes of innovations

6. National Trends in General Education and Core Curricula Stability of Curricular StructuresCurricular Inventions and Curricular Assessment Procedures

7. Average Percentage of Baccalaureate Credits Devoted to General Education is Increasing: 1978-1998 and beyond • Average Percentage 1978: 38.5 • Average Percentage 1998: 41.4 • Year 2002: James Madison’s Human Community Requirements occupy 36.6% of the credits devoted to the BA. This figure compares to 34% in 1978. • Trends Phase II, thus far: 38% & 40%

8. Comparison of James Madison Required Credits to Comparable Institutions • 2002: JMU devotes 36.6% of its baccalaureate curricula to general education requirements • 1998: Comprehensive institutions devote 39.4% • Secular institutions, public or private devote 38.1% • U Neb Kearney 46%, KSU, 40%; Brooklyn College 36%; U North Ala 35%; Hampden-Sidney 53%; Wm & Mary 46%; U Md 38%; Hampton 33%

9. General Education is Expanding into Last Two Years of Baccalaureate • 1978: 22% of Universities and Colleges either required more than 50% of baccalaureate courses be in general education, or that courses be taken in junior or senior year. • 1998: 43% of institutions require course work in junior or senior year • Tr I & II: Comprehensives 1978, 25%; 1998-2002, 50% • 1998-2002: JMU conceives of general education as freshman and sophomore enterprise

10. General Education Programs Are Becoming More and More Differentiated • Institutions are crafting programs with more categories and subcategories. • Categories and subcategories increase by 42% in 20 years • Comprehensive institutions average 16.5 categories and subcategories; all institutions, 13.1. • 2002: JMU with its clusters has 25 cats and subcats; JMU students will track through 14 of these.

11. 1978: 30.2% require lab 30.2% require separate math 4.8% require diversity or other culture studies 22.2% require WC/GB/IH 34.9% require Foreign Lang 28.6 % require Fine Art 54.0 % require Natural Science 3.2 % require WAC/WI 1986 38.4% require Lit 1998: 59.1% require lab 59.1% require separate math 33.3 % require diversity or other culture studies 50.0% require WC/GB/IH 51.5% require Foreign Lang 51.5% require Fine Art 75.8% require Natural Science 24.2% require WAC/WI 25.7% require Lit Requirements in some subjects are increasing, others decreasing; by rate of increase in schools requiring subjects

12. Reform in General Education Linked to Four Conditions • Substantive Enrichment of Baccalaureate Education • Student Recruitment and Retention • Faculty Enculturation • Institutional Identity

13. Structural Change in General Education Programs: 1978-1998 • 85% of Assessing Trends Institutions Have Experienced One or More Structural Changes in Last 20 years • 35% Have Experienced Two Structural Changes • 18% Have Experienced Three or More Changes • JMU falls into the second group (~1990, 1998) • Of 22 site-visited institutions using Trends I or II, nine are engaged in full scale review or have made significant changes to General Education in years 2000-2002.

14. Structural Reform in General Education: Abrupt and Gradual • Abrupt: swings from one kind of curriculum to another in a year. • Gradual: adds new categories, subjects, and courses to earlier structures over time • 1998: The “Human Community” was close to abrupt -- it created cluster structure – but disciplinary-based courses of Liberal Studies retained; created a general education structure based in goals and assessment, but structure and goals adjust to exigencies of institution.

15. Failure, Success, and Stability in General Education Reform • “Failure”: Re-structuring followed by abrupt change within 1-8 years. • “Success”: Unchanged for many years, or new structural changes build gradually on old program • Stability: Institution, not type of general education program, determines stability • Cluster-based?

16. Institutional Factors Determining Stability or Instability of Curricula • Government/System Regulations or External Affiliations • Financial Well Being • Personnel: Administrators and Faculty Leaders • Intellectual Interests • Organizational Structure and Processes • Student Body • Support, Rewards, & Benefits for Faculty • Most Significant: Institution’s Traditions Institutional Traditions in General Education Enculturation of New Faculty

17. Assessing Trends Data Indicates that Building Upon an Institution’s Traditions is the Usual Route to Success in General Education Initiatives • JMU’s educational traditions are disciplinary, oriented toward majors • But increasingly building better general education coupled to assessment, review, liberal education goals, and university-wide faculty enculturation. • Clusters – like tracks, a middle way between menu and core curriculum of common courses. • Are there conditions that allow programs which differ from institutional traditions to succeed? Yes.

18. Institutional Practices that Allow Success in General Education Initiatives • Open and transparent review process, both before and after adoption: Brooklyn College; Seattle University; Ball State; at JMU both 1994-96 Gen Ed initiatives and APRs • Pilot or alternative programs: Indiana University at Kokomo, St. Olaf College, University of the South, Baylor University, Boston University, Mercer University; JMU clusters function similarly • Administrative support, including: Brooklyn College, Ball State, IUPUI; JMU new Dean of General Education office but recurring complaints of understaffing. • New initiatives are part of a series of integrated steps so faculty and students gain a praxis in educational innovations; how effective have clusters been, here?

