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GENERAL EDUCATION AND EXIT COURSE PROGRAM
A major goal of any university is to provide its students with a quality education that prepares them for successful futures and lifelong learning. As the result of a two-year review of USF's liberal arts education program and an examination of national trends in undergraduate education, the University has prepared the plan for a Foundations of Knowledge and Learning Core Curriculum to improve undergraduate education by infusing more inquiry and critical thinking into our University curriculum.
The General Education Improvement Committee (GEIC) worked to develop a general education program with outcomes consistent with the University's mission and vision. Full implementation of the revised General Education and Exit Course Program is set for Fall 2009 with a variety of supported course development activities and ongoing dialog intended to shape the program along the way. The program emphasizes critical thinking and inquiry and prepares students for life-long learning and the new global and technological realities of the 21st century.
The General Education (36 credits) and Exit curriculum (six credits) consists of six Core Areas of Knowledge and Inquiry. These Core Areas are:
- English Composition
- Fine Arts and Humanities
- Human and Cultural Diversity in a Global Context
- Mathematics and Quantitative Reasoning
- Natural Sciences
- Social and Behavioral Sciences
The program is further characterized by a set of fourteen "Dimensions" or areas of emphasis, including intellectual strategies, approaches to knowledge and processes of acquiring knowledge, perspectives and their contexts, and the basic academic competencies required of all baccalaureate degrees. Their purpose is to assure that students have the opportunity to develop an array of knowledge, skills, and understandings that help them grasp the expansive and interdisciplinary nature of the liberal arts education. A minimum of four dimensions must be components of each approved course. Two of the Dimensions, Critical Thinking and Inquiry, must be a part of all approved courses. These fourteen dimensions will be incorporated into courses that are certified as meeting the general education core curriculum:
- Critical Thinking
- Inquiry
- Scientific Processes
- Creative and Interpretive Processes and Experiences
- Global Context
- Human Historical Context and Process
- Environmental Perspectives
- Human and Cultural Diversity
- Ethical Perspectives
- Inter-relationships among Disciplines
- Written Language Skills
- Oral Language Skills
- Information Literacy
- Quantitative Literacy
Criteria for the Core Areas of Knowledge and Inquiry and for the Dimensions are provided. These are requirements that courses must meet to gain approval for inclusion in the General Education Core Curriculum or the Exit Course Program. For reference, the Dimensions have also been aligned with the specific objectives of the program (see Objectives document) as indicated in parentheses.
The components of the General Education and Exit Core Curriculum appear on the Component Matrix. On the left hand side of the matrix are the general areas of study (Core Areas of Knowledge and Inquiry). The numbers following each designation denote the number of required courses in each area. The items across the top of the Component Matrix denote the Dimensions of the program and correlate with the desired goals and outcomes. These Dimensions are to be emphasized in one or more courses of the program as appropriate. Each course approved for the new program must meet a minimum of four criteria from the dimensions and must also satisfy the criteria from the appropriate Core Area of Knowledge
To oversee implementation and ensure ongoing success of the Foundations of Knowledge and Learning Core Curriculum, the General Education Council (GEC) was formed as an independent standing committee of the Faculty Senate. The GEC has direct lines of communication and coordination with the Undergraduate Council and is composed mainly of faculty, with appropriate administrative support from the areas of Undergraduate Studies, Academic Assessment, and Institutional Effectiveness. The GEC will review and approve courses on a five-year basis, promote and distribute assessment data from the program to the University community as formative feedback, and oversee the continuing curriculum improvement process.
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GENERAL EDUCATION AND EXIT COURSE OBJECTIVES
An effective university education must engage students with a diversity of ideas, concepts, and ways of acquiring knowledge. The Foundations of Knowledge and Learning Core Curriculum at the University of South Florida emphasizes inquiry as the means of developing complex intellectual skills that enable students to become critical thinkers, concerned citizens, successful professionals, and reflective people who throughout their lives are aware of, understand, and engage with the complexities and challenges that our global realities require.
The core curriculum at the University of South Florida is designed to produce University graduates who will:
- Understand symbolic, expressive, and interpretive communication systems in all of their complexities.
- Confront with an inquiring mind the natural, social, technical, and human world, and their interrelationships.
- Understand theories and methodologies for producing knowledge and evaluating information
- Interpret and understand human diversity in a global context.
- Discover and pursue a meaningful life, as well as being a responsible steward of the human and physical environment.
Objectives:
- Understand Symbolic, Expressive and Interpretive Communication Systems in All of their Complexities
- Written: Students will demonstrate well-organized, well-developed papers that reflect appropriate use of language. They will demonstrate specific knowledge, critical and analytical abilities, and appropriate use of technology consistent with assignment objectives.
- Oral: Students will demonstrate well-organized, well-developed oral presentations that reflect appropriate use of language and technology consistent with assignment objectives.
- Other systems and forms: Students will demonstrate an understanding of the creative processes and experiences to be found within literature and the arts, and their relevance to culture by analysis, critical thinking, interpretation, performance, or other creative activity.
- Confront with an Inquiring Mind the Natural, Social, Technical and Human Worlds and their Interrelationships
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of mathematics, the natural sciences and technology, including historical context and interrelationships with other disciplines.
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of the social and behavioral sciences, including historical context and interrelationships with other disciplines.
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of the arts and humanities, including historical context and interrelationships with other disciplines.
- Understand Theories and Methodologies for Producing Knowledge and Evaluating Information
- Students will demonstrate a general understanding of theories and methods of producing knowledge.
- Students will demonstrate critical thinking and analytical abilities, including the capacities to engage in inductive and deductive thinking and quantitative reasoning, and to construct sound arguments.
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of the scientific process.
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of historical process.
- Students will demonstrate information literacy skills including: identifying appropriate questions, problems, or issues; determining appropriate sources of information; locating and evaluating necessary information; and analyzing, synthesizing, and applying the knowledge gained.
- Interpret and Understand Human Diversity in a Global Context
- Students will demonstrate a critical understanding of the local and global processes that historically influence and help to define human differences. These might be expressed in biological, social, or cultural terms and include aesthetic, economic, gender, linguistic, political, religious, and other differences.
- Students will demonstrate a critical understanding of how these differences have influenced the relative rights and responsibilities (e.g., issues of social justice, discrimination, and exploitation) accorded to individuals and groups within human societies, and how the actions of individuals and groups in one society affect life in another.
- Students will demonstrate a critical understanding of theories (e.g., economic development, language, race, and gender) as to how these differences might affect the way(s) in which an individual or a group experiences and interprets the world.
- Students will demonstrate a critical understanding of the role of language in forming cultural identities.
- Discover and Pursue a Meaningful Life as well as Being a Responsible Steward of the Human and Physical Environment
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of how their decisions and actions affect the human and physical environment.
- Students will demonstrate a critical understanding of local and global processes that reveal culturally different ways of pursuing a meaningful life, and of how such differences affect the environment.
- Students will demonstrate intellectual development that emphasizes active involvement in the learning process methods of formulating answers that support retention of critical facts and concepts.
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CRITERIA FOR COURSE APPROVAL: DIMENSIONS
The Foundations of Knowledge and Learning Core Curriculum is characterized by a set of fourteen "Dimensions" or areas of emphasis, which include intellectual strategies, approaches to knowledge and processes of acquiring knowledge, perspectives and their contexts, and the basic academic competencies required of all baccalaureate degrees. Their purpose is to assure that students have the opportunity to develop an array of knowledge, skills, and understandings that help them grasp the expansive and interdisciplinary nature of the liberal arts education. A minimum of four dimensions must be components of each approved course. Two of the Dimensions, Critical Thinking and Inquiry, must be a part of all approved courses. These fourteen dimensions will be incorporated into courses that are certified as meeting the general education core curriculum:
- Critical Thinking
- Inquiry
- Scientific Processes
- Creative and Interpretive Processes and Experiences
- Global Context
- Human Historical Context and Process
- Environmental Perspectives
- Human and Cultural Diversity
- Ethical Perspectives
- Inter-relationships among Disciplines
- Written Language Skills
- Oral Language Skills
- Information Literacy
- Quantitative Literacy
- Intellectual Strategies (required for all courses)
- Critical Thinking (Program Objectives: All)
Critical thinking is the ability to engage in analytical, reflective, and critical thought -- that is, to go beyond verbatim learning of factual information. When students think critically, they not only know the facts, but they go beyond the facts and think about them in a way that is different from the way facts have been presented to them in class or in the text. Critical thinking involves reflecting on the information received, moving away from rote memorization toward analysis and synthesis, and moving away from learning by "transmission" of knowledge by the teacher or text to learning by "transformation" of knowledge by the learner.
