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APPLYING BASIC SKILLS CONCEPTS TO THE GENERAL CURRICULUM

The Castleton FIPSE project is a faculty development program in which faculty from traditional liberal arts
disciplines are instructed by faculty colleagues in the teaching of basic. skills. This instructional experience, in
which Castleton faculty are matched in a mentor-colleague relationship with other Castleton faculty, emphasizes
an individualized learner-centered approach to skills development. Newly instructed faculty not only teach in
the basic skills program as part of their normal teaching load, but also serve as catalysts for curricular change.
Within their respective departments they use their expertise to revise required general education courses so that
fundamental linguistic and computational concepts introduced in the basic skills classes are systematically rein-
forced across the general education curriculum, resulting in a completed cycle.

Volunteer Faculty

The faculty who volunteer in the Castleton project represent a true cross-section of the liberal arts profes-
soriate. They range in rank from instructors to full professors and represent such disciplines as Theatre Arts,
Philosophy, Spanish, Music, Geography, and French. In the initial phase of the project, faculty mentors were

professors from the Departments of English, Education and Mathematics, all experienced in the teaching of bpsic

skills. DOUGLAS COLLEGE

The Basic Skills Program ARCHIVES

 

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My own involvement with Castleton’s basic skills program has been in the basic writing component, an
instructor-intensive experience for the student. Small classes of eight to twelve students are divided into writing
groups which practice prewriting as a problem-solving approach to topic selection, structure and development,
organizational possibilities, and arrangement of ideas. Following Macrorie, the basic writing course emphasizes
free writing as a procedure to assist the student in discovering and recording topics which he can develop into
cogent structures. Considerable attention is devoted to editing the student’s work. Writing groups edit both
orally and in writing, and the students use this editing process as a method of self-discovery and self-
improvement.

 

The instructors are active participants in the editing process, involving themselves in the work of the group
and particularly in one-on-one sessions with the student. Simulation exercises are frequent, assisting the stu-
dent in developing analytical, research, and writing skills. Thus, much of the emphasis in the basic writing is
on collaborative learning, a process which builds on the strengths of the group while motivating the individual
and building his self-esteem. The instructor provides a framework for this collaborative learning and contributes
to it directly and indirectly.

Curricula Revisions

Faculty who have been instructed in basic skills teaching and who have taught a developmental section or
two are now turning their attention to revising curricula in the liberal arts/general education areas so as to rein-
force specific basic skills concepts learned in their mentor-colleague experience. My own experience provides an
illustration of this integration of basic skills concepts into the curricula. As a result of my instruction, I have
made a number of changes in my Introduction to Theatre Arts course.

This course is offered as an option in the Fine Arts area of the general education core curriculum. The
standard text is segmented and easily lends itself to incremental testing. Previous to my instruction in basic
skills teaching, my examinations utilized the objective, short answer format. Now, however, this objective ap-

 

 

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