1. Describing and Evaluating Curriculum I
Describing and Evaluating Curriculum I. Identifying Skills, Goals, Experiences, Content and Values II. Curriculum Maps and Matrices
(With thanks to Mary Savina (Carleton College) and Randy Richardson (University of Arizona)

2. Trends in Higher Education
Changing nature of the student body
Change in what it means to be an “educated person”
Emphasis on skills and habits of mind rather than content
Recognizing learning outside the classroom
A more cohesive and coherent first year experience and a capstone experience
(Thanks to Chico Zimmerman, Perlman Center for Learning and Teaching, Carleton College)

3. Models of Curricular Change: A Random Walk?
How the heck did we end up here?

4. Curricular Change Gradualism Punctuated Equilibria
Always adding, never subtracting
Dennis O’Neil

5. “Increasingly, more professional emphasis appears to be required
in understanding the processes
and history of the youngest part
of the geological time scale and
in the shallowest levels of the
Earth’s crust.”
Gordon P. Eaton
Director of the USGS
September 7, 1994 5

6. Curriculum Menu – Model 1
Emphasizing individual course titles and content:
Introductory geology (audience)
Specialized geoscience courses

7. If we taught baseball the way some still teach geology:
Take one year to teach the history of the game and theories of throwing catching, and hitting a baseball.
Take the sophomore year to study the materials in bats, balls, gloves, and playing surfaces.
During the junior year contemplate the rules of the game and an analysis of the geometry of the diamond.
Finally, in the last semester of the senior year, allow students to play the game.
(Modified from Richard Culver, SUNY Binghamton) 7

8. Curriculum Design - Model 2
Emphasizing sequence and student intellectual development –
What are the basics of the discipline?
What are good second level courses?
What are the most valued advanced courses?
What should students carry from one class to the next?

9. Curriculum Development – Model 3
Start by Identifying
“Threshold concepts”– the central ideas from geoscience that are important to all students (majors and non-majors (Randy Bass, Georgetown University)
Goals for degree programs
Skills to be acquired
Geoscience Specific
General
Experiences
Values
Other Content

10. The Fundamental Question
What do you want your (seniors, graduates, alumni) to be able to do?
For Example . . .
What Discipline Specific Knowledge?
Which Problem Solving Skills?
How to Communicate Effectively?

11. Student Learning Outcomes
Students will be able to . . .
Determine the physical and chemical composition of earth materials and the processes that produced them.
Identify and fully describe rocks (mineralogy, texture)
Interpret their origin (fanglomerate)
Make inferences about their source areas (active tectonics) (

12. First Exercise Defining goals, values, experiences, skills, knowledge
About 30 minutes of independent/small group work followed by 30 minutes of Post-It organizing and reporting out. 12

13. Second Fundamental Question
Where in the curriculum (or co-curriculum) do students get these skills, experiences, etc.?
Some Examples
Visiting Workshop Program,

14. Using the Curricular Map( 14

15. A Matrix Approach to Curricular Design
This matrix concept has been used by the geology departments at Carleton College and at College of William & Mary.

16. Another Version of the General Matrix

17. A Breakdown by Experience
A = always; S = sometimes

18. Another Version of the General Matrix18

19. Exercise 2 Curricular Mapping and Matrix Construction
Map and construct a matrix of your curriculum identifing where experiences, goals, program learning outcomes, etc. are situated.
About 30 minutes of independent and small group work on the maps and matrix and 30 minutes for reporting out.

20. Core Courses for BS
(Drummond and Markin, 2008, JGE, v. 56 N= 278)

21. Distribution of Number of Required Courses
(Drummond and Markin, 2008, JGE, v. 56 N= 278)

22. The Scarlet Letter
The
ssessment

23. Thinking About Assessment
Use the capstone projects
Subjects and methods
Sources and experiences
Use the department review process
Check in with alumni
Evaluate the course content

24. Managing the Department Discussion – Barriers and Obstacles
Identify principles and broadest learning objectives.
Identify skills, experiences, goals, values, threshold concepts, content areas.
Diagram or map structure of the major – as it is.
Identify the curricular (or co-curricular) locations of the skills, etc.
Affirm (or at least acknowledge) perennial debates.
Check in with institutional and broader higher ed priorities.
Repeat more often than you think you need.

25. Connecting with Institutional Initiatives
Importance of cross-cutting skills – not just “general education,” but also in major
Quantitative reasoning
Writing Across the Curriculum
Visuality
Academic civic engagement, ethics, sustainability
(Carleton has between eight and twenty, depending on who is counting)