Learning Communities proposed to BRIDGE
Catherine Klene, Alestle News Reporter
Issue date: 2/22/07 Section: News
Approximately 20 faculty members gathered Tuesday evening to present and discuss the final general education reform proposal, Learning Communities.
The Learning Communities proposal is one of three general education reform designs proposed by members of the Baccalaureate Reform through Integrated Design of General Education.
Economics and finance instructor Laura Wolff explained that the Learning Communities plan is geared towards "millennials."
"Millennials are people born between 1982 and 2002," Wolff said. These students are more aware of community and interaction, Wolff said.
In the presentation, Wolff said the current general education program does not work for the next generation of students.
"Millennials are coming (to SIUE) with different expectations," Wolff said.
Presenter and academic adviser Dawn Reed defined a learning community.
"It can be any variety of structures where content is integrated," Reed said. "It's not just a matter of learning the terms … it's knowing how to apply those and make connections in a written form and tie in other ideas."
Through the Learning Communities, Reed and Wolff said their design team intends to accomplish this by linking courses from different disciplines together.
Freshmen seminar courses are a primary focus of the design. Under the Learning Communities proposal, the freshmen seminar courses would count for six credit hours and have no more than 40 students in each section, with two faculty members from each discipline teach at the same time.
This type of freshmen seminar course is already taught at SIUE, but the Learning Communities proposal would make freshmen seminar courses mandatory for all incoming freshmen.
English instructor Mike Burke taught a linked English and history course last year.
"I like the idea of the deep-linked course," Burke said. "It was very intriguing."
Burke said that while teaching the course was interesting, it required a lot more time and energy on the faculty's part.
The Learning Communities proposal is one of three general education reform designs proposed by members of the Baccalaureate Reform through Integrated Design of General Education.
Economics and finance instructor Laura Wolff explained that the Learning Communities plan is geared towards "millennials."
"Millennials are people born between 1982 and 2002," Wolff said. These students are more aware of community and interaction, Wolff said.
In the presentation, Wolff said the current general education program does not work for the next generation of students.
"Millennials are coming (to SIUE) with different expectations," Wolff said.
Presenter and academic adviser Dawn Reed defined a learning community.
"It can be any variety of structures where content is integrated," Reed said. "It's not just a matter of learning the terms … it's knowing how to apply those and make connections in a written form and tie in other ideas."
Through the Learning Communities, Reed and Wolff said their design team intends to accomplish this by linking courses from different disciplines together.
Freshmen seminar courses are a primary focus of the design. Under the Learning Communities proposal, the freshmen seminar courses would count for six credit hours and have no more than 40 students in each section, with two faculty members from each discipline teach at the same time.
This type of freshmen seminar course is already taught at SIUE, but the Learning Communities proposal would make freshmen seminar courses mandatory for all incoming freshmen.
English instructor Mike Burke taught a linked English and history course last year.
"I like the idea of the deep-linked course," Burke said. "It was very intriguing."
Burke said that while teaching the course was interesting, it required a lot more time and energy on the faculty's part.
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