12) Integrated Studies
Nov 7th, 2008 by masonqep
Abstract
This QEP proposal seeks to offer intermediate-level, cross-listed courses, which will give students concise and structured information about two separate fields of study in the one instructional time frame.
- Degree programs that offer concentrations with integrated courses will allow students to prepare themselves for the broad spectrum of issues they might encounter in their future careers.
- Students will develop critical thinking skills as they learn to think across disciplines through enriched learning environments.
- This QEP will address the variations in students’ learning styles and will allow students to have twice the amount of education in half the time by combining two disciplines into one course.
As you read, when you post, in conversations with others, consider the following questions…
- What excites you about this topic/proposal? Could you see yourself getting involved?
- How could your department or academic unit be involved in this?
- How do you see this topic enhancing student learning?
- Do you see this topic proposal as a way to push Mason forward? In what way(s)?
- What else would you like to share with the committee about this topic?
I like the proposal for several reasons: it would expose students to other areas of inquiry including their chosen minor. It would also expose them to other research methodologies that might be quite different from what they are familiar with. I currently teach three such courses, Perception and Art, Conceptions of the Self, and Creative Awareness, and find that these courses attract students from a variety of areas within the university. The enhancement in student learning is obvious. We should not consider the BA as a paraprofessional degree. Our job is to expose our students to as wide an education as we can while maintaining coherence. We should build upon our interdisciplinary heritage here at Mason; after all, we have been doing this now for over 30 years.
While I do agree with the above response that students may benefit from a wide, interdisciplinary eduacation, I believe that it would be very difficult to implement such an initiative, and might actually work against the student in some cases. I think the first two years of undergraduate education should absolutely employ this concept, however when you get later into undergraduate education and graduate education, I believe it is more important that students be learning field-specific information and skills that will help them in their future careers. There is simply not enough time to educate students on such a broad range of topics and expect them to learn and take interest in a specific job field to prepare them for the job market after graduation. I think that applying this method of teaching would cause every student to be a ‘paraprofessional’ and not really be talented in any one area because they have little bits of information from a variety of discilpines and topics. I believe it is much more valuable to a student to prepare him/her for work in his/her specific area of interest (even more so than the school currently does) than to give him/her such a broad education that will not really be helpful to him/her in his/her job and later in life. My main point is that it will be almost impossible to maintain coherence within a certain major or concentration if other areas of study are introduced and forced upon the student.
How does this proposal differ from the offerings of existing units on campus such as New Century College, interdisciplinary minors, synthesis general education courses, and courses that are already cross-listed? Is it simply a matter of more departments doing, in some small way, what is already done much more broadly elsewhere? Or of simply allowing already existing cross-listed course to count toward major requirements (which I believe can already happen in many places)?
I think the “twice the education” claim is a bit grandiose and ought to be dropped from this description. Having said that, I’m in favor of blurring the lines between the disciplines, because I think we (meaning higher education in general) are too hidebound when it comes to our majors. The more we can do to promote integrative learning that is student-centered (as opposed to department-centered), the better in my view.
However, there is a major roadblock at Mason to any attempt to pull this off. As long as departments are funded according to the “fill rate” in their courses and by what percentage of their “seat targets” they achieve from semester to semester, there is a significant disincentive to promoting integrative learning here. If I were a department chair, I would want to know, in very specific terms, what the budget implications of creating courses in the gray area between majors would be for my department before I consented to this.
Integrated Studies is an example of how students are able to master the core competencies within a two-fold course without having to dedicate additional time to taking a course only when it is offered and completing general education requirements within a reasonable time period. An example of how Integrated Studies would work is an African- American studies course could be combined with a History course. The combined disciplinary studies would give the student the benefit of learning two respective bodies of knowledge while establishing literal and linear connections between the departments.