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Appendix 4: Research Tools
Comparator Schools, Bibliography, and Analysis

Comparator Schools: Christian/church

  
Abilene Christian University  Anderson University
Azusa Pacific University Biola University
Brigham Young University Calvin College
George Fox University Gordon College
Marymount University Messiah College
Mid-America Nazarene University Mount Vernon Nazarene University
Northwest Nazarene University Seattle Pacific University
Westmont College Wheaton College
   

Comparator Schools: Secular institutions

  
Adelphi University Bowling Green State University
Bradley University CSU Sonoma
CSU San Bernardino George Mason University
Idaho State University Illinois State University
Missouri University North Carolina State University
Park University Penn State University
Princeton University San Diego State University
University of Alabama Huntsville University of Connecticut
University of Illinois University of Memphis
University of New Hampshire University of Rhode Island
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Western Illinois University

Research was conducted on General Education goals (student outcomes) and requirements from the official group of comparator schools and from a set of schools that, in their General Education offerings provided a full spectrum of possibilities. Universities, like Brown, that have essentially abandoned all General Education requirements were eliminated as providing models that were inappropriate to a school such at Point Loma Nazarene University.

What emerged from this research was a surprising unanimity on the goals of general education among a broad spectrum of universities. Although each university had specific, idiosyncratic language and emphasis on particular elements, the shared nature of these goals was striking. In general, universities mentioned some combination and variation of the following goals:

  • Awareness of cultural heritage
  • Understanding of different disciplinary ways of thinking
  • Preparation for citizenship
  • Competencies (writing, communication, information, technology, computation, problem solving, statistics)
  • Critical thinking skills
  • Awareness of diversity and acceptance of otherness
  • Experience of service
  • International experience

Institutions, like Point Loma Nazarene University, that had a Christian or church identity (underlined in the comparator list) added to these typical goals some goals related to Christian belief, values and lifestyle. Most typically, these goals touched on the following issues:

  • Personal religious belief
  • Attitude of Christian service
  • Life of Christian commitment

Selective Bibliography on General Education, Assessment, and Liberal Arts

Association of American Colleges and Universities. The Academy in Transition: General Education in an Age of Student Mobility: An Invitation to Discuss Systemic Curricular Planning. Washington, DC: AAC&U, 2001.

Association of American Colleges and Universities. “Advancing the Conversation Between Graduate and Undergraduate Education.” Peer Review. Volume 6, No. 3. Washington, DC: AAC&U, Spring 2004.

Association of American Colleges and Universities. American Pluralism and the College Curriculum: Higher Education in a Diverse Democracy. Washington, D.C.: AACU, 1995.

Association of American Colleges and Universities. “Beyond Computer Literacy,”Liberal Education, Vol. 90, No. 4 (Fall 2004).

Association of American Colleges and Universities. “The Courage to Question: Liberal Education for the 21st Century,” Liberal Education, Vol. 89, No. 2 (Spring 2003).

Association of American Colleges and Universities. “Creating Shared Responsibility for General Education and Assessment,” Peer Review. Vol. 7, No. 1 (Fall 2004).

Association of American Colleges and Universities. “Cultural Studies and General Education.” Liberal Education. Volume 90, No. 3. Washington, DC: AAC&U, Summer 2004.

Association of American Colleges and Universities. The Drama of Diversity and Democracy: Higher Education and American Commitments. Washington, D.C.: AACU, 1995.

Association of American Colleges and Universities. “The Future of Diversity,” Liberal Education, Vol. 91, No. 1 (Winter 2005).

Association of American Colleges and Universities. “General Education in the New Academy.” Peer Review. Volume 5, No. 4. Washington, DC: AAC&U, 2001.

Association of American Colleges and Universities. “Quantitative Literacy.” Peer Review. Volume 6, No. 4. Washington, DC: AAC&U, 2004.

Association of American Colleges and Universities. “Science and Engaged Learning,”Peer Review. Volume 7, No. 2. Washington, DC: AAC&U, 2005.

Association of American Colleges and Universities. The Status of General Education in the Year 2000: Summary of a National Survey. Washington, DC: AAC&U, 2001.

Association of American Colleges. Strong Foundations: Twelve Principles for Effective General Education Programs. Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges, 1994.

Association of American Colleges and Universities. “Value Added Assessment of Liberal Education,” Peer Review, Vol. 4, No. 2/3 (Winter/Spring 2002).

Benne, Robert. Quality with Soul: How Six Premier Colleges and Universities

Keep Faith with Their Religious Traditions. Bennett, John B., Academic Life: Hospitality, Ethics and Spirituality. Bolton, Massachusetts: Anker Publishing Company, 2003.

Gaff, Jerry G. The Academy in Transition: General Education: The Changing Agenda. Washington, DC: AAC&U, 1999.

Garcia, Mildred, Cynthia A. Hudgins et al. Assessing Campus Diversity Initiatives: A Guide for Campus Practitioners. Washington, D.C.: Association of American Colleges and Universities, 2001.

Gless, Darryl J. and Barbara Herrnstein Smith, eds. The Politics of Liberal Education. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1992.

Hughes, Richard T. and William B. Adrian. Models for Christian Higher Education: Strategies for Success in the Twenty-First Century. 1997.