19. The Overall Picture: JMU a Leader In Curricular Construction • Are there developments on the national scene which would fit into JMU’s patterns of construction, stability, and innovation?

20. General Education Trends and Innovations which might be of interest to JMU; adaptable to Human Community and Cluster Arrangements • Most Important Trend: Fusion of curricular reform with co-curricular supports and curricular assessments. JMU advanced. • “Seamless” administration of admission, gen ed, and instructional support. JMU moving ahead. • Expansion of Gen Ed. JMU headed this direction. • Tracks for common core-text courses. • A “portfolio track” option to satisfy the gen ed writing requirements. • A co-curricular “continuing conversation” in conjunction with new instructional teams. • Combined periodic program review and outcomes assessment to redefine general education and accreditation. JMU advanced.

21. Most Important Trend: Fusion of curricular reform with co-curricular supports and curricular assessments. • National Leaders: Ball State University, Brigham Young, IUPUI, UNC Asheville • What marks these out? • Each has extensive co-curricular supports • Each has well articulated, innovative cores • Each has extensive program review and assessment procedures

22. Seamless Administration: Key to Extending Co-curricular Supports to Create a Seamless Higher Educational Experience • The Parts of the System: Admissions and Orientation Advising and Housing The General Education Curriculum Co-Curricular Instructional Support The Departments • The End: Better Performance, Better Retention

23. Introducing the Students to Higher Education: Admissions, Advising, and General Education • Admissions and Orientation: Ball State’s June Orientation of Two Days with Parents and Students: Explanation of Core, Value of Liberal Education, and Registration in Core – 3,500 students involved. • Advising and Housing: Ball State coordinates to build learning communities; BYU relies on voluntary summer sign-on • JMU has July Fr Orientation and Fall course adjustment period.

24. Learning Communities, and the Core, Gen Ed Requirements • BYU: Attempts Learning Communities for Volunteers (about 1/3 of freshmen); Maps many sections of smaller courses, e.g. English, on to larger courses, e.g., History Then, assigns residence halls • Ball State: Attempts Learning Communities for All Assigns students to residence halls, first Maps student core courses in “tight” and “loose” connections. • Cluster 1 and other Clusters present real opportunity for JMU; Cluster 3, Pkg G for Interdisciplinary Lib Studies Majors. Why not horizontally, as well as vertically?

25. The Gen Ed Curriculum and Curricular Supports • Learning Teams: Ball State: Learning Communities make possible Learning Teams composed of profs from various departments, residence hall directors, freshman advisor IUPUI: Learning Teams of prof, supplemental instructor, advisor, student tutor

26. The Gen Ed Curriculum and Curricular Supports: Administrative Structures • University Gen Ed Programs are organized in large Universities toward freshman/transfer integration. • Orientation, Advising, Tutoring and Learning Centers, Supplemental Instruction, and the General Education Curriculum are brought under one roof. • Elements at JMU: Multicultural-/International Student Services; Math Center; Reading & Writing Labs; Academic Advising/Career Development • Models outside: Ball State, IUPUI

27. The Gen Ed Curriculum and Curricular Supports • Supplemental Instruction: Ball State. Learning Center: peer tutoring, small group instruction; specifically devoted to Core Courses; subdivided into four areas: writing, math-based courses; non-math core courses; study strategies. IUPUI. (a) University Orientation course; (b) Supplemental one credit course for many different gen ed courses

28. Gen Ed Curricular Expansion: Is It Possible? • National Average: 41.4% of baccalaureate degree credits devoted to Gen Ed. • Virginia Trends Institutions 53%-33% • Comprehensives; 39.4% • JMU 36.6% • Suppose increase by 5% = 6 credits. • What might be done?

29. Curricular Innovations: A “portfolio track” option to satisfy the writing requirements. • Eckerd College’s Portfolio System. • End of Sophomore Year: students submit portfolio of papers written in classes across curriculum • Portfolio must contain specific genres or types of papers; some student choice accepted • Papers judged by board of faculty members • Composition courses available, but not required unless portfolio fails • Similar program at the University of Washington • Possibly JMU might wish to pilot such a system with better entering students, but with proviso that they must take “replacement” gen ed courses

30. Precedents and suggestion for qualitative option courses in current core: Writing Intensive • Universities are tending to add more total writing courses; e.g., Temple requires five, one composition, three writing intensive, one writing course in major; Brigham Young requires an advanced writing course in the major • The qualitative option for writing intensive courses at JMU? Use current Clusters 2-5 to satisfy two new required writing intensive courses.

31. Building Faculty Support for Core • Seamless administration with curricular supports • Learning communities and teams • Expanding core • Writing initiatives All of these build faculty investment, involvement and pride in Core. Another means: A track of common core-text courses through the clusters.

32. Core Text Courses: World Classics or Texts of Major Cultural Significance • Who decides these? The collective faculty who volunteer. • What makes them Core Texts: They are shared by teachers and students and they answer the question, if students only have one chance in their lives at a liberal educationbachelor’s degree, what should they read? • Are these “the only” “core texts”? The only answer to the question above?

