Eastern Michigan economics professor Sharon Erenburg usually
gives multiple-choice tests to the 70-plus students in
her "Principles of Macroeconomics" class. The class size
just doesn't lend itself to a lot of writing assignments.
But last fall, as part of a pilot assessment of Eastern
Michigan's revised General Education standards, Erenburg
tried something different with one section of the class.
 |
MAKING STRIDES: Eastern Michigan
University professors report successes in their
new
General Education Program classes or have
plans
to adapt existing classes. The 2007-08
academic year
was the first for EMU's new
General Education Program, which is outcome-
based and
takes learning beyond the traditional
classroom. |
She had her students in her class read an article from
CNNMoney.com about the Federal Reserve lowering interest
rates. Then, in an assignment worth 20 percent of their
grade, they had to explain, in detail, the role of the
central bank and the effect of that rate decrease on the
economy.
She also set up a rubric that specified how much detail
and accuracy they needed on each question to receive an
"A", or a "B", and so on.
"It was interesting," she said. "The cooperation
level was extremely high. They really got into this assignment.
I don't know if its because I told them it was part of
a pilot, but they really seemed to appreciate the rubric
itself and the opportunity to write and analyze as opposed
to just coming in to take a multiple-choice test."
The first year under EMU's new general education requirements
is filled with these kinds of stories, example after example
of points where the academic rubber meets the real-world
road.
And while Erenburg's class is one of just a few in the
pilot group that's already assessing how the new gen ed
requirements affect students, the program's biggest impact
in its first year has been on faculty.
"What I really walked away with at (the General Education
department's June) retreat was that faculty are realizing
the opportunity and potential, and thinking about how their
courses fit into a larger education," said General
Education Program Director Chris Foreman. "...We're starting
to see them really rally around the idea of making learning
intentional."
Foreman said the new curriculum has encouraged faculty
to re-think the way they teach; pulled adjuncts and full-time
lecturers into the course-planning loop; and given instructors
a chance to emphasize just how their course fits into the
big picture of a college education.
The General Education Course Vetting Committee approved
144 courses for the revised curriculum that went into place
in Fall 2007 — including 21 brand-new classes.
All are designed to make students better learners, communicators
and quantitative thinkers, and to prepare them for life
in a diverse workforce and a diverse world. Foreman compares
the difference between the old and new gen ed programs
to the difference between dumping knowledge on students
and teaching them to learn. The new curriculum answers
the "why" in the eternal question, "Why do I have to take
this course?"
"Some disciplines are really getting it," said English
Language and Literature Professor Ann Blakeslee, who co-chaired
the implementation committee and has helped shape courses
to meet the writing-intensive requirement as director of
Writing Across the Curriculum.
"They see we can really give students experience with
the same kind of disciplinary writing that they will be
doing in their fields," Blakeslee said.
 |
LAB LESSONS: Chemistry professor Steve
Pernecky (above, middle) has proposed to turn a
400-level biochemistry lab into a writing intensive
class that will hone students' skills writing
accurate and detailed notebooks
and scientific
manuscripts. |
Some examples of Gen Ed courses include:
- Chemistry professor Steve Pernecky has proposed to turn
a 400-level biochemistry lab into a writing intensive class,
helping students develop and hone the skills that will
help them write accurate and detailed laboratory notebooks
and scientific manuscripts.
That means trying to repeat experiments with both good
and bad laboratory notebooks to get a better appreciation
for what goes into a good lab book. Students also will
draft sections of their scientific manuscripts, before
receving an opportunity to incorporate the feedback into
the final versions.
"The idea is you build success, and you do it in
a modular fashion," Pernecky said. "We've had
this idea for a while. Gen Ed has just forced us to do
it."
 |
ASSIGNMENT ADAPTED: Henry
Aldridge, a professor of
communication and theatre arts,
changed a film review assignment to
a paper that explores the differences
between a novel and a film
adaptation in his "Introduction to
Film" class. |
- Henry Aldridge, a communication and theater arts professor,
changed one of the assignments in his "Introduction to
Film" class, replacing a film review with a paper discussing
the differences between a novel and its film adaptation
in order to get students thinking about the differences
between literature and film as art forms. He's also considering
including a list of other gen ed courses in his syllabus
— and not just arts courses — that might
be of interest to students who take his film class. It's
sort of the academic version of those e-commerce sites
that show products 'you
might also be interested in' alongside the one you're
trying to buy."
For Aldridge, the new Gen Ed Program represents a return
to the big-picture type of liberal arts education universities
have traditionally provided.
"We're making a greater effort to be clear about the connections
now," he said.
- Full-time lecturer Kelly Victor-Burke makes a point of
talking with her students about the geopolitical aspects
of the world's petroleum reserves and how that relates
to the price of the gas that they put into their cars.
 |
OIL CONNECTIONS: In one of her geography
classes, Kelly Victor-Burke, a full-time lecturer,
discusses the geopolitical aspects of the world's
petroleum reserves and how that affects the price of
gas locally. |
"That connects Ypsilanti with Nigeria, Kuwait, Venezuela...," said
Victor-Burke, whose not-so-secret mission is to get a few
students every semester so excited about geography that
they consider it as a major. "Most of my students
coming into geography class for the first time think learning
geography is going to be like going to the dentist and
having a root canal done with no anesthetic. Students from
all walks of life and all different majors come into your
class, and you get to show them how exciting geography
is and how applicable it is to so much that goes on in
everyday life."
Erenburg's pilot section of Economics 201, by the
way, scored higher on the unit exam than her other sections
of that class. Ninety percent passed the assignment, 80
percent earned a C or better and 40 percent received a
B or better. She used a similar rubric with a required
writing assignment in a 300-level class. Those students
turned in better papers overall than in other sections
of the same class and said, in their course evaluations,
that the rubric helped them organize those papers.
Foreman said there's still a small minority of faculty
who haven't quite embraced the new curriculum yet — no
surprise given the old one was in place for almost 20 years.
But, she stresses, outcomes-based programs are now the
national standard. Eastern Michigan won the 2007 Association
for General and Liberal Studies' Award for its commitment
to common student learning objectives in improving general
education.
"Overall, the greatest challenge is kind of the natural
resistance to change," Foreman said. "We knew that
would be part of it. We had a curriculum in place that seemed to
be working, but we had no idea if it was because there
was no way to measure it....
"I think in many ways we're really ahead of the game,
now. (EMU President) Dr. Martin, when she interviewed here,
really spoke of (general education) in high regard and
noted that we're far ahead of the University of Michigan
in terms of basic curriculum."
