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Presentation:
Provost Kuncl opened the breakout session by addressing the main question behind the theme of the presentation: How successful are student-driven approaches to general education? He noted that although there is no assessment data to support the argument, the anecdotal feedback from students has been overwhelmingly positive.
Many are skeptical about whether student-driven approaches are viable alternatives to the standard general education model. Jim Allen from Brown University approached Provost Kuncl with some of these doubts. He asked whether students truly achieve breadth in their academics when they are given such autonomy. Currently data are available to help answer this question. Although Dean Burger was unable to attend, she provided Provost Kuncl with some statistics gathered at John Hopkins University. Dean Burger indicated that breadth is difficult to quantify and will vary from student to student. Her statistics indicate that 47% of undergraduate students choose more than one major; 40% of these students have two majors and 26% have a major and a minor. This data supports the notion that students are not confining their studies to one department and are exploring a variety of interests.
Provost Kuncl was also asked how, in an interest-driven curriculum, a university ensures that departments will have sufficient enrollment. At the University of Rochester, he explained, this begins in undergraduate admissions where emphasis is placed on choosing a diverse population of students. Provost Kuncl also noted that although the University of Rochester is known for its science and engineering programs, one of the most popular majors is religion.
After providing an introduction to the topic, Provost Kuncl turned the floor over to Dean Feldman to discuss in detail the University of Rochester Cluster System.
During the development of the University of Rochester Curriculum, Dean Feldman was a member of the Curriculum Committee and a professor in the Philosophy Department. From hearing students’ feedback, he appreciates the system more now as the Dean of the College than he did as a faculty member. General education at the University of Rochester prior to the Cluster System was fairly traditional, but the Curriculum Committee identified two problems with the curriculum. The first was that it did not encourage students to study the material in depth. The second was that each department could argue effectively for why their subject should be taught as part of the general education curriculum. Since it is impossible to have students take a class in every area and even harder to decide which subjects should be classified as most beneficial or important for the students, the system was inherently flawed.
Dean Feldman stated that general education at the University of Rochester is very simple. There is only one required class, a primary writing course. It is taught by trained advanced graduate students and also allows students a wide variety of options to choose from. Students have the choice of over 40 classes with topics ranging from cultural studies to science and engineering. Students elect a major from a department in one of the three divisions, Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, or Humanities, and choose a cluster in the each of the other two areas. Engineering is the only major that requires one cluster instead of two. Within each major, students have requirements that include an upper level writing class. Although individual majors may require a foreign language or math, the college does not require it.
A cluster is a three-course sequence within a division or department. During the creation of the system, departments and divisions were allowed to propose their own clusters. Some clusters are highly specialized, where there is no choice in the three courses that must be completed. Others offer a more general selection of five or six courses from which a student may elect his/her three-course sequence. Over time, departments have had a tendency to move toward these broader clusters. The courses comprising a cluster cannot just be chosen randomly because the goal is to have a focus and move beyond the introductory level.
Administratively, the Cluster System has caused a few complications. These issues have been minor and might be encountered in any system, cluster or otherwise. For example, when can courses overlap between majors, minors, and clusters? Are interdisciplinary clusters allowed? The former simply required the Curriculum Committee to make a decision and the latter is done on a case-by-case basis. Students may propose an interdisciplinary cluster, and approval is determined by the Curriculum Committee.
Despite minor administrative complications, there are many benefits to the Cluster System. First, with a standard course load of four classes per semester and fulfilling the one major and two cluster requirement, students are left with thirteen free courses. This provides freshmen the opportunity to try new courses and explore their interests. Second, when given choice, students are able to take ownership of their academic program. It has changed the conversation within advising meetings, from “this is what you have to do” to “what are you interested in?” It also creates an environment where departments care about general education. Cluster students become an integral part of the culture and department. Ultimately, it comes down to allowing students to learn what they love. Dean Feldman mentioned that in his discussions with students he rarely hears them say the reason they like the Cluster System is because of what they did not have to take. More often, it is measured by what they had the opportunity to do. William Green, the previous Dean of the College at the University of Rochester and a principal architect of the Cluster System, offered the following abstraction: normally general education is structured as a pyramid, from general to specialized. The Rochester method starts at the center with the student’s interests, and then determines the periphery that “generalizes” learning.
There are two popular ways clusters are chosen. The first is to find a variety of viewpoints and methodologies from which to analyze a common theme. The second is to choose a cluster unrelated to one’s major. There are a number of students who have a variety of discrete interests, and 40% of students pursue more than the required one major and two clusters.
Dean Feldman concluded by addressing the two major problems he has encountered with the Cluster System. The first relates to students who begin their freshman year in a pre-med track and then decide that this is not the path for them. The question is whether to require them to fulfill a natural science cluster. The solution agreed upon was to create a general science cluster. This resolution is not ideal because it does not fit the purpose of a cluster, which is to study a subject past the introductory level. The second problem is students who try to manipulate the system. For example, some natural science majors may find clusters in the Humanities and Social Sciences that are very quantitative in nature. This may permit them to have less breadth in their program than is desired. The goal now is to find out how widespread this is and if it is really a problem.
Distribution Requirements at Johns Hopkins University
Due to Vice Provost Burger’s absence, Nathan Levin, an undergraduate student at Johns Hopkins University, briefly described the general education system at Johns Hopkins University, which is a free-choice distribution system. The freedom within this approach is predicated on stimulating intellectual independence. Students have a 30-unit distribution requirement they must fulfill in addition to their major. Departments are divided into five divisions: Humanities, Natural Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences, Quantitative and Mathematical Sciences, and Engineering. Of the 30 credits, 18 must come from either the Humanities or Social and Behavioral Sciences, and 12 must be within the Natural Sciences, Quantitative and Mathematical Sciences, or Engineering. In addition, students are required to take 12 credits of writing-intensive courses. These classes consist of at least 20 pages of written work during a semester.
Question and Answer Session with Undergraduate Students
The last portion of the presentation was a question-and-answer session between Dean Feldman and the two undergraduate students present during the session, Sara and Nathan. Sara and Nathan began by introducing themselves and their educational backgrounds. Sara is a senior at the University of Rochester. She has a triple major in American Sign Language (ASL), Spanish, and Linguistic Anthropology (individualized major) and one cluster in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences. Outside of classes, Sara is a co-captain of the Varsity Women’s Soccer team, President of the ASL Club, and has participated in the Urban Fellows and McNair Summer programs. Nathan is a junior at Johns Hopkins University majoring in international studies. He is Junior Class President, a member of a martial arts group, and is involved in theater building.
Dean Feldman addressed a few questions to Sara and Nathan in order to provide the audience with a student perspective on these unique forms of general education. Dean Feldman began by asking their opinion of the freedom of education at their respective universities. Sara is very positive about the student-centered curriculum at the University of Rochester. She applied there because of the ASL program and with the freedom provided by the Cluster System was able to begin classes in her ASL and Spanish majors the first semester of freshman year. As an upperclassman, she was able to discover anthropology as the methodology through which she could pursue further study of ASL. Sara also pointed out that there are many science and engineering students who already have their paths through college planned for them. The Cluster System allows these students freedom and control over their education.
Nathan entered Johns Hopkins with his general distribution requirements already completed through AP courses. The freedom of general education at Johns Hopkins University allowed him to take classes in a range of departments. He felt that the students are very engaged in their courses because they want to be there and it allows them to gravitate toward classes with better professors. It also gives students the opportunity to practice the real world skills of decision making and taking personal responsibility. Nathan feels, however, that the general education system employed by Johns Hopkins requires that a student be self-motivated to truly benefit from the program.
Sara and Nathan were also asked whether they see the different components of their education as interconnected. Sara said that she takes the approach of finding ways to link her studies together. Her cluster focuses on the workings of the five senses, with specialization on the ear. This is not only related to her studies in ASL, but it also provides her with knowledge she could never have gained solely from the major. Although originally Sara’s interest in Spanish was unrelated to her ASL studies, her individualized major in linguistic anthropology brought the two together. She has decided to focus her graduate research on studying Deaf communities in Latin America.
Nathan agrees that he has some continuity in his class choices. For his major in international relations, he takes courses in history, politics, foreign languages, and economics. He thinks that these topics are all connected. He has noticed that topics that are addressed in a politics class will reappear in an economics class but are viewed from a different perspective. In addition, Nathan has also taken a number of courses outside of his discipline, such as an astronomy class that he is enrolled in this semester.
Discussion:
The discussion portion of the breakout session was addressed in a question-and-answer format. Many members of the audience had questions on how the Cluster System works, about potential problems with the system, and how the University of Rochester confronts these issues.
How the Cluster System Works
Q: Are cluster classes mixed with the major requirements?
A: Dean Feldman explained that major and cluster students are together in classes. The University of Rochester encourages this mixing because it makes cluster students part of the department culture. Within a class, it is normally impossible to tell who is taking the class for a major, minor, or cluster.