Hughes, Richard T. How Christian Faith Can Sustain the Life of the Mind Hurtado, Sylvia et al. Enacting Diverse Learning Environments: Improving the Climate for Racial/Ethnic Diversity.

Jacobsen, Douglas and Rhonda Hustedt Jacobsen, eds. Scholarship and Christian Faith: Enlarging the Conversation. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.

Latzer, Barry. “Common Knowledge: the Purpose of General Education”, Chronicle of Higher Education, October 8, 2004, p.B20.

MacIntyre, Alasdair. After Virtue: A Study in Moral Theory. 2nd edition. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 1984.

Magolda, Marcia, ed. Teaching to Promote Intellectual and Personal Maturity … New Directions for Teaching and Learning #82.

Martin, Jane Roland. Coming of Age in Academe: Rekindling Women’s Hopes and Transforming the Academy.

Mayberry, Maralee and Ellen Rose, eds. Meeting the Challenge: Innovative Feminist Pedagogies in Action.

Minnich, Elizabeth K. Liberal Learning and the Arts of Connection for the New Academy. Washington, DC: Association of American Colleges and Universities, 1995.

Musil, Caryn McTighe, ed. Gender, Science, and the Undergraduate Curriculum. Washington, D.C.: Association of American Colleges and Universities, 2001.

Nussbaum, Martha C. Cultivating Humanity: A Classical Defense of Reform in Liberal Education.

O’Brien, George Dennis. All the Essential Half-Truths About Higher Education. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998.

Orrill, Robert, ed. Education and Democracy: Re-imagining Liberal Learning in America. New York, NY: College Board, 1997.

Poe, Harry Lee. Christianity in the Academy: Teaching at the Intersection of Faith and Learning. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House, 2004.

Readings, Bill. The University in Ruins. Rothblatt, Sheldon. The Academy in Transition: The Living Arts: Comparative and Historical Reflections on Liberal Education. Washington, DC: American  Association of Colleges and Universities, 2003.

Schneider, Carol Geary and Robert Schoenberg. The Academy in Transition: Contemporary Understandings of Liberal Education. Washington, DC: American  Association of Colleges and Universities, 1998.

Shor, Ira. Empowering Education: Critical Teaching for Social Change. Sire, James W. Habits of the Mind: Intellectual Life as a Christian Calling. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000.

Sloan, Douglas. Faith and Knowledge: Mainline Protestantism and American Higher Education. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1994.

Sterk, Andrea, ed. Religion, Scholarship and Higher Education: Perspectives, Models, and Future Prospects. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2002.

In preparation for assuming the newly constituted position of Dean of General Education, the future Dean did some personal reading on liberal arts, general education and assessment to supplement materials recently read as part of ongoing preparation for duties on the assessment committee and as Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning. Some of the shorter readings were provided in their totality for the General Education Task Force and other materials were excerpted or summarized in an analytical document on General Education trends that also included considerations gleaned from a study of comparator institutions (see below).

 

General Education : Current Issues and Solutions

General Education assessment is currently working to avoid making two habitual but unwarranted assumptions. Typical solutions to these two errors are listed below each error.

Unwarranted Assumption #1: Excellence in academic input (=teaching) guarantees excellence in academic output (=student learning)
Solutions : Student outcomes assessment
Student-centered learning
Active learning

Unwarranted Assumption #2: The whole is at least equal to the sum of its parts.
Solutions : Senior GE capstone course
Learning community
Interdisciplinary GE=integrative course
Embedded skills and themes
Multi-section unity
Freshman seminar
Core courses
4-year sequencing
GE core coordination
Common reading program

Whereas the solutions to the first assumption have more implications for assessment of student learning, the solutions to the second assumption has important consequences for any reconfiguration of General Education. Clearly, one of the challenges facing any General Education review is the creation of a general education requirement that functions more programmatically, so that complex skills are reinforced across courses and so that cross-disciplinary conversations and integration are empowered.

Because it is important to consider how transfer friendly specific solutions are and whether these solutions represent a major shift in our program (demanding a major change in various departmental offerings) or simply a tweak in already existing curricula, potential solutions were also analyzed according to those criteria as well.

Senior GE capstone course
Pulling together themes from various disciplines.
Transfer indifferent since few students transfer in the senior year.
New course, major change.

Learning community
The content of 2 or more courses  taught together with merged materials and/or themes.
A transfer challenge for those transferring in.
Shift in already existing courses.

Interdisciplinary General Education
Unique courses pulling from different disciplines and merging content.
A transfer challenge for those transferring in.
New course, major change.

Embedded skills and themes
Similar themes seen from varied perspectives which can then speak to each other.
Transfer friendly.
Mere shift in already existing curriculum.

Multi-section unity
Similar content (to a limited degree) allowing for conversation with friends in other sections.
Transfer friendly.
Mere shift in already existing curriculum.

Core courses
Similar courses taken at same time with other members of one’s peer group, thus allowing for informal conversations about course material.
Transfer friendly.
Mere shift in already existing curriculum.

4-year sequencing
Taking a few same courses with peer group=informal conversations.
Transfer friendly.
Mere shift in already existing curriculum.

GE core coordination
Creating thematic conversation between different GE courses.
Transfer friendly.
Mere shift in already existing curriculum.

Common reading program
Same texts are read by all students and become theme books for the year.
Transfer friendly.
Mere shift in already existing curriculum.