General Education Requirements Research Articles

Toward a validational framework using student course papers from common undergraduate curricular requirements as viable outcomes evidence

Abstract Examining gains in undergraduate writing abilities, Haswell (2000) applied a multi-dimension construct of writing to impromptu writing exams composed at the first- and third years. This project replicates Haswell's original study to impromptu writing exams composed at the same points, and extends that methodology to course papers written for common undergraduate curricular contexts—first-year composition, general education requirements, and advanced undergraduate writing in the disciplines requirements—to consider the use of such assessment scores as plausible and appropriate evidence for outcomes assessment purposes within a validational framework (articulated by Kane, 2006, 2013). This study considers the feasibility of reporting such localized assessment information as an alternative to represent progress for undergraduate writing ability, and reports preliminary evidence suggesting positive effects of distributed writing requirements across undergraduate curriculums on student writing performance.

Teaching an Online Information Literacy Course: Is It Equivalent to Face-to-Face Instruction?

College-level students arrive fairly confident in their research abilities. When the university began a new requirement for information literacy competency in the General Education Requirements, distance library faculty had the opportunity to teach an online section. A technologically savvy health science librarian and technologically challenged distance librarian co-taught the online section while three face-to-face sections were taught at the main campus. The goal was to teach the same competencies, present equivalent material and assess learning with equal rigor in all five sections. The sections agreed to similar final projects and final exam. A non-graded knowledge survey has been given to students in all sections at the beginning and end of the semester as a pre- and post-test to help assess if the online course is equivalent to the face-to-face sections. Other factors in teaching experience and technology also affect student competency levels.

A Comparison of Web-based and Paper-and-Pencil Homework on Student Performance in College Algebra

College algebra fulfills general education requirements at many colleges in the United States. The study reported here investigated differences in mathematics achievement between undergraduates in college algebra classes using one of two homework methods: WeBWorK, an open-source system for web-based homework, or traditional paper-and-pencil homework. We assessed learning for 439 students in 19 college algebra classes at a large public university in the United States. Twelve classes used WeBWorK and seven had traditional paper-and-pencil homework. Analysis of covariance revealed no significant differences in algebra performance or achievement gain by homework group, ethnicity or gender when statistically controlling for previous mathematics achievement. Results support the conjecture that WeBWorK is at least as effective as traditionally graded paper-and-pencil homework for students learning college algebra in moderately sized lecture-based classes.

Типы уроков в начальной школе в свете требований ФГОС

The article continues the conversation on modern types of lessons, classified according to the Federal State Educational Standards for Primary
 General Education (FSES PGE) requirements to projected results of education. Developing descriptive language and oral skills through special
 aspects of creative lessons is reviewed. Various tasks and methods to cultivate verbal creativity are revealed; methodic schemes to promote
 creative imagination are outlined.

Teaching Active Citizenship: A Companion to the Traditional Political Science Curriculum

ABSTRACTThe authors of this article advocate a new curriculum that can be applied to American government, introduction to political science, and state and local government courses. For the past half-century, high school and college general-education requirements have deemphasized civics, government, and political science. In response to the corresponding decrease in the nation’s civic health, this proposal is based on three principles. First, teaching citizenship is different than teaching civics. Second, citizenship is taught most effectively by engagement in the “real world,” with students completing projects that take them step by step through the policy-change process. Finally, the education and preparation of future high school government teachers needs to change to encourage them to teach their students the rights, responsibilities, and competencies of active citizenship.