Objective C2 states, "Students will demonstrate critical thinking and analytical abilities, including the capacities to engage in inductive and deductive thinking and quantitative reasoning, and to construct sound arguments." This understanding will be accomplished through appropriate pedagogy explicitly designed to construct analytical frameworks beginning with simple operations and building toward complexity. Active and collaborative learning strategies must be included and passive transmission and absorption of information is to be avoided.
Instructional strategies should include:
- Explicit identification of examples and non-examples of critical thinking.
- Modeling the process of critical thinking.
- Asking students to reflect on their thought processes - orally at times and in writing at other times.
- Posing questions to students that require higher order thinking rather than rote memorization.
- Providing students with opportunities to practice critical thinking in peer group settings.
- Engaging students actively in issue-centered exercises and problems.
- Inquiry (Program Objectives: All)
The General Education curriculum will engage students in inquiry or inquiry-based learning. Inquiry-based learning is based upon a philosophy of education that promotes the development of a questioning, critical, socially-engaged intelligence. It draws on a long history of theoretical and practical work which involves what John Dewey called "the primary interests of the learner," being investigation, communication, construction, and expression or reflection.
Inquiry or inquiry-based learning is a student-centered, active learning approach that focuses on activities in which the learner extracts meaning and acquires knowledge from experience. It typically includes a process that provides opportunities for learners to engage in the practices of life beyond the classroom, using the tools and methods of scientists, artists, researchers, problem solvers, or citizens in society. The intent is for the learners to gain a deeper understanding of themselves and the world around them through active learning.
Inquiry is a critical process that questions received knowledge, structures and processes, including its own. It invites a continual questioning of what it means to teach and learn, what counts as knowledge, and what meaning or action follows from learning. For educators, inquiry emphasizes the development of questioning skills and the nurturing of critical thinking and attitudes that will enable individuals to continue seeking knowledge beyond the classroom.
In the classroom, inquiry requires student engagement with the content and can take many forms. Inquiry-based learning may include a continuing cycle or spiral of inquiry (e.g., ask, investigate, create, discuss, and reflect) that engages students through participation, problem solving, and reflection. Inquiry processes should enable learning to occur as a function of the activity, the context, and the culture in which it occurs. Because knowledge is constantly increasing and thus the knowledge base for disciplines is expanding and changing, individuals need to develop the skills and inquiring attitudes necessary for generating and examining new knowledge.
There are several different approaches to inquiry, which include:
- Structured inquiry - The teacher provides students with a hands-on problem to investigate, as well as the procedures and materials, but does not inform them of expected outcomes. Students are to discover relationships between variables or otherwise generalize from data collected.
- Guided inquiry - The teacher provides only the materials and problem to investigate. Students devise their own procedure to solve the problem.
- Open inquiry - This approach is similar to guided inquiry, but students also devise their own problem to investigate.
- Learning cycle - Students are engaged in an activity that introduces a new concept. The teacher then provides the formal name for the concept. Students take ownership of the concept by applying it in a different context.
Education by inquiry often requires collaborative efforts involving students and faculty. Interdisciplinary approaches work well in inquiry-based learning. Undergraduates are encouraged to explore diverse fields to complement or contrast with their major fields. Mentoring and internships can be developed, offering collaborative learning experiences involving undergraduate, graduate students, and faculty as researchers.
- Approaches to Knowledge
- Scientific Processes (Program Objectives: A1, A2, A3, B1, B2, C1, C2, C3, E1, E3)
Courses qualifying for Scientific Processes must emphasize scientific methodology and habits of mind. Students should be actively involved in making observations, organizing data, critically evaluating data, designing and/or evaluating experimental procedures for obtaining data, and using data to answer questions and make predictions. Habits of mind and attitudes characteristic of successful scientists include: curiosity, skepticism, creativity, appreciation of uncertainty and tolerance for ambiguity, intellectual honesty and a willingness to consider new and different ideas. These habits of mind should be developed through a theoretical, practical, and imaginative engagement with problems relevant to human lives. The instructor should be able to provide or construct explicit models of these problems.
- Creative and Interpretive Processes and Experiences (Program Objectives: A1, A2, A3, B3, C2, C4, D1, E3)
Courses qualifying for Creative and Interpretive Processes and Experiences will include study of the historical and cultural contexts of works drawn from the visual, performing, and literary arts. These courses will include analysis of different aesthetic processes for creating or performing in the arts as well as forms of critical inquiry related to artistic endeavors. Courses may also include group and individual approaches for conveying meaning through artistic works and students' experiences in developing artistic works.
