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 “ 'Complementary' and 'illuminating' are the words I use to describe the role and benefit of general education. I tell students we would prefer they not be single-major 'geeks' but, rather, that they have a sense of how the world works and affects them beyond the neighborhood in which they grew up. Furthermore, when a freshman or sophomore tells me that he or she plans to 'get the GEs out of the way' before exploring a major, I tell him or her that that is the worst strategy I've ever heard (my students tend to appreciate the flair for the dramatic). I suggest students take at least one course to 'audition' a major while complementing that major course with three or four GE classes in which they have even a slight interest. Of course, many considerations unrelated to course content come into play (the class time, the professor, the ease of the class), but I tie the benefits of the GEs into consideration of a minor as well. This major/minor strategizing helps students see the benefits of the GEs as ultimately 'marketable,' too.”~ Christopher W. Gregory, State University of New York at New Paltz, December 4 “In our center, we work primarily with students who are undecided in their major. We focus on major exploration and value/skill sets that eventually transfer into a major or an employment situation. As I discuss general education courses with students, I encourage them to think about the skills they are gaining with these courses. Do they pick up communication skills (writing and research skills, oral presentations, group activities), or critical thinking skills (scientific method, analysis, comparison/contrast issues) and so forth. This helps them to identify that General Education is providing them with so much more than the content of the course, and also helps them identify the skills that employers are looking for. As they transition into the major and into their career fields, they are better prepared to identify what skills they have and how those skills fit into other life areas.”~ Jennifer K. Willener, Weber State University, December 5 “First, let me agree with Christopher's and Jennifer's comments above, but I want to take the issue into another context. Students seem to be swimming upstream when it comes to understanding and using this critical component of the higher ed curriculum.
Our faculties invest thousands of hours every year in reviewing, revising and redesigning our gen ed curricula. However, our students never benefit from these ideological debates and discussions – be they politically, economically or educationally motivated. Instead we rely on college catalogs, curriculum guides and computerized degree audits to convey the intents, purposes, and expectations that our faculties have produced.
Consequently, we are still facing the mentality that 'gen ed happens in the first two years' and that's why we tend toward 'getting it out of the way.'
Now, we all know that general education occurs throughout a lifetime, yet we have designed our curricula horizontally, which reinforces the notions mentioned above. Our faculty architects need to design our curricula (especially gen ed) more vertically - throughout the four years.
Further, a quite subtle reinforcement of these attitudes recurs each time a student enrolls in and attends the first class in a 'gen ed' course. Rarely does that instructor (IMHO) try to convey those faculty debates and rationales for how the course contributes to their real general education, perhaps not even to their 'Gen Ed.'
So, the adviser's role? Essential! Critical! We may be the only opportunities that students have to require them to think about the advantages of the gen ed curriculum, not just the obstacles or impediments they might perceive.”~ Tom Grites, Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, December 11 The Mentor is published by Penn State's Division of Undergraduate Studies Available online at www.psu.edu/dus/mentor/ Privacy and Legal Statements | Copyright | © The Pennsylvania State University | All rights reserved | |