33. Vertical Integration: A track of core text courses, cluster-based • Pilot or alternative core text programs: Indiana University at Kokomo, St. Olaf College, University of the South, Baylor University, Boston University, Mercer University; JMU clusters function similarly • Alternative tracks: strictly voluntary for faculty and students • Built within clusters and advertised as “core text,” voluntary for students, but chosen in each cluster package. • Interdisciplinary, but each professor’s department gets credit for students.

34. Advantages : A number of interdisciplinary common core courses • Creates a forum for faculty intellectual and cross-disciplinary conversations • Trains students in intellectual intersections of various fields • Provides faculty with insights into standards and methods of other disciplines • Prepares all for later interdisciplinary courses • Necessitates faculty development seminars • Provides a voluntary, institution-wide basis for enculturation and co-curricular activities • Could provide preparation for a wonderful development: junior/senior interdisciplinary integrator.

35. Co-curricular Supports: Voluntary “continuing conversations” enhance student commitment to academic and campus life • Colorado College. Freshman Seminars, Instructional Teams, and the “Continuing Conversation”: • Invited speakers, workshops, conferences, artistic performances, experiments, service projects – all student run, with faculty guidance and institutional support • Critical Thinking courses seem a good platform

36. Co-curricular Supports: Using the Curriculum to Build a Record of Student Achievement • IUPUI has electronic portfolios; products of curriculum are placed on it. Advantage is that students in any curriculum may use this. • Numerous institutions incorporate service learning (UNCA); combined with demonstration exhibits and portfolios (Eckerd), record of student achievement grows.

37. Combining periodic program review and sampling of student work to redefine general education review and accreditation • IUPUI has all the elements in place of this combination but is not yet fully integrated: Program Review and Assessment Committee Strong Climate of Assessment New Student Electronic Portfolios • Ball State has the most systematic gen ed program review that reconceives liberal education goals. • JMU’s APR’s are working to adjust goals and structure.

38. Elements of periodic general education curriculum review BALL STATE’s GEN ED REVIEW: A FIVE YEAR CYCLE • Cyclical review by departments of every gen ed course: in three years, by divisions of curriculum. • Review of departmental findings by curriculum committee in light of general education curriculum program goals. • Program goals are reviewed and reconceived. • Results: a feedback institutional improvement procedure develops, grounded in faculty discussion and planning, enculturating and encultured by faculty.

39. Establishing a student learning outcomes assessment procedure • Tusculum College’s Competency Program:Based in portfolio assessment of nine competenciesTwo professors evaluate work students submitFaculty developed handbook details standards • IUPUI’s electronic portfolios would allow for sampling of student work; this could be used for both curriculum review and accreditation

40. James Madison University To Be Commended forInstituting Periodic Program Review • Does the Review Actually Lead to Decisions About General Education Curricula and Courses? • Is the Review Useful to Teachers?

41. What Would a General, Liberal Education Review of a Course, of a Program Look Like? How would it function? • It would be a study of an institution’s liberal education and liberal learning. It would be an inquiry into what the mission and goals of liberal education are and ought to be. • It would narrate, describe, and illustrate the performances of students. • It would draw (summative) conclusions about the liberal arts curriculum and materials used and about the knowledge and capacities displayed by the students. • It would provoke (formative) thought about the nature of the liberal education being offered. • It would produce a discussion among faculty and between faculty/non-faculty evaluators and teachers and administrators about the liberal arts and liberal education.

42. Result of combining faculty review process and student learning outcomes assessment procedure • A process which is self-correcting • Faculty understanding and investment in general education • Student understanding and investment in core • Long-term strategic planning which results in useful assessment of liberal, general education • A truly easier and actually useful accreditation process; educational sample precedes site visit

43. Advantages of Assessment Procedures for an Institution • Provides evidence of a system of liberal education • The system of liberal education is consciously self-correcting and self-improving from a known and objective (that is, available to everyone); baseline of evidence • Can actually reduce faculty and administration workload and replace pro-forma accreditation self-studies with academic “samples” and interesting, peer review discussions about liberal education • AALE Pew-Knight Student Outcomes Assessment Initiative • Provides a public alternative to national magazine reviews

44. Building Faculty Support for Core • Seamless administration with curricular supports • Learning communities and teams • Expanding core • Writing initiatives • A track of common core-text courses through the clusters. • Writing Portfolio system • A possible jr/sr interdisciplinary integrative course • Matched co-curricular activities • APR’s with real discussions about liberal education Periodic June Institute on Liberal Education

45. Periodic June Institute on Liberal Education • Examples: Brooklyn College (twice annually), Hampton University • Gathers entire faculty for intellectual and pedagogical discussions of issues and entire curriculum • May be either issue driven or “speculative” • Administrations supports, faculty coheres, general liberal education and students benefit

46. For Further Discussion, Information or Referral to Other Institutions • J. Scott Lee, Ph.D. Executive Director, Association for Core Texts and Courses; Project Director, “Trends in the Liberal Arts Core; A Vision for the 21st Century.”jscottlee@prodigy.net(908) 359 7560