- Perspectives
- Global Context (Program Objectives: D1, D2, D3, A3, E2)
The Global Context focuses on the process referred to as globalization. That is, the process through which the magnitude and rate of the movement of people, production processes, capital, goods, services, ideas, and information across national boundaries are being intensified. The process of globalization includes the impact that the movement of peoples and the internationalization of production for the global market have on the natural and cultural environment. Students should become familiar with the structure of the global system and the various forms of inequity that it entails, as well as the contending socially positioned views of people globally regarding the effects and value of globalization. The importance of understanding the process of globalization lies in the fact that it is changing the social, economic, cultural, and environmental character of all societies. The study of such changes is related to all other areas of study in the General Education curriculum, especially to the understanding of environmental, cultural, economic, gender, and social diversity.
Study of the global context should include a basic knowledge and critical understanding of the following:
- Global geopolitical entities and their interrelations: the geographic location of the countries constituting the global system, their types of government, their economic systems, and the basic nature of the relations among the various countries.
- A general knowledge of global economic relations: the distribution of raw materials that are key to the global productive system; relative access to and the role of communicative and productive technology; the migration (or movement) of labor; the role of multilateral financial organizations (e.g., the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the Interamerican Development Bank) in the relative socioeconomic development of countries; a basic history of the global inequality of countries and how that inequality affects the daily life of people in the world.
- Cultural diversity and gender relations: the distribution and migratory dynamics of the cultures of the global system; cultures as distinctive ways of how people view and act on their world (ways of knowing); the distribution and role of languages and their relation to knowledge, culture, world views and global processes; the role of cultural difference in identity construction, power relations, and labor distribution; the role of gender in the construction of how people view and act on their world (their culture), of power relations, and of the social division of labor.
- Human Historical Context and Process (Program Objectives: A3, B2, B3, C4, D1, D2, D3, D4, C4, E1, E2, E3)
Historical studies focus on the context (physical, temporal, intellectual) in which the events of human history have taken place. Historical processes involve the impact these events have on human actions and events, and the ways in which societies evolve as a result. These processes affect not only peoples and societies, but also institutions, ideas, and beliefs and can be seen in intellectual, social, economic, religious, artistic, and political contexts. The historical process also involves taking the building blocks of historical knowledge, the largely undisputed "facts" such as names, dates, and places, and working these into defensible arguments about the meanings of these facts. While the facts may remain constant, their meanings undergo a constant process of rethinking and reinterpreting. Mastering the terms, issues, participants, theoretical orientations, methods, and methodologies of these discussions is the goal of this dimension of learning. Therefore, any course that fulfills the historical context and process requirement would be one that addresses all three components: the facts themselves, their impact on the development of cultures and societies, and an awareness of the evolution of their historical interpretation.
- Environmental Perspectives (Program Objectives: B1, C3, E1, E2, E3)
An environmental perspective allows students to consider the changing nature of the earth and its constituent elements, as well as the relationship between the physical, biological, and human worlds. Courses meeting this requirement will explore factors affecting the environment and develop understanding of the extent to which changes in the earth's environment are affected by human activities, and are also the results of non-human processes. Courses should explore potential consequences of the changes, and whether these changes are healthy and desirable for human beings and other organisms. Finally, students should also explore the nature of the consequences and trade-offs involved if some or all of these changes are slowed, stopped, or their effects mitigated.
- Human and Cultural Diversity (Program Objectives: B1, D1, D2, D3, D4, E1, E2, E3)
The goal of courses in human and cultural diversity should be to treat the phenomenon as an inherent part of the human condition, and not merely as a contemporary social or political anomaly. Students should be exposed to a basic understanding of the interplay of biological and cultural diversity in the evolution of the human species. This knowledge should form the foundation for an in-depth understanding of cultural, "racial," linguistic, gender, and social diversity in modern societies. Knowledge of biological and ecological diversity should be followed by historically-based material on the distribution and movement of cultural and biological diversity globally, and the link between culture, geography, and the development of different economic systems, including the development of capitalism. Students should understand cultural, ethnic, "racial", linguistic and gender diversity in the West, including in the United States, as the product of the historical interaction between human agency and natural environment. The learning process on diversity can be enhanced by providing students structured opportunities to engage in classroom discussions with peers from different cultural, "racial," ethnic, linguistic, class, and gender backgrounds. Examples of topics that may be covered in courses in diversity are:
- Ecological diversity and speciation.
- The science of diversity: evolutionary genetics and the nature of diversity.
- Cultural diversity as survival strategies (gender, ethnicities, inequalities, etc.).
- Linguistic diversity in the American experience.
- Nations and their knowledge: classical conceptions of diversity (nations, cultures, cosmologies).
- The modern production of diversity: the expansion of Europe and modern colonialism.
- Cultural and "racial" diversity in the American experience.
- Diversity and knowledge: divergent ways of knowing.
- Theoretical and ideological models of diversity in the contemporary world.
- Contemporary diversity policies.
- The conflict between diversity and the quest for national homogeneity: finding solutions.
- Ethical Perspectives (Program Objectives: D2, D3, E1, E2, E3)
Courses in this area will enable students to explore how values inform the behavior of individuals and societies and govern the way humans relate to each other on a daily basis. The study of values and ethics enable us to understand the implications of our thoughts and actions and to take responsibility for them. As members of specific societies, we are not only shaped by cultural values but also, through critical and responsible reflection, we transform these cultural values. Studying these values in both their unity and diversity can provide insight into the way our personal and social worlds are shaped in various historical and social contexts. The study of values and ethics also advances respect for knowledge and its problems. In each phase of the process of knowledge construction, the values of the inquirers inform the ideas, methods, and practices that generate knowledge.
Exploration of ethical perspectives will enable students to:
- Recognize the value-laden character of knowledge, including knowledge about the world, the environment, race and ethnicity, language and gender.
- Advance their understanding of the values that underlie the criteria used by scholars in identifying and formulating problems, in constructing methods and models, and in articulating and choosing theories.
- Interrelationships Among Disciplines (Program Objectives: B1, B2, B3, D1, D2, D3)
The complexities of real-world problems offer challenges that cross disciplinary boundaries. Thus it is essential that students understand what disciplines have to offer (the types of problems they deal with, their approaches to problem solving, their tools) and learn to make connections among and between disciplines.
Courses with a focus on interrelationships among disciplines address the following components:
- The course materials explicitly draw from multiple disciplines and identify the need for and value of this material in the context of the broader issue being examined.
- Discussion and evaluation of the relationships among various disciplines is an explicit component of the course.
- Examination of the tools used by disciplines to advance knowledge and how these same tools are applied in different ways (e.g. computers, models, analytical equipment).
- Competencies
- Written Language Skills (Program Objectives: A1, A3)
Courses with a focus on writing must address the following interrelated components:
- Systematic organization.
- Effective use of detail.
- Compelling treatment of evidence.
- Demonstration of reasoning skills.
- Appropriate consideration of audience.
- Language use (style) appropriate to discipline and audience.
- Construction and analysis of valid and sound arguments.
Quality feedback and revision of work should be an integral part of instruction.
- Oral Language Skills (Program Objectives: A2, A3)
Effective oral communication involves generating organized messages delivered with attention to vocal variety, articulation, and nonverbal signals. For a course to support the development of oral communication skills, it should:
- Be limited to a class size of 30 students.
- Require at least two oral activity opportunities.
- Provide oral activity opportunities commensurate with professional expectations (e.g., formal presentations, question and answer session).
- Incorporate feedback as part of an improvement process.
This description is based on the criteria of the National Communication Association.
Second Language 1 (Program Objectives: A1, A2, D4, D3); 2 ( Program Objectives: A3, D4)
Courses that focus on developing literacy in a Language Other Than English (LOTE) should:
- Be limited to a class size of 22 students.
- Be taught mostly in the target language.
- Aim at developing proficiency in the target language.
- Include a strong cultural component.
- Focus on areas such as (a) communication, (b) culture, (c) connections with other disciplines, (d) comparisons with other languages and cultures, (e) experiences in other cultures and relationships with linguistic communities.
- Strive to integrate technology appropriately in the instruction of the target language and culture.
Courses that have as their main focus to develop content area knowledge in a Language Other Than English (LOTE) i.e. to teach a particular subject such as history through another language, should:
- Be taught mostly in the target language.
- Focus on content from a different discipline (history, business, nursing, etc.).
- Integrate the content of the course with the cultural concepts and context of the language used to teach the course.
- Clearly identify content-obligatory language (language that must be known/taught in order to teach or reinforce the content) and content-compatible language (language for which the curriculum concept or information provides a convenient context).
