General Education RevisionCurricular Planning Resources and FAQs, 2017-18

High-Impact Practices

Q. What are “high-impact practices”?
  1. High-Impact Educational Processes by George D. Kuh (AAC&U, 2008)
  2. High-Impact Educational Practices: A Brief Overview (an excerpt from the above publication)
  3. High-Impact Taxonomies: The RISE Initiative (AAC&U, 2018)
Q. How have our ideas about a new general education curriculum been shaped by best practices in higher education?

1. Experience Credits - experiential learning opportunities throughout the year, not just in January

a. Categories:

b. Assessing Experience Credits

  • Study Away Assessment, ad hoc subcommittee of GEC
    • develop SLOs for study away
      • journal writing as opportunity for reflection common to all study away experiences
      • pilot IEX study away assessment workshop in summer 2018, invite 2018 IEX instructors to participate
      • invite 2019 IEX instructors to think about it OR plan for it
      • apply a rubric
    • IEX Advisory Committee
      • develop SLOs for high impact practices - broad SLOs plus one more that is content based for particular experience credit
      • develop reflection piece for assessment
      • possible rubric = AAC&U’s Foundations and Skills for Lifelong Learning, measuring
        • curiosity
        • initiative
        • independence
        • transfer / application of knowledge
        • reflection

2. Global Learning
Cultivating Humanity by Martha C. Nusbaum (Harvard University Press, 1997)

3. Why a 2-Semester First Year Seminar (FYS)?
https://gustavus.edu/committees/curriculum/concertFiles/media/secure/Two_Semester_FYS.pdf

Global Learning

Models of Global Learning by Indira Nair and Margaret Henning (AAC&U 2017)

January Term

Liberal Education and Assessment in the 21st Century

Q. Why the specific disciplinary divisions in the new general education curriculum?
What Is a 21st Century Liberal Education? (AAC&U)

Q. Demonstrating Achievement of Essential Learning Outcomes
Essential Learning Outcomes (AAC&U)

THEOL/Religion Requirements

Three Crowns Curriculum

Translingual/Transcultural Proficiency Best Practices

  1. MLA report from 2007: Foreign Languages and Higher Education: New Structures for a Changed World
  2. Theorizing Translingual/Transcultural Competence, by Claire Kramsch, 2010
  3. Berkeley's language requirement based on the MLA report: Translingual/Transcultural Competence: an operational approach to the MLA report
  4. The December 20, 2017, Washington Post article, “The surprising thing Google learned about its employees — and what that means for today’s students” on the value of education in arts and humanities to develop “soft skills” - being a good coach, communicating and listening well, possessing insights into other (including others of different values and points of view), having empathy toward and being supportive of one’s colleagues, being a good critical thinker and problem solver, and being able to make connections across complex ideas, traits considered more likely to be gained from a degree in arts and humanities rather than a STEM field.
  5. Four-semester language requirements among our MIAC peers:
    1. Carleton
    2. Macalester
    3. Saint Olaf
  6. Modeling for increasing the second language requirement at Gustavus

WAC-Related Questions/First Year Seminars and Writing

  1. National Census of Writing: This is the living archive of all things related to writing instruction and writing program administration at institutions like ours. Click "four year institutions," and then enjoy clicking on any question—you'll see how the other small liberal arts colleges in our consortium handle such things.
  2. Preliminary findings from Jill Gladstein's research on SLAC WPA work, writing programs at small colleges, and other assessment issues. This article is a good preview, and it summarizes some of the key findings that you can read about in the National Census, above.
  3. Gladstein, Jill M., and Dara Rossman Regaignon. Writing Program Administration at Small Liberal Arts Colleges. Anderson, SC: Parlor Press, 2012. 271 pp.
    This is Gladstein and Regneron's book, the result of the two resources already listed above. We participated in this project (the huge survey), and thus there's useful data here to help people think about where our WAC program and requirements are in relation to those of other comparable (and several more elite) small liberal arts colleges (SLACs).
  4. All things WAC-related can be found embedded within the statement, including links to other resources.
  5. Doug Brent's "Reinventing WAC (Again): The First-Year Seminar and Academic Literacy"
  6. "What Meaningful Writing Means for Students"—results of the Eodice, Geller, and Lerner study. Makes use of AACU High Impact Practices connection as well.
  7. Special issue of Across the Curriculum on "WAC and High Impact Practices"

Wellbeing

  1. Explanation of “Multi-Demensional Wellness”, going beyond physical fitness and nutrition
  2. The validation and use of the Multi-Dimensional Wellness Inventory (MDWI) to assess aspects of wellbeing critical to student development
  3. Physical education and wellbeing
    1. Carlton physical education requirement
    2. Saint Olaf studies in physical movement requirement
    3. Saint Thomas has a requirement specifically in their Liberal Arts program
    4. Best practices
    5. Physical and mental health as potential predictors for retention and academic success
    6. Physical activity and academic achievement in college
    7. Physical activity and brain health
    8. Life purpose and physical activity