Q: How do you deal with transfer students in terms of the Cluster System?
A: Dean Feldman made it clear that the University of Rochester prefers to have transfer students finish clusters at the University of Rochester. Former Dean of the College, William Green, added that the issue is normally handled on a case specific basis. Sometimes students will only have to complete one cluster, instead of the required two. The goal is to be reasonable while upholding the philosophy of the general education curriculum.
Q: How does the University approve a new cluster?
A: The University of Rochester maintains a committee to evaluate cluster proposals, stated Dean Feldman. The committee does not try to second-guess the faculty, but it determines whether there are similar clusters to the one being proposed. Sometimes students will drive the creation of a cluster by making connections between classes that the department had not previously considered. A faculty member can then propose the idea to the committee.
Potential Problems with the Cluster System
Q: One of the issues with establishing a sequence requirement, such as the Cluster System, is that access becomes an issue. How do you address this problem?
A: Dean Feldman clarified that this is not a problem at the University of Rochester. Students are able to get into classes even if it is not for their major. However, he acknowledged that this could be a problem at larger universities.
Q: Students may feel there is too much choice and not be able to find a built-in coherence. How do you address this issue?
A: Clusters, as Dean Feldman described them, are similar to little majors or minors that are designed with a specific structure. The amount of coherence in the cluster is dependent on the amount of coherence in the department that created it. Since clusters are based on a basic theme, many students will turn them into a major or minor. While there is no college-imposed coherence, a structure still exists.
Q: At American University, most students seem to have similar goals. They have chosen a school in Washington, D.C for a reason. It seems that students such as Sara and Nathan would have been successful anywhere. Can other universities truly replicate the student-driven general education model or is it a product of the type of student attending the school? How portable is the Cluster System to other campuses that don’t have the same type of students?
A: Dean Feldman disagreed with the premise that a driven student will achieve the same things at a university with a standard general education system. At schools with general requirements, students do not have time to become creative and pursue their interests in depth, because they become weighed down in core requirements for one to two years. Dean Feldman acknowledged however, that there might be a certain type of student that attends the University of Rochester, which makes the curriculum successful. At the admissions level, students at the top of the list are ones with broad interests, independence, and a desire to take control of their education. Also, there is some level of self-selection. Dean Feldman described an encounter with an undergraduate whose younger brother was looking at colleges. He asked whether the brother had applied to the University of Rochester, and the student replied that his brother has chosen not to, because he needed more structure. Dean Feldman has noticed that an unplanned outcome of the Rochester Curriculum has been its status as a major factor that influences a student’s decision to apply to the school.
Q: It seems that you would need a strong base of advising because this type of curriculum creates a different kind of discussion between adviser and student. How has academic advising changed in response to this system?
A: Nathan explained that at Johns Hopkins, students are matched with professional advisers for their first two years. By junior year, students choose their majors and are assigned advisers within their department. Nathan felt that this was one of the areas at Johns Hopkins that could use more structure because of the amount of independence and freedom in the curriculum. Dean Feldman explained that at the University of Rochester, students have pre-major advisers for the first two years who are generally faculty members. There is a range of how successful advisers are in assisting students. The school is continually trying to provide better training to ensure that faculty have an in-depth understanding of the overall curriculum at the university.
Recommendations:
- General education is most successful when students are studying what they love. Not only will the students be more committed and engaged in classes, but the faculty will also gain more enjoyment from their teaching. At the end of the four years of undergraduate education, so little of the facts one learns are retained. Due to this reality, the idea that students are learning basic skills from their general education requirements is unlikely. There is an increasing connection between affect and cognition and a higher chance of retention if students want to learn the material.
- Research universities should not try to replicate liberal arts colleges. They need to take advantage of their sector and the resources they provide. Research universities have the potential to offer an extraordinarily broad array of research-based classes to all their students; liberal arts colleges most often cannot do this.
- The area of advising is one where research universities of all curriculum types should improve. Faculty need to have a thorough understanding of the university and its curriculum in order to accurately advise their students.
- Freedom within general education cannot be achieved without a great deal of planning and forethought. Student-driven approaches are successful when they allow choice within an underlying structure.
- Students should be given the opportunity to be responsible for their own education, make decisions, and become more independent. These skills will have a greater benefit and impact on their lives than some of the facts they might learn from their general education requirements.
Resources/References:
Websites
- University of Rochester Freshman Academic Handbook, Class of 2012: http://www.rochester.edu/College/CCAS/FreshHandbook12.pdf
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