- Include authentic and relevant materials in the target language.
- Include active, hands-on teaching/learning strategies.
- Information Literacy (Program Objectives: C5, E3)
In order for a USF course to qualify as teaching information literacy skills, it should include study of:
- How information is created, organized, and used, with specific reference to scholarly communication.
- Ethical and legal issues in the creation and use of information, with specific reference to how to avoid plagiarism, how to respect privacy, and how to avoid copyright infringement.
- How to evaluate information for potential use.
- How to cite information sources.
- How to locate information.
- Quantitative Literacy: (Program Objectives: A1, B1, B2, C2, E3)
A course accepted as providing training in quantitative reasoning must instill quantitative skills sufficient for evaluating and responding critically to issues in the media and public life.
Courses meeting this requirement use mathematics thinking and skills, as appropriate, in the context of the discipline. To qualify, the course must include:
- Hands-on exercises or problems in which the students engage quantitative data and/or their representations -- for example, in graphs (including maps), tables, equations, and calculations.
- Engagement with quantitative information (including computation), in a context legitimate to the course.
The minimum number of required exposures in a course depends on the time that the students are engaged in the quantitative activities but is expected to range from seven to eight 15-minute exercises spread evenly across the semester to one 2 or more hour take-home project.
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WRITING TO LEARN: SUPPORT FOR THE EMPHASIS ON IMPROVING WRITING
Because the University of South Florida values learning to write effectively and writing to learn deeply, both processes must be emphasized in the Foundations of Knowledge and Learning Core Curriculum. Thus, USF is committed to providing resources, faculty development, and policy changes necessary to accomplish these critical outcomes. First, the scope of the Writing Center should be expanded to serve multiple purposes such as offering: individual instruction for students with severe weaknesses, training for peer and graduate assistants, and workshops targeting specific topics. There is evidence that some students have extensive deficiencies, which necessitate one-on-one tutorial assistance. Second, due to the elevated importance of writing and associated class size requirements, graduate and peer assistants will be needed to facilitate the grading process. The Writing Center should develop and facilitate training for the peer and graduate assistants. The workshops for student writers could target:
- Developing and expressing ideas in papers.
- Understanding and avoiding plagiarism.
- Organizing for effective communication.
- Understanding and addressing appropriate audiences.
- Developing peer review capabilities.
- Writing research papers in the disciplines.
- Selecting and evaluating appropriate references.
The Writing Center should be available for in-person and internet tutorials, including synchronous peer review sessions. The need for this type of center was confirmed by results from the recently distributed Survey of Writing Evaluation Practices at the University. Although writing is assigned and writing weaknesses are revealed in courses ranging from history to biology, most faculty and graduate assistants report they are not equipped or have insufficient time to provide writing instruction.
In addition to Composition I and II, Gordon Rule classes should focus on process writing, specifically including feedback and revision. Of course, revision involves more than superficial editing; it fosters a deeper understanding, clarifies the meaning of the text, and helps organize writing to promote communication of ideas (Bamberg, in Clark, 2000). Further, the importance of revision in improving writing and thinking is well documented in the composition literature (Beason, 1993; Booth, 1992; Fitzgerald, 1987; Sommers, 1980). Thus, faculty who teach non-Gordon Rule general education courses should be encouraged to include writing assignments that allow or require students to revise their work. In these classes, graduate or peer assistants should be provided commensurate with the amount of writing assigned and the thoroughness by which the writing is to be assessed. These graduate and peer assistants should be trained through the Writing Center in the Department of Englsih. Courses in any discipline in which writing assignments are given, feedback is offered, and revisions are encouraged, should be provided the designation: "process writing" (PW). Students seeking a baccalaureate from the University should be required to take a specific number of these "process writing" courses, as designated & approved by the Undergraduate Council and listed in the University Catalog.
Whenever possible, faculty should encourage writing to learn. By putting thoughts into words in a well-developed organized manner, students' reasoning skills will become sharper and deeper learning will occur. Student writing will be maintained and evaluated through electronic portfolios. Required writing samples and student selected writing samples will be included to ascertain if an acceptable level of writing proficiency is reached.
In short, if writing becomes an intentionally systematic focus of the General Education curriculum in particular, and all coursework in which writing plays a large role in general, student writing and thinking will more closely approximate what we expect from the University graduate.
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USF FKL CAPSTONE LEARNING EXPERIENCE
Last revised 2/3/2012
The FKL Capstone Learning Experience constitutes a total of six credits, which build on a student’s course of study within their major while extending the FKL Core Curriculum throughout the baccalaureate program. The FKL Capstone Learning Experience can be either within the college-level program or the department-level major (and may be restricted to majors or open to both majors and non-majors). Only upper-level students may enroll in these courses.
The FKL Capstone Learning Experience must emphasize critical thinking, inquiry-based learning, and at least one of the other dimensions of the FKL Core Curriculum. The FKL Capstone Experience should also include an interdisciplinary approach that extends the liberal arts goals of the FKL Core Curriculum. This approach should allow students to employ skills and knowledge learned within the major in ways that lead students to reflect upon specific issues and problems beyond the discipline.
There are two ways to fulfill the FKL Capstone Learning Experience:
- Option 1
A. Writing Intensive (WRIN) - 3 credits
Three of the six Capstone Learning Experience credits must be a Writing Intensive Capstone and may, but are not required to, satisfy the Gordon Rule - Communication. For example, in Foreign Language majors, writing in languages other than English is acceptable. In addition, these courses may focus on writing within the discipline, where students gain skills that assist in their preparation for professional work or graduate studies. Writing-intensive courses or experiences must incorporate process writing, which involves opportunities for students to revise writing assignments in response to feedback from the instructor or graders assigned to the course. At a minimum, students should write 4500 words for the Writing Intensive Capstone, excluding assignments for which students do not receive any feedback. All drafts of such papers count toward the 4500 word minimum. To enable quality feedback on written work, Writing Intensive courses should not have more than 30 students per grader.
AND
B. Capstone Course (CPST) - 3 credits
The three additional credits needed to complete the FKL Capstone Learning Experience will be in the form of a Capstone Course (CPST). Capstone Courses provide students with a culminating educational experience, and should integrate multiple areas of knowledge and dimensions (intellectual strategies, approaches to knowledge and processes, perspectives and competencies). These courses, by definition, must lead to a summative product, such as a project, paper, proposal or performance. These courses may be in the form of a course or a field-appropriate experience created by the student and the instructor. These courses might include, but are not limited to:
- A designated FKL Capstone course for the program or major
- Internships, service learning experiences, or similar volunteer work within fields stemming from the major
- Substantive directed research and writing
- Visual or artistic presentations representing culmination of study
- Performances or events building on work in the major.
OR
Option 2
An FKL Capstone Learning Experience (CLEX) - 6 credits
Alternatively, instructors and students may meet the requirements of the FKL Capstone Learning Experience by together creating a single, six-credit CLEX combining the demands of both the WRIN and CPST. In this case, WRIN and CPST components must be integrated into the overall course design and meet the above requirements.
It is expected that all FKL Capstone Learning Experience requirements be completed with USF-Tampa courses.
Students must achieve a proficiency level of at least C- in the WRIN, CPST, and/or the CLEX components in order to receive FKL Capstone Learning Experience credit.
GENERAL EDUCATION ASSESSMENT PLAN
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Direction for Assessment of the General Education Program will be a major responsibility of the General Education Council. The on-going assessment of General Education continues with an emphasis on writing and thinking skills, intellectual development, general education dimensions, and liberal arts mathematics. Essays, questionnaires, short writing assignments, and common finals are the methods used to assess these student outcomes. While many of the general education skills and dimensions are addressed in the current assessment plan, the core areas will be added during the next three years.
During the first phase of this proposed plan, specific student outcomes will be developed in collaboration with faculty from each of the general education core areas. Subsequently, decisions regarding the type of methodology for assessing the student outcomes, such as standardized examinations, common examinations, or course embedded projects or test items will be made. If methods other than standardized exams are selected, test questions, project criteria, or scoring rubrics will be developed with the team of faculty from the appropriate core areas. These same teams will assist in pilot testing the assessment of student outcomes. Faculty teaching the general education courses will identify the learning outcomes relevant to the proposed/revised courses. Further, they will select the assessment approach utilized in their courses from the assessment approaches identified by the faculty team and assess student achievement of the outcomes during the term.
Faculty and TA participation from each of the core areas, critical to the success of this program, will be included in all phases of the planning and implementation of the assessment. Throughout, feedback from students and faculty will be actively sought to refine the assessment process. The General Education Council will help determine how to aggregate assessment and direct action based upon assessment results.
