1. Why Gen Ed is Important for Our Gen Z Students
caret: get it?
Why Gen Ed is Important for Our Gen Z Students
the success of
Eric Schultz
EEB, GEOC
23 August 2017
New Faculty Orientation

2. What is Gen Ed?
UConn’s General Education Curriculum uses a credit-distribution approach
Content Areas:
CA1 Arts and Humanities
CA2 Social Sciences
CA3 Science and Technology
CA4 Diversity and Multiculturalism
Competencies
Information Literacy
Quantitative
Second Language
Writing

3. How many of you recognize this?
How many of you have shared it or something like it with an advisee?

4. The Purpose of General Education, UConn style
……is to ensure that all University of Connecticut undergraduate students
a. become articulate, and acquire
b. intellectual breadth and versatility,
c. critical judgment,
d. moral sensitivity,
e. awareness of their era and society,
f. consciousness of the diversity of human culture and experience, and
g. a working understanding of the processes by which they can continue to acquire and use knowledge.
It is vital to the accomplishment of the University’s mission that a balance between professional and general education be established and maintained in which each is complementary to and compatible with the other.
--BY-LAWS, RULES, AND REGULATIONS OF THE UNIVERSITY SENATE

5. The Purpose of General Education, UConn style
……is to help all University of Connecticut undergraduate students
become curious, critical and engaged life-long learners
--me
impowerage.com

6. SEC specifically asked SCC to address the following questions:
In April 2015, the University Senate Executive Committee (SEC) charged the Senate Curricula and Courses Committee (SCC) with conducting an in-depth assessment of the University’s current General Education system.
SEC specifically asked SCC to address the following questions:
1. To what degree are the goals of the General Education program being met?
What is the long term impact of the General Education requirements?
Are the current goals for General Education requirements appropriate for the 21st century university? Are revisions in goals needed?
4. Do the content areas as currently constructed meet the needs of our evolving society?
One source for insight on how Gen Ed is doing

7. The task force recommended that the University:
Do a better job of communicating the values and the importance of general education to all constituencies involved, including students, faculty and advisors.
Establish a governing body for assessment at the university level.
Restate the broad goals of general education with clearer and more forceful language.
Offer additional support to faculty that teach general education courses.
Investigate further the possibility of changing the general education requirements.
Continue to find ways to address students’ desire for training in life skills, while clearly distinguishing such training from the mission of general education.
The task force had 6 recommendations. The first focuses on improved communication of the merits of General Education to the University community. General Education at UConn is generally perceived as a set of requirements that need to be checked off or gotten out of the way by students and their advisors. Students and alumni are not familiar with the goals of General Education.
slatecommunication.com

8. A key finding: the value of Gen Ed grows after graduation
Question text: What best describes your attitude toward the relationship of Gen Eds to your major? Options: ‘I would prefer not to have to take Gen Ed classes outside my major,’ ‘I wish it were easier to find and take Gen Eds outside of, but related to my major,’ ‘I value the opportunity Gen Ed give me to take courses outside of my major.’
So my interpretation is that 65% of students actually value Gen Ed courses, or the idea of them, and are seeking connections… to their major for instance
“When asked about the relationship between majors and general education requirements, current students report that they do not want to work outside of their major requirements. Alumni, by contrast, have a different attitude: the majority say that they valued the opportunity that general education gave them to explore outside their major. The matured understanding of alumni should not be overlooked. It is critical to communicate this fact to the current students.”
--General Education Assessment Task Force

9. How is Gen Ed important to student success?
Student success at UConn isn’t just about GPA and time to graduation
More holistically, success means positive change, growth that comes about through learning
General education widens the boundaries of learning
beyond classes in the major to other subjects,
can help learners make the connections between learning in the classroom to service learning and extracurricular activities,
and to appreciate the value of living in a diverse community.
Dr. Maria Martinez, Assistant Vice Provost, Institute for Student Success

10. How is Gen Ed important to success after graduation?
James Lowe, Center for Career Development
The National Association of Colleges and Employers developed a definition for career readiness, based on extensive research among employers, and identified seven competencies associated with career readiness.
Thanks to Jim Lowe for bringing this to my attention.
Gen Ed directly and perhaps exclusively promotes at least half of these: critical thinking, oral and written communication, digital literacy, and global/intercultural fluency.

11. How is Gen Ed important to success after graduation?
“At its best, college does more than prepare you for your first job. It helps you anticipate, and perhaps even create, your fourth or fifth job, a job that may not even exist yet.”
news.harvard.edu
Harvard President Drew Faust, “The Case for College”, Booker T. Washington High School for the Visual and Performing Arts in Dallas, October 2014

12. How is Gen Ed important to success after graduation?
“It is in Apple’s DNA that technology alone is not enough—it’s technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the results that make our heart sing.”
Steve Jobs introducing the iPad 2 March 2, 2011
youtube.com

13. How is Gen Ed important to success after graduation?
“[Facebook is] as much psychology and sociology as it is technology.”
deseretnews.com
Mark Zuckerberg (and Orrin Hatch’s left hand) at Brigham Young University, March 25, 2011

14. quote-coyote.com
I want to end with this guy. He is an inspiration to us in a complex way: he set forth great principles on which the US is founded, yet also represents values and practices that are now anathema to us. He believed that publicly funded education should be available to those white males with the intelligence to benefit from it. He felt that a good system of higher education was essential to national security and safety from tyranny. He felt that African-Americans could not learn; he hated slavery but owned slaves and impregnated at least one. Contemplating him and learning from him requires the sort of open inquiry and critical thinking that our system of education helps to promote through General Education. These tools will be essential for dealing with the challenges faced by our students. Some of the challenges they face will be new and barely imaginable today. Some of them are old, very old, such as those represented by the events playing out in Charlottesville, at the gates of the University that Jefferson founded 200 years ago.
The key objectives of university education are “generally to form [our youth] to habits of reflection and correct action, rendering them examples of virtue to others, and happiness within themselves”
--Jefferson T. et al Report of the Commissioners for the University of Virginia