Bridge Course Research Articles

Why Goethe Needs German Studies and Why German Studies Needs Goethe

Why Goethe Needs German Studies and Why German Studies Needs Goethe Brent O. Peterson and Martha B. Helfer What does German Studies mean for the “earlier” time periods? As scholars of literature, we examine this question from complementary perspectives, taking “Goethe” as an exemplary rubric for literature written before 1900. Common to our essays is an understanding of German Studies as an inherently interdisciplinary approach that analyzes all texts—literary, historical, political, aesthetic, and philosophical—in their broader cultural and discursive contexts. For literary studies of the earlier time periods, German Studies has opened up important new lines of inquiry both within and beyond the traditional canon, paving the way for original work in fields like women’s writing, gender studies, and German Jewish studies, and fostering interdisciplinary research in diverse areas like fashion, the visual arts, and ecocriticism. Brent Peterson demonstrates how a German Studies approach is essential to the study of Goethe, while Martha Helfer examines disciplinary shifts within German Studies that affect the study of the earlier time periods, and considers the institutional framework within which Goethe is essential to German Studies as a discipline. Why Goethe Needs German Studies At a time when instruction is supposed to be efficient and college degrees should lead directly to a job, it is no longer enough to justify Goethe by repeating Matthew Arnold’s arguments about “the best, which has been thought and said.”1 Another tactic might be to cite Wolfgang Schäuble, Germany’s finance minister, confined to a wheelchair since 1990. In 2010, there was doubt about his physical ability to continue in office. Returning from extended hospitalization, Schäuble answered his critics by saying, “My Sitzfleisch is once again in a state where I can quote from Götz von Berlichingen when necessary.”2 In other words, at least among the Bildungsbürgertum, Goethe still permeates German life in a manner both unimaginable in the know-nothing atmosphere of American politics and comparable to Shakespeare’s status in the English-speaking world. Thus, for the German Studies Association, where scholars increasingly confine their inquiries to artifacts produced since the advent of film, the question should not be whether but how Goethe and “Goethe” still matter. [End Page 470] I regularly teach “Reading Texts and Contexts,” a bridge course between intermediate and upper-level German. It starts with Plenzdorf’s Die neuen Leiden des jungen W., because it is the story of how canonical literature helps its hero understand and navigate his own life. We then turn to Werther, a work whose emotional landscape is even stranger to my students than the socialist notion of working for the good of the collective. Werther gives them their first opportunity for extended close reading, and the method I use to help my students engage with Goethe’s novel underscores my dependence on the many disciplines of German Studies. I start from the presumption that there is no neat dividing line between a literary work and its context. A close reading therefore has to ferret out associations that would have been obvious to Goethe’s contemporaries; to miss such connections would be to overlook aspects of a text’s original meaning. In addition, just as other fields can help unpack literature, so too can literature provide access to the complex discursive universe in which discussions of contemporary issues took place, making it fruitful in a fashion that often exceeds what is available in the archival record alone. Werther, for example, resonated with readers in 1774 not only as the tale of a sensitive soul, but also as a complex indictment of values that might be coded as aristocratic, feudal, and French—that is not-bourgeois, not-modern, and not-German—even if that half of the opposition is frequently missing and therefore likely to be overlooked. The reading I illustrate here is vaguely new historicist; but political science, economics, art history, and film studies, all represented in the German Studies Association, could be similarly employed with the appropriate texts. For Werther, three related passages make the point. First, in his opening letter, Werther writes of a garden that he characterizes as “simple” (einfach), and he emphasizes that no “scientific...

Effectiveness of a Short, Intense Bridging Course for Scaffolding Students Commencing University-level Study of Chemistry

Bridging courses designed to support students commencing tertiary education are widespread, and some evidence for the value of semester-length courses has been reported; however, little attention has been paid to short-but-intense bridging courses, and empirical evidence of their effectiveness is particularly sparse. The current study followed the academic performance of a cohort of students enrolled in a first-year chemistry unit of study designed for those with little or no background knowledge of chemistry. The aims of this study are two-fold: first to determine the strength of the linkage between prior knowledge in chemistry and performance on the end of semester exam, and secondly, to explore the reasons for any differences observed. In particular, the value of the week-long intensive-mode bridging course offered by the University of Sydney was analysed. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected. The research has shown that participation in the chemistry bridging course is associated with ‘bridging the gap’ in academic performance between students with No Prior Chemistry background and those with a Strong Background. While the content of the bridging course is a significant contributor to academic success, so too is the confidence in their own learning that the course engenders among participants.

Innovation-led multi-disciplinary undergraduate design teaching

This paper arises from observations made by the principal author, while on a recent sabbatical at the University of California at Santa Barbara, USA, regarding innovation-led undergraduate design teaching. This paper reports parallel educational approaches with those used in the UK in terms of design management and industry-led design for manufacture small group projects led by leading industrialists. However, this paper reports changes in the core mechanical engineering curriculum within the fields of micro-electronic mechanical systems and life sciences, not prevalent within the UK. In both of these areas, there is a need for cross-disciplinary bridging courses, which introduce new vocabulary, scientific principles, and experimental techniques. These courses require space to be created in what are often overcrowded curricula. This paper presents solutions to these problems so that new approaches can be developed for innovation-led design education within these cross-disciplinary fields.

Using Notebooks to Supplement Bridge Courses

Faculty often wish to allow for guided exploration or a deeper view of at least one topic in a bridge course. However, when the time allotted to such a course is only seven to ten weeks, it can be difficult to avoid moving quickly from one topic to another—leaving little opportunity for students to see a unified context in which the structures and proof skills might actually be used. We describe three years of experience in supplementing a more traditional bridge course. Our strategy was a low-pressure “notebook” for guided exploration in a specific structure (graphs). This provided a unified environment for students to attempt various proof strategies, but (when properly managed and prepared) did not add appreciably to the pace or stress of courses—especially important when time is short! Supplemental materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of PRIMUS (www.tandfonline.com/UPRI) for the following free supplemental resource(s): Appendix.

Percentage problems in bridging courses

Research on teaching high school mathematics shows that the topic of percentages often causes learning difficulties. This article describes a method of teaching percentages that the authors used in university bridging courses. In this method, the information from a word problem about percentages is presented in a two-way table. Such a table gives a logical structure to the problem and provides an algorithm for finding a simple equation for the unknown value of interest. The use of this procedure is illustrated by several examples of different levels of difficulty. The method can be applied to many types of percentage problems, so it is quite universal.

A Unique Sequence Of Financial Accounting Courses Featuring Team Teaching, Linked Courses, Challenging Assignments, And Instruments For Evaluation And Assessment

The Department of Accounting at California State University Northridge (CSUN) has developed a unique sequence of courses designed to ensure that accounting students are trained not only in technical accounting, but also acquire critical thinking, research and communication skills. The courses have proven effective and have embedded assessment measures that are used to evaluate and document student progress. The assessment measures also provide feedback to faculty and have led to numerous improvements over time. The Intermediate Accounting Sequence begins with a one (semester) unit bridge course that reviews the lower-division accounting material, introduces intermediate accounting concepts, and provides a base measure of students communication skills through a writing assignment. The next three-unit intermediate accounting course (ACCT351) is linked with a two-unit accounting communication course (351COM). These linked courses share unstructured case assignments written by the accounting faculty that require students to identify the accounting issue(s), research the authoritative literature in GAAP, and write a professional one-page document for each case that demonstrates critical thinking and appropriate documentation. The structure of the linked courses is based on team work, and has the indirect benefit of promoting collegiality among faculty and fostering a culture of critical thinking throughout the accounting program. The skills acquired in 351/351COM are reinforced in subsequent courses through the use of similar assignments and evaluation and assessment

A Pre-Bridge Course: The Natural Role of Sequences and Series

The Sequences and Series calculus course (S&S) can be structured to provide students with a unique opportunity to build their proofs skills prior to or concurrently with a bridge course. This article offers a framework for S&S which places logical reasoning on equal footing with content, by employing the theorems and convergence tests as axioms, and lists sufficient supplementary theorems and definitions.

