INSIDE DOUGLAS COLLEGE / MARCH 6, 1990

CURRICULUM IDEAS FOR GENERAL EDUCATION

General education in the community colleges has had a somewhat vexed history. Everyone is in favour of it, but faculty and administrative staff are often ata loss to define it, or to implement reforms in a meaningful way.

Recently a small group of faculty at St. Lawrence College Saint Laurent in Kingston, Ontario, has begun to publish a series of papers on curriculum ideas for teachers who are trying to include general education in their courses. The concept underlying this initiative is that, in addition to whole courses which could be labelled general education, such as literature or humanities courses, there are important aspects of general education which are probably best tausht within the context of career courses such as marketing, nursing, and graphic design.

The policy for general education at St. Lawrence states that in addition to the required vocational skills all certificate and diploma programs “will provide learning experiences designed to help each student develop the following fundamental skills: desire and ability to learn, effectiveness as a com- municator, self-understanding and a feeling of self- worth, problem solving, critical thinking, interper- sonal skills, and social awareness and moral responsibility”.

These fundamental skills are defined in the policy. Social awareness and moral responsibility, for in- stance, is defined as the ‘‘ability to articulate and demonstrate a code of personal and professional ethics; knowledge of the rights of others and society; understanding the consequences of supporting or failing to support those rights; ability to use one’s knowledge and skills in defense of the rights of others’’. Like many policy definitions, this is very general. It needs to be translated into specific ‘“*Monday morning”’ ideas suitable for adaptation to particular programs and particular classes.

This is what the series of general education curricu- lum papers attempts to do. After an introductory discussion of the topic as a whole, each papers presents tips, ideas or methodologies for use in the classroom. A paper on problem solving, for in- stance, outlines one of Edward de Bono’s thinking tools, the PMI (Plus, Minus, Interesting). Another in the series on effectiveness as a communicator contains a reprint of an article on ‘‘second order

illiteracy’. A paper in the series on social awareness and moral responsibility suggests that teachers rou-

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tinely exhibit moral and social values for all to interpret. The paper then provides some moral dilemmas teachers could find themselves in. Here is one example:

(5 BOOT CAMP Fae.

"So there was cheating on the mid-term! Well, I know how to put an end to that very quickly. The entire section will be penalized 20% of the final grade, and for the rest of the semester they will have to scramble to make even a “C”’ in that course."

A student has told a counsellor, in confidence, that he knows that a classmate cheats during exams. The student is wrestling with the prob- lem of what he should do with this knowledge. Because grads from this program will work in the field of law enforcement, the counsellor has informed the chair that an allegation has been made, even though the allegation is unproven. The reaction of the chairperson is quoted above. Neither the accused nor the accuser has been identified to the chair. The counsellor does not know the name of the accused student, but is convinced that her client is sincere.

You are the junior member of the department. What considerations cross your mind as you weigh the pros and cons of participating in a discussion of the chair’s “20% solution” during a department meeting?

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Each of these papers is colour coded, one colour for each of the fundamental skills of general education, and they are printed in a similar format for easy identification. Colour-coded card covers are pro- vided to encourage filing in a three ring binder for easy reference. The advantage of this system is that it provides a vehicle for sharing ideas on an ongoing basis. All faculty and administrative staff are en- couraged to participate in this exchange by briefly writing up their idea and submitting them for inclusion in the series.

For further information or sample papers, write to:

Nathalie Sorensen, Communication and General Studies St. Lawrence College Saint Laurent King and Portsmouth Avenue, Kingston, Ontario K7L 5A6.