Developing Scientific Literacy in Introductory Laboratory Courses: A Model for Course Design and Assessment

ABSTRACTAlthough science educators at all levels have focused on teaching students scientific literacy for nearly five decades, studies indicate that the average student remains far from scientifically literate. To address this issue at the local level, faculty at Trinity University, in San Antonio, Texas, significantly revised the curriculum of an existing introductory physical geology laboratory course. The course, which satisfies general education requirements at Trinity, was revised to provide students learning opportunities in a scientific process context as part of a new science literacy initiative. This effort was spurred by general dissatisfaction with the existing curricular structure of the course as well as a new interdisciplinary, National Science Foundation (NSF)–funded initiative to support the integration of research-grade instrumentation in curricula and undergraduate research across campus. The physical geology laboratory course revision was based on research that demonstrated the efficacy of learning through active participation, interpretation, iteration, and reflection, especially when knowledge and skills are gained within an explicit scientific process context. In addition to significantly revising laboratory activities, we added new activities within the course framework that involved the use of two new, NSF-funded instruments, including a handheld X-ray fluorescence spectrometer (XRF) and an inductively coupled plasma–optical emissions spectrometer (ICP-OES), which we used to improve student understanding of qualitative and quantitative elemental analyses. Finally, we introduced the use of a new course reader that provided both background materials for each activity as well as a new focus on providing a scientific process context for students. To assess student learning, we used in-class observations, student–instructor discussions, pre- and postlearning questionnaires, prelaboratory quizzes, course activities completed during class time, modified postactivity reflection questions, practical examinations, and a final examination. We also included faculty, staff, and administrator perspectives to qualitatively assess the impact of course changes upon student learning. Our results imply that students achieved the primary learning goals we developed for this scientific literacy initiative, including: (1) improved understanding of the scientific process and the nature of science; (2) improved understanding of qualitative and quantitative elemental research methods; and (3) improved understanding of the applicability of scientific research to real-world problems. Importantly, our findings suggest that the integration of research-grade instrumentation into introductory coursework, in a scientific process context, is an effective way to promote scientific literacy as well as to provide opportunities for students to understand and apply the knowledge and skills necessary to perform scientific research. We believe that this example of a significant course redesign provides a model that can be transferred to other geosciences departments as well as to other scientific disciplines.

Resilience and Redirection: Information Literacy in Louisiana Higher Education

This article reports on a 2012 survey conducted by members of the Louisiana Academic Library and Information Network Consortium (LALINC) to determine the status of the curricular integration of information literacy instruction following numerous budget cuts to Louisiana higher education since 2008. The article also discusses the 2012 deletion of the information literacy requirement from the Louisiana Board of Regents’ general education requirements and provides a comparison of general education and library requirements in the states belonging to the Southern Regional Educational Board (SREB). The authors conclude that a statewide general information literacy requirement is not currently practical for Louisiana higher education.

<p>Technological Literacy Courses in Pre-Service Teacher Education</p>

The goal of this study was to determine to what extent technological literacy courses were required in K-12 teacher education. A documents review of the appropriate course catalogs for initial teacher preparation was conducted. The documents review identified general education requirements and options for technological literacy courses, as well as requirements and options for these courses for English, social studies, mathematics, and science education majors. For this study, technological literacy was defined as “the ability to use, manage, assess, and understand technology” (ITEA, 2000/2002/2007, p. 9). This definition of literacy is broader than technology literacy associated with computer use and instructional technology, as well as courses limited to the history or philosophy of technology. A finding from this study is that there is very little exposure to technological literacy courses for prospective K-12 teachers. This may be due in part to the confusion between instructional technology literacy and technological literacy.

``A Mathematical Look at Politics” by E. Arthur Robinson, Jr., Daniel H. Ullman

The 460-page book “A Mathematical Look at Politics” (E. Arthur Robinson, Jr. and Daniel H. Ull- man. A mathematical look at politics. CRC Press–Taylor and Francis Group, Boca Raton, FL, 2011. ISBN: 978-1-4398-1983-8) written by Arthur Robinson and Daniel Ullman [1] consists of four chapters (the descriptions of the chapters are given in parenthesis): I --- Voting (the two candidate case, social choice functions, criteria for social choice, which methods are good?, Arrow’s theorem, variations on a theme), II --- Apportionment (Hamilton’s Method, Divisor Methods, Criteria and Impossibility, the Method of Balinski and Young, Choosing a Divisor Method, History of Apportionment in the United States), III --- Conflict (Strategies and Outcomes, Chance and Expectation, Solving Zero-Sum Games, Conflict, Nash Equilibria, the Prisoner’s Dilemma) and chapter IV --- the Electoral College (Weighted Voting and Privileges). At the end of each chapter there are problems and exercises. Finally, solutions to the exercises and problems, bibliography and index are at the end. Recommendations for instructors are also presented at the end of the preface. In the preface, one may find the declaration of the Authors that this book focuses on mathematical reasoning about politics rather than on mathematics: -- Is there a good way to choose winners of elections? -- Is there a good way to apportion congressional seats? -- Is there a good way to make decisions in situations of conflict and uncertainty? The book offers an alternative textbook to the usual mathematics courses for liberal arts students seeking to meet a general education requirement in mathematics or quantitative reasoning. What makes this book mathematical is not numbers or formulas, but rather reasoning. The book requires rather little background in mathematics or political science. Some experience with the American system of government is assumed .

Music Cultural Pedagogy in the ‘Network Society’

The present contribution to theory construction in music educational research focuses on the contemporary requirements for general music education. One starting point are the normative claims of a democratic liberal education as to find in the field of critical pedagogy and the sociology of education. Another point of departure is provided by cultural sociological and rather descriptive reflections. The latter takes concern on the increasing ephemeral sociocultural contexts in postmodern ‘network’ societies. Leitmotiv questions are how to retain the democratic function of criticism in the fluxes of everyday digital music culture. Thus, a music cultural orientated concept of learning in general education is envisaged as one that takes into account both the postmodern (post-democratic) developments as well as the modern educational requirements in the frame of democratic principles. At least, the music computer and the social (cultural) network appear as an appropriated toolkit in a music cultural pedagogy. Moreover, these tools seem to provide convenient possibilities to initiate democratic and informal music learning processes that should be accompanied by continuous critical reflection. The article closes with an outlook on further needs and teaching praxis.

Come Closer to Feminism: Gratitude as Activist Encounter in Women’s and Gender Studies 101

© 2015 by the board of trustees of the university of ill inois There are many things that can impede teaching and learning in the Introduction to Women’s and Gender Studies undergraduate classroom. Most teachers can probably rattle them off in five seconds. A well-known challenge is teaching students about “bad news”: rape on college campuses; shooting deaths of unarmed black teenagers; aggressive social control of women’s lives and bodies through legislation and court rulings; stigmatization of immigrants; escalating violence against trans women; and the entrenched racial and class system that has led to the extraordinary rise in mass incarceration of people of color and women. To make matters worse, the introductory course, which is typically offered as a general education requirement at many institutions, attracts students with “open hostility to the subject matter” (National Women’s Studies Association 10). For many teachers of introductory women’s and gender studies, we are in the position of introducing bad news to an already hostile audience. To deal directly with this dilemma, I have been rereading Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, and taking inspiration from bell hooks’s Feminism is for Everybody, but a profound influence on my teaching recently is the voice of an American teenager, Julie Zeilinger, the author of A Little F’d Up: Why Feminism Is Not a Dirty Word. Zeilinger addresses young women’s negative emotions about feminism in a clear, humorous, and relaxed way. She analyzes foundational feminist issues and women’s history, and she covers contemporary media and body image, bullying, human trafficking, hook-up culture, cyber-stalking, racism, and the challenges of global feminism. Some have correctly pointed out that Zeilinger does not go into sufficient depth about these topics, nor does she thoroughly explore the implications of her own background. She refers to herself as a “privileged white girl” from Pepper Pike, Ohio, and she mentions that her racial and economic privilege is “definitely something that’s shaping this book” (83). Others complain that A Little F’d Up lacks historical and theoretical nuance, making it too simplistic for university and college classrooms. And some find Zelinger’s use of teen vernacular distracting and, at times, disrespectful. While these misgivings must be taken seriously, the author’s book—which was Come Closer to Feminism: Gratitude as Activist Encounter in Women’s and Gender Studies 101

A Course Design in a Technological University -Using Two Versions of a Children’s Storybook

This paper examines the use of two versions of a children’s storybook with 30 seniors of a technological university who took an elective English course for fulfilling their general education requirements. The two versions (simplified and original versions) of the children’s storybook were used because these students’ English proficiency was generally limited. They needed the confidence to start with something simpler. A simplified version of the children’s storybook, which has a shorter story, an easy-to-follow plot, and simpler language, should help develop their reading interest and lay the foundations for vocabulary and reading comprehension. An original version of the same text, which offers detailed and rich language context for good characterization and themes, a clear and interesting plot, and an intriguing narrative style, should help reinforce their reading interest, promote their awareness of story structure, and enhance their vocabulary and reading comprehension. Data was collected from teaching plans, student-centered activities, and interviews. The findings have revealed these students’ positive attitudes to the use of the two versions of the children’s storybook in the EFL classroom. In addition to reading interest, the two versions of the children’s storybook can increase their reading competence and awareness of story structure. Pedagogical implications for adult EFL learners and limitations of this study are also provided.

Student's Say: Craft a Stand-Out Application

Student's Say: Craft a Stand-Out Application

I'll Tell You What You Think: An Exercise in Pseudoscience Debunking in an Introductory Astronomy Course

At Appalachian State University students have to take just two semesters of a physical or biological science to satisfy the general education requirements. Most non-science major students have little time in their crowded schedules to take additional science courses, whether they want to or not, and in fact face a surcharge when taking more courses than needed to graduate. Given this environment, it is essential that we cover more than just the basics of one particular discipline, like astronomy in my case. We should teach something about the overall philosophy of science, the scientific method, and the importance of science in our lives.

Implications of Physician Ethics, Billing Norms, and Service Cost Structures for Medicare's Fee Schedule

Medicare Part B pays physicians through a fixed fee schedule designed loosely as a system of average-cost reimbursement. This paper examines four difficulties faced by systems of this kind. First, Medicare's payment model would be improved if it accounted for the medical value and cost-effectiveness of treatments in addition to their cost. Second, uniformly applied fee schedules are inefficient when physicians vary in their approaches to medical practice. Allowing Medicare to account for regional differences in practice styles, which are substantial, may have significant benefits. Third, differences in physicians' billing practices have similar, largely unstudied, implications. Proficient billers receive relatively high payments for incremental service provision, resulting in high-powered incentives. Costs associated with variation in billing norms and in the application of physicians' ethics highlight that welfare could be improved by training physicians more uniformly in these respects. Fourth, differences in services' cost structures point to an additional weakness in Medicare Part B's payment model. Average-cost reimbursement implies larger profit margins for capital-intensive services than for labor-intensive services. As implemented, Medicare's fee schedule has encouraged significant expansions in the adoption, utilization, and development of capital-intensive tests and treatments. Note: This paper was prepared for use in the course 'Economics 140: The Economics of Health Care Producers,' at the University of California at San Diego. The course fulfills a general education requirement, which limits the explicit use of calculus.

Why Community College Students Need Great Books

AbstractAs community colleges increasingly embrace their vocational role at the expense of their general education mission, the author of this chapter argues that a curriculum centered on a “Great Books” canon as developed by Mortimer Adler in the 1920s would revitalize liberal education at community colleges and serve both the general education requirements and the future employability of students.

Health at Every Size: A New Opportunity for General Education

A Health at Every Size® (HAES) course that fulfills general education (GE) requirements at a university was developed and addresses influences of body esteem, size discrimination, and mindful eating and exercise.

Effects of Teaching Critical Thinking to Saudi Female University Students Using a Stand-Alone Course

Teaching critical thinking, an educational goal widely discussed in the last 30 years (Halpern, 1993), is an essential element of professional and higher education as it promotes reasoned judgments under ‘conditions of uncertainty,’ a hallmark of professionalism (Levine, 2010; Shulman, 2005; Perry, 1970). In this study, the researchers present the implications of teaching CT in a course format in a Saudi private university that is preparing female professionals for the workforce. The course is taught as part of the general education requirements in the freshman year of study. Female students in the fields of business, computer sciences, and interior design participated in a CT pre-test /post-test sequence given at strategic times throughout the semester. The data illustrate significant improvement in the area of argument identification and analysis, but moderate to low improvement in the other markers of critical thinking. The results not only reflect course instruction as well as other external factors. The study suggests and recommends that in order for students to be critical thinkers, critical thinking would ideally be embedded or integrated throughout the students’ academic career, not just in one, stand-alone course.

General Education Oral Communication Assessment and Student Preferences for Learning: E-textbook versus Paper Textbook

As part of a yearly university mandated assessment of a large basic communication course that fulfills the oral communication general education requirement, this study examined student preferences for textbooks, reading, and learning. Specifically, basic course students (N=321) at a large state university in the Midwest were asked to complete a survey regarding paper textbook and e-textbook usage in their classes. The results indicated that neither reading the paper textbook nor the e-textbook was a predictor of grade, but comfort in accessing the e-textbook through the online portal was associated with grade. Many students reported strong preferences for paper textbook usage, and indicated several reasons for not liking or not using the e-textbook. The results of this assessment study could help communication course instructors make decisions about adopting e-textbooks versus paper textbooks, as well as alert them to the challenges students may experience with textbook reading.

Information Literacy Assessment

Is it possible to administer an information literacy assessment in only a few classes that would provide essential, adequate, data from semester to semester? In a college with a student body of about 2,000, would it be possible to obtain actionable assessment results if only 150 to 200 students were assessed each semester? This article is the result of the creation and implementation of the information literacy assessment that was launched in the fall of 2009 by Savage Library at Western State College of Colorado (WSC). WSC changed its name to Western State Colorado University on August 1, 2012. The authors of this article, a librarian and a lecturer in English, collaborated closely to embed the information literacy assessment into multiple sections of the second-year writing class required for all Western students. This article presents an overview of the information literacy (IL) assessment and an analysis of the data obtained from the assessment. The article also provides an overview of how to embed IL instruction and IL assessment into the classroom to improve student skills in critical thinking, IL, public speaking, and research and persuasive writing. Through a specific case study in which IL instruction and assessment was used in multiple sections of the same second-year required writing course (COTH 202: Academic Writing and Inquiry), a broader set of implications is suggested for the usefulness and relevancy of the IL assessment in almost any academic course, regardless of the discipline. One model for how librarians and faculty might collaborate by incorporating IL instruction and assessment in a classroom setting is presented. This particular collaboration resulted in a substantial improvement in student learning outcomes as well as an easy-to-use formative method of assessing and then adjusting IL instruction as it is situated in a required writing course. OBJECTIVES Because the college had established IL as an essential general education requirement to ensure that students were achieving a proficient level of IL skills, the Communications and Theater program (COTH) committed itself to embedding library instruction into a class that was required for graduation. COTH 202: Academic Writing and Inquiry is a research writing and public speaking class where students learned scholarly research skills, wrote research papers, and communicated the results of their research in front of the class using a variety of media. IL was one of the learning outcomes specified for this class as well as for the COTH program. By expanding the number of classes receiving IL instruction, by ensuring that every student received information literacy by embedding this instruction in the required COTH 202 classes, and by assessing IL skills and making changes to the IL program based upon data from the assessments, it was expected that IL skills would increase from semester to semester. In the fall of 2008, Savage Library set out to create its student IL assessment. Assessment questions from several IL assessments formulated by colleges and universities throughout the country provided excellent models from which the library created its assessment questions. Each question was tied to one or more learning outcomes from ACRLs list of five IL standards and eighty-seven learning outcomes. (1) The assessment comprised fifty questions worth ten points each. The majority of the questions were from ACRL Standards 1-3. Relatively few questions were linked to Standards 4 and 5 because those standards are difficult or impossible to operationalize and assess quantitatively. It was up to the faculty to assess those standards by grading assignments according to rubrics established by the COTH program. It was our goal to have an assessment that would be a tool to improve IL instruction from semester to semester and a measure of how well the program achieved national standards by mapping each question to ACRLs IL competencies. …