A review of the role of information communication technology and course design in transitional education practices

An increasing number of higher educational institutes are offering remedial, bridging, preparatory or transitional courses in a blended and online format to remediate and enhance students' knowledge and skills. This article addresses how teachers and institutes design and implement these courses. The descriptions of transitional courses were collected by means of an online questionnaire and results were stored in a searchable online database. In the questionnaire consisting of 38 closed- and open-ended questions, teachers had to indicate their content, context, organisation, pedagogical approach, assessment method and information communication technology (ICT) use. During February–May 2009, 118 course descriptions and implementations were collected. These 118 course descriptions were analysed with the aim of describing their main educational scenarios using multiple correspondence analysis and two-step clustering analysis. The results indicate that courses can be explained by five dimensions: (1) ICT; (2) Mathematics versus language; (3) Lower versus higher Bloom levels; (4) Gamma sciences versus others; (5) Very small group size versus others. Afterwards, the courses were positioned into six distinctive clusters. An important finding of this study is that teachers seem to design and implement fairly similar course designs when content, context and pedagogical approach are given. Furthermore, teachers' choices about ICT use are not yet systematically and consensually linked to content and pedagogical choices.

The Factors that Influence upon Nursing Care on the Practical Training by Experienced Students at the Bridge Course

The Factors that Influence upon Nursing Care on the Practical Training by Experienced Students at the Bridge Course

Discourses of Remediation: Low-Income Students and Academic Identities

This article draws on the framework of new literacy studies (Gee, 1996, 2005) to explore remedial students’ academic identities. The authors use discourse analysis to examine students’ written assignments from one remedial summer bridge course. Student-written assignments include themes and rhetorical devices that suggest the complexities of negotiating academic identities. In particular, low-income student participants express uncertainty about their academic selves. The authors offer this framework as one means of further exploring remedial student experiences.

Values infusing UKUSA: A developmental community arts programme in South Africa

This paper presents an overview of UKUSA, a non-governmental community arts/music programme in Durban, South Africa. At the heart of this project is a desire to enable people who have been historically disadvantaged to develop a more positive sense of self. To this end, UKUSA offers the best possible tuition in music, dance and drama, developing skills for self-actualization, further education and career development. Aimed at those who are 16 and older, this paper describes UKUSA as a bridging course for tertiary institutions.

A Theoretical Framework for RN to BSN Education

Abstract Associate degree and baccalaureate program faculty worked together to develop two bridge courses devised to encourage students to progress past “technical rationality” toward “reflective practice.” The “reflective practitioner” concept suggested by Donald Schon (1) was the theoretical framework for weaving course design. Schon's five attributes of “reflective practice” — reflective conversation, fluid inquiry, conceptualization, cognitive frame analysis, and artful design — were used to plan learning experiences for RN to BSN students. Faculty collaboration and the use of a theoretical framework for course planning had a profoundly positive effect on bridge course design and the resultant baccalaureate-level development of returning RNs.

Should Preclinical Typodonts Be Disinfected Prior to Grading?

This is a report of a unique finding in a preclinical laboratory that may be a potential dental school health hazard. Visual inspection (conducted in April 2008 by a preclinical crown and bridge course coordinator) of typodonts used by second-year students at the University of Mississippi School of Dentistry found that fourteen out of thirty-nine had black spots on the undersurface of the cheek shroud and/or plastic gingiva. The spots were cultured by the Medical Center's Department of Microbiology and described only as being mold/fungus typical of that which frequently grows in warm, moist, southern environments. Although indoor molds are common, about 5 percent of the general population will develop some type of mild allergic airway problem from molds over their lifetime. Mold on typodonts is unsightly, indicates failure of students to recognize the value of cleanliness in the dental environment, and may be a potential health hazard for some individuals. Cleaning and drying procedures for typodonts were implemented. The transfer of items between students and instructors during preclinical courses provides many opportunities for the spread of potentially harmful microorganisms/viruses. As a minimal level of personal protection, it is suggested that instructors wear disposable gloves and face masks and exercise hand washing between handling student instruments and typodonts. This problem has not been previously mentioned in the literature and merits further investigation/discussion.

The Development and Implementation of an Online Applied Biochemistry Bridge Course for a Dental Hygiene Curriculum

This article describes a curricular change project designed to improve instruction in biochemistry. After years of unsatisfactory outcomes from a dental hygiene biochemistry course, a decision was made to change the traditional lecture-based course to an online format. Using online technology and principles of educational pedagogy, a course was developed that fosters application of biomaterials principles to dental hygiene practice and provides a bridge between prerequisite chemistry coursework and biochemistry in a health professions program. Members of the dental hygiene graduating Classes of 2007 and 2008 participated in the revised course. The outcome measures used to assess the effectiveness of the revised course were student end-of-semester course evaluations, graduating senior survey results, student course performance, and National Board examination performance. While the results are based on only two classes, the positive outcomes suggest that the revision was a worthwhile endeavor. The use of technology in teaching holds the potential for solving many of the curriculum and instruction issues currently under discussion: overcrowding of the curriculum, lack of active learning methods, and basic sciences taught in isolation from the rest of the curriculum. It is hoped that the results of this change will be helpful to other faculty members seeking curricular change and innovation.

Radical bricolage: building coherence in the liberal arts using art modelling and language

Because of the very broad and fragmented nature of undergraduate general education requirements there is a need to help students find unity in diversity. The search for coherence has led my institution, the American University in Paris, to introduce a series of freshmen courses called First Bridge that deliberately pair professors from different disciplines to develop and teach a common course that explores the linkages between their areas of special interest. This article describes my own experience of teaching a First Bridge course called Visual Thinking and Artful Seeing, in which I represented the mathematics and computer science department while my coteacher, a painter, came from the art department. It was our intention to explore how different ways of seeing, the very act of seeing and the art of talking about seeing could help each of us begin to discover the commonalities that lie behind seemingly different disciplines and their methodologies. My part of the bargain requires using Imagine Logo to gain access to different levels of seeing by building computer models to examine a range of visual artefacts and their inherent structures.

Prevalence of coronary artery intramyocardial course in a large population of clinical patients detected by multislice computed tomography coronary angiography

Intramyocardial course, an inborn coronary anomaly, is defined as a segment of a major epicardial coronary artery that runs intramurally through the myocardium; in particular, we distinguish myocardial bridging, in which the vessel returns to an epicardial position after the muscle bridge, and intramyocardial course, which is described as a vessel running and ending in the myocardium. To evaluate the prevalence of myocardial bridging and intramyocardial course of coronary arteries as defined by multidetector computed tomography (MDCT) angiography. The study population consisted of 242 consecutive patients (211 men, 31 women; mean age 59+/-6 years) with atypical chest pain admitted to our hospital between December 2004 and September 2006. All MDCT examinations were performed using a 16-detector-row scanner (Aquilion 16 CFX; Toshiba Medical System, Tokyo, Japan). Patients with heart rate above 65 bpm received 50 mg atenolol orally for 3 days prior to the MDCT scan, or they increased their usual therapy with beta-blockers, in order to obtain a prescan heart rate <60 bpm. Curved multiplanar and 3D volume reconstructions were performed to explore coronary anatomy. In 235 patients, the CT scan was successful and images were appropriate for evaluation. The prevalence of myocardial bridging and intramyocardial course of coronary arteries was 18.7% (47 cases) in our patient population. In 30 segments (63.8%), the vessels ran and ended in the myocardium. In the remaining 17 segments (36.2%), the vessels returned to an epicardial position after the muscle bridge. We found no difference in the prevalence of this inborn coronary anomaly when comparing different clinical characteristics of the study population (sex, age, body-mass index [BMI], etc.). The mean length of the subepicardial artery was 7 mm (range 5-12 mm), and the mean depth in the diastolic phase was 1.9 mm (range 1.2-2.3 mm). There was no significant difference of diameter in these segments between the different R-R phases examined. Our study is in agreement with major angiographic literature reporting a prevalence of myocardial bridging and intramyocardial course between 0.5% and 33%. MDCT technology represents a useful, noninvasive imaging method to assess and evaluate the location, depth, and length of this anatomical variation.

The Bridge Course Design: Formative Assessment and Student-Centered Learning in Cross-Course Classrooms

This paper reports on the effectiveness of an innovative course design that bridges classes from two different disciplines. The Bridge design creates assignments in two classes: a summary class and a panel class. The design encourages students to engage in teaching and interacting with their peers within and across disciplines, and provides instructors with unique opportunities for formative assessment. Relative to control groups, students in the summary class perceived greater opportunities to teach peers, participate in class discussions, think critically, and engage in collaborative learning. Students in the panel class showed gains in critical thinking. Both classes afforded multiple opportunities for formative assessment. Following a discussion of the results, recommendations for improving the Bridge design are presented.

Going Contemporary in the Intermediate‐Advanced Curriculum

In a recent interview, author Wladimir Kaminer observed that in contemporary German writing, focus is on the surroundingworld, the past, the future, encounters. Dialogue is hugely important, because communication is [crucial] (Fishman).1 That connection between history and dialogic personal reflection strikes a chord with American undergraduates. Though easily baffled by details, unfamiliar with historical information, and per plexed by linguistic register, students at the thresh old between ACTFL intermediate and advanced proficiency levels still willingly puzzle through these difficulties to comprehend recent German works. Stylistically close to living communication, con temporary writing dynamically links students' classroom experience to the reality of another cul ture. True, for our undergraduates contempo rary likely means texts dated after about 1995 (a small slice of history); however the limited space those works occupy in the college curriculum is hardly trivial for those of us who are teachers. Savvy students readily measure the disjuncture between beginning-intermediate classes and the design of upper-division courses in terms of new versus old-a split often underscored by the shift from informal to formal register in reading. Thus a course for majors might foreground literary canon through an abrupt abandonment of the experien tial/contemporary focus found in language classes open to the general undergraduate audience. Po sitioned between these language and content courses, bridge courses (i.e., courses designed to transition students from language into literature studies) may suffer from a lack of clear objectives, but they display, too, our deep-seated, academic ambivalence about living culture. Attentive to these conflicting intellectual priorities, Arens pru dently cautions against efforts to expand the canon simply for the sake of the latest trend, waming that, If we do not take the trouble to assess and validate our efforts at novelty, we will be adding compart ments to our departments ... we will not necessarily be making substantive changes in teaching or learning practices (24). One way to advance such fundamental change is the implementation of an evolving curriculum with strong contemporary elements in multiple courses at the intermediate-advanced juncture. In advocating this approach, we acknowledge a need for systematic attention to fostering a community of skilled readers/writers who have portable interpre tive skills that can be applied to multiple text types and fluid genres. These skills are critical for our stu dents, both because taking courses non-sequen tially is the norm once undergraduates have com pleted bridge classes and because majors and dou

Developing 3D spatial skills for engineering students

Researchers have found that 3D spatial skills are critical to success in a variety of careers, particularly in engineering and science. For engineering, the ability to mentally rotate objects in space has been found to be of particular importance. Unfortunately, of all areas of cognition, 3D spatial skills still exhibit some of the most robust gender differences favouring males, and the most pronounced gender differences are in the area of mental rotations. For this reason, poorly developed 3D spatial skills could be a hindrance to the success of women in engineering. University educators are quick to recognise deficiencies in math and chemistry, and many US universities have developed remediation programs for students with weaknesses in these areas. At a time when we are actively recruiting women for engineering programs, however, it is important to consider all possible barriers to their success. At Michigan Technological University (MTU), we have been offering a special course aimed at improving the 3D spatial skills of engineering students, particularly women, since 1993. This paper will summarise the findings obtained over the past decade at MTU in improving the 3D spatial skills of engineering students. The paper will also feature improvements in student success that we have achieved, especially for women, through implementation of this bridging course.

A review of major obstacles to women's participation in higher education in Kenya

The paper provides a comprehensive review of the major obstacles that hinder the participation of girls and women in higher education in Kenya. This is on the basis that their low participation in this level of education is a key constraint to the development of the country. While it is reckoned that girls' and women's education is inextricably linked with other facets of human development, the focus in the paper is on educational issues. Among the major obstacles identified include policy framework, in which it is seen that since the colonial period in Kenya, gender was an important determinant of educational provision. Women's subordinated position arising from colonial economic structures coupled with traditional cultural practices determined the extent to which they could participate in education; such that by the last decades of colonialism, a very small proportion of girls attended primary and secondary schools. It is also seen that while on the whole independence increased women's educational and employment opportunities, gender inequality has remained persistent. The government is called upon to promote female education through legislative and policy reform. There should be an entitlement to good‐quality primary and secondary education for all. While secondary education is the gateway to women's higher education, government policies have often forced girls to attend poor‐quality secondary schools. The effect of poor‐quality secondary education for girls is reflected in their serious under‐representation in more competitive courses, such as medicine and engineering in the public universities. It is suggested that some affirmative measures be adopted in university admissions to increase the participation of women as well as mounting bridging courses in the sciences and technology and allowing for credit transfers in university admissions for students from technology‐based tertiary institutions.