Agriculture and the Undergraduate (1992) / Chapter Skim
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8 General Education and the New Curriculum
8 General Education and the New Curriculum
Pages 68-74
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From page 68... ...
Our success or failure in reforming undergraduate education will depend, in larger measure than we usually are willing to recognize, on our ability to revisit and redefine the basic language of the curriculum, so that our actions better reflect our rhetoric. Many people who read this volume have had the experience of working on a curriculum committee.
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From page 69... ...
A core curriculum, on the other hand, makes clear that we hold specific areas of knowledge to be very important, so important that all students should share them, regardless of their personal or professional interests. Interdisciplinarity- which can function in either a distribution or a core curriculum suggests that we recognize that the way in which we compartmentalize knowledge for research and organizational purposes Is not necessarily relevant for Instructional purposes.
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From page 70... ...
I define It In this way: General education is a comprehensive, self~onsciously developed and maintained program that develops in individual students the attitude of inquiry, the skills of problem solving, the individual and community values associated with a democratic society, and the knowledge needed to apply these attitudes, skills, and values so that the students may maintain the learning process over a lifetime and function as self-fulfilled individuals and as full participants in a society committed to change through democratic processes. As such, it is marked by its comprehensive scope, by its emphasis on specific and real problems and issues of immediate concern to students and society, by its concern with the needs of the future, and by the application of democratic principles in the methods and procedures of education as well as the goals of education (Miller, 1 988:2)
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From page 71... ...
To illustrate, look at how a typical course might be treated differently in three situations a simple distribution approach, a liberal education approach, and a general education approach. Take Introduction to Art History.
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From page 72... ...
We would study the evolution of art as religious expression, the return to Classical motifs in the Renaissance, and the gradual emergence of art as an expression of the individual and of social concerns. In a general education curriculum, Introduction to Art History would focus on art as an example of how people in a particular time and place perceived their world and used art to respond to their environment; students might be asked to examine social trends that parallel changes in the style or content of painting across several periods, for instance.
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From page 73... ...
The characteristics of general education that I just described should infuse the entire curriculum, so that we produce professionals who are able to see their professional work within the context of their broader community responsibilities and, more importantly, who are able to act on that vision. General educationts goals of problem solving, decision making, and values clarification and its expressed commitment to immediate issues and enabling students to shape their future suggest methods well-suited to the experiential, practice-research orientation of agriculture and natural resources-related curricula.
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From page 74... ...
Todays technologies allow for computer simulations, videotapes that support lnquiry by allowing students to observe a shared experience, and interactive video modules that allow students to safely experiment with, for example, land use decisions. These technologies are Just now beginning to find a place in higher education.
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