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Faculty Senate Re: General Education

Motion from General Education Committee:

To declare a moratorium on certification and recertification of courses for general education for the 2011-2012 academic year.

The following is an explanation for the above motion.

Problem

There are several major issues with general education as it exists at UTC:

Outcome data

  • Based on data that have been collected using a number of assessment instruments, including CAAP, MAPP, NSSE, and FSSE,most students are not achieving the stated general education outcomes.
  • The general education criteria were negatively impacted by the decrease to 120 hours and their accomplishment may be unrealistic in the limited number of credit hours students complete in each category.
  • Base on surveys that have been conducted (NSSE and FSSE), there is a disconnect between what faculty teaching general education courses say is being accomplished and what students say and are able to demonstrate.

Committee concerns

  • Evidence presented for courses being reviewed by the General Education Committee rarely meets all the general education criteria for their categories, and many courses meet very few of the criteria.
  • There has been curriculum drift and a significant number of courses that might have met the general education criteria when they were first certified have morphed into primarily major-oriented courses with barely a nod to the general education criteria for the category. This is evidenced by numerous packets of recertification materials that focus heavily on the coverage of facts and procedures, to the detriment of improved conceptual understanding and critical thinking. Many of these courses seem to be designed so that students in the major can “double dip,” satisfying a major requirement or prerequisite and a general education requirement at the same time. However, those courses often fail to satisfy many general education guidelines.

Other difficulties

  • Many students seem to have no idea why general education courses are required and see them as something to simply “get out of the way.”
  • Many faculty are either unclear about general education outcomes and how they relate to their disciplinesor do not even know that these outcomes exist.
  • Many faculty often verbalize dissatisfaction with the general education curriculum as it connects to higher level courses, evidenced by disdainful comments such as “what are they teaching them in the gen ed courses!”

Intervention

The goal of the General Education Committee is to reevaluate and revise the stated goals and requirementsof general education in order to bring our general education program in line with best practices in general education, resulting in ourgeneral education curriculum at UTC being a valued and valuable experience for students, faculty, and administrators.

If this motion is passed, we propose to do the following:

1.Setup working groups of interested faculty, including lecturers, adjunct and new faculty, teaching in each of the general education categories (Behavioral Sciences, English, History, Humanities, Art, Math, Natural Sciences and Statistics). Each working group will be assigned a General Education liaison.

2.Start the process of revising general education by convening a retreat in September of 2011 that will include the General Education Committee and members of the category working groups, as well as any others interested in General Educationat UTC, to review the work of the Blue Ribbon implementationand assessment issues, and then begin the process of revising the current General Education program.

3.After each working group has developed revisions for its particular category, it will hold open sessionsso thatall UTC facultywill have input. Then the group will make more revisions as appropriateand submit its proposal to the General Education Committee.

4.The General Education Committeewill review proposals from the category working groups and make revisionsasneeded.

5.The General Education Committee will also revise rubrics for evaluating general education courses and improve committee procedures,includinga new requirement that a department submitting materials for course certification and recertification specifically discusshow the course addresses each general education requirement.

6.The General Education Committee will send a final proposal to the Faculty Senate for discussion and vote.

7.If the proposal is approved by the Faculty Senate, it will be sent to theUTC faculty for discussion and vote.

If the General Education proposal is accepted by the Full Faculty, the General Education Committee will work on the following:

8.Devise a plan to clearly inform andengage students during orientations (or other appropriate times) regarding the purposes of general education courses and what they can expect to gain from these courses. This process may be implemented in conjunction with plans for implementing the QEP critical thinking project.

9.Organize a panel of professionals, including nurses, engineers, scientists, lawyers, educators, computer science executives, accountants, etc., as well as UTC alumni and others, to speak to students aboutwhat college graduates should know and be able to do in order to achieve personal advancement and make valuable contributions to society.

10.Inform and engage new faculty at all new faculty orientations(including adjuncts as well as fulltime faculty) regarding the purposes of general education courses andways to teach these courses effectively. Faculty will also be informed of support services available to faculty related to teaching in general and general education in particular.

11. AskDeans toencourage faculty to work in general education and reward faculty for doing so. For instance, faculty who teach general education courses can be encouraged to include in their EDO reports ways in whichthey help students to achievegeneral education outcomes.

12.Reorganize the General Education Committee to include:

  • An orientation session for new committee members;
  • A chair-elect to ensure continuity of committee work from year to year;
  • A process for continuous quality improvement for the general education curriculum and outcomes.

Desired Outcomes

  1. Commitment by faculty, administrators, recruitment staff, and others to the goals of a high quality general education curriculum
  2. Ability on the part of faculty, administrators, recruitment staff, and othersto clearly articulate the expected outcomes of general education to stake holders, including students, parents, administrators, trustees, legislators, and employers
  3. Movement up in national rankings of engaged metropolitan universities
  4. Improved curriculum that increases the confidence of local employers in the quality of UTC graduates and thus provides additional job prospects for our students
  5. Improved student performance on University outcome measures
  6. Stronger correlation between general education and university outcomes that is clearly evident to students and faculty
  7. Faculty satisfactionwith General Education outcomes
  8. Marked improvement of the recertification process that includes more responsibility placed on departmentsand use of clearer rubrics for evaluation by the General Education Committee
  9. An established processto ensure continuous improvement in general education curriculum and outcomes.
  10. Alignment between General Education and QEP.

Comparison/Research

  1. Compare outcome measures (PPE, CAT, NSSE, FSSE) before and after the revision.
  2. Survey students regarding accomplishments related to general education and satisfaction with general education.
  3. Survey faculty regarding satisfaction with the general education program and outcomes.

Timeline

  1. The general education retreatfor working groups in each category is to be held in September, 2011. Groups will continue to meet after this retreat to develop proposed revisions, including an open session to which all faculty will be invited.
  2. The working groups will provide a written report of their proposed revisions to the General Education Committee by October, 2011.
  3. The General EducationCommittee will review these revisions by November, 2011, discuss changes with the working groups., and developfinal drafts by December, 2011.
  4. In January of 2011, open meetings will be heldfor each category so that all UTC faculty can have input.
  5. The General EducationCommittee will then develop its final proposal for a revised UTC General Education program and present itto Faculty Senate in February, 2012.
  6. The first UTC faculty electronic vote on the proposal will be held during the first week in March, 2012. The second UTC faculty electronic vote on the proposal will be held during the first week of April, 2012.
  7. New procedures and forms will be made available to faculty to use in revisingor developing courses to meet the new general education requirements,in fall 2012.
  8. The general education program will be discussed at new faculty and new student orientations beginning in the summer of 2012.
  9. In fall of 2012, the General Education Committee will develop a process to ensure continuous quality improvement for the general education curriculum.
  10. The General Education Committee will implement the revised outcomes, procedures, and forms to certify/decertify courses starting in spring of 2013.
  11. Orientation sessionsfor new members to the General Education Committee will be conducted by the Chair of General Educationat the beginning of every academic year.
  12. Annual retreatswill be held in September for instructors of general education courses, by category, to assure continuous improvement in the general education curriculum.

BRN 4/2011