An unexpected method

I have visited many teachers, all of whom have told me specific ways in which they approach their courses. I have heard images, videos, presentations, and blogs, each one a different method to keep students’ attention focused. This week, I visited Prof. Peach, who teaches the course on Theories on Democracy and Human Rights. When I entered her office, after finally being able to arrange a meeting with her (due to her tight schedule), we started talking about her techniques for motivating the students in the subject. She told me something I never expected.

This semester, Prof. Peach took her students to a play at the Katzen Arts Center, called “Death and the Maiden”, a presentation focused on human rights in Argentina. She used this as motivation for her students, and as an introduction to one of the topics to be covered in class- human rights. She later made them reflect on the play and use what they had learned about Argentina’s violent history to relate it to current international events through a series of discussions and reading assignments. They also read essays on democracies in Latin America, that helped connect the play and the human rights abuses with the other part of the course-democracy.

Besides discussing human rights in Argentina and human rights in Burma, Prof. Peach will present to her students a film about Iraqi prisoners from the 2003 War in Iraq. This will help demonstrate that abuses are not only a part of third world countries but also of the world's superpower. This way, the students get a global perspective on the topic and are not left with a biased opinion.

Prof. Peach believes that the most important part of her class is when students relate the philosophies they learned to current events. She thinks it helps them keep focused on the present and understand the world they live in.

More than just credits

So how does Prof. Danna Walker plan on making her students “recall that the dissidents who produced the publications and helped change society were critical thinkers and social activists”? And even more important, make them “perhaps emulate [the courage to challenge the dominant ideology of their time] in the larger world.” I had a conversation with Prof. Walker today that made me realize she has very interesting strategies that will help the students leave the class with something more than just credits.

First of all, she approaches her classes so that students will learn why journalists act the way they do instead of how they do things. This is one of the main reasons why critical thinking is developed throughout the trajectory of this course. They will look at journalists from a theoretical context, at a macro level, a human condition level. They will connect current events, such as the revolution on communications, with specific theories they have learned in class. This will let students apply their knowledge to contemporary affairs.

One of the most important strategies Prof. Walker uses is a collective blog, where students can be engaged with the material they study. They determined a specific topic for this blog, Renewing political debate, and through this they research different ramifications of the topic: the political, the historical, the social. This makes the class dynamic for the students and helps Prof. Walker avoid the static situation some professors tend to fall into. Not only will this open doors for discussion and ideas to flow within the students, but because of links and comments from people all around the world, it will also open new doors for intercultural discussions and connection with the outside community. Prof. Walker has noticed that many of the students show a lot of interest for this blog (Especially after realizing that if they googled the topic, the first link would be to their blog).

As Prof. Walker sees it, “students can get caught up in their own race to the goal line… to the job, therefore forgetting that they should take advantage of all the opportunities that the university is providing.” She asks of her students to “just think about what they are doing”, and to have a purpose in life instead of just doing what is ordered or expected of them.

A faculty perspective: Danna Walker

School of Communications faculty member Danna Walker weighs in which this take on her experience teaching in the General Education program:

I told my students in the general education course that I’m teaching this semester -- Dissident Media (COMM-275) -- that it was okay that we were looking at our topic in a “broad-brush” way. It had occurred to me only a few weeks into the semester that we had already gotten through a lot of historical material, including the labor press of the early 1800s, the righteous indignation of William Lloyd Garrison’s abolitionist newspaper -- The Liberator, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony’s The Revolution, and several other historical dissident newspapers, all the way up to the Black Panther started by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale. We were more than halfway through our text, Voices of Revolution, by AU Professor Rodger Streitmatter. I started to worry that we were going too fast, even though we were “on task” in terms of the syllabus. I guess I get concerned when things go too smoothly in teaching; it’s unfamiliar terrain for a fairly new teacher like me. But when I realized that with each chapter the students were taking the initiative to relate the historical facts in the book with the theoretical underpinnings we had studied in the beginning of the semester, I knew I didn’t need to justify the approach of the class anymore. They were discussing ideology, hegemony, Juergen Habermas and other high points of critical theory with relative ease. I felt -- with what I had to admit was almost certainty -- I had evolved into a full-fledged General Education teacher.

Yes, I had to concede that I had fully internalized the six program goals. What I interpret that to mean is that while I’m happy that my students are being exposed to the rich history of dissident newspapers, I know that the students may not always remember the FBI’s effort to shut down the counterculture newspapers of the 1960s or other details about specific presses. But I trust that they will recall that the dissidents who produced the publications and helped change society were critical thinkers and social activists who had the courage to challenge the dominant ideology of their time. That’s something students can take with them, and, even, perhaps emulate in the larger world.

A daily workout

We are repeatedly told that exercise is one of the most important things in life, and it is drilled into our heads how to do it correctly; you have to start while you are young, you have to do it regularly and you should work every muscle equally. As the professor for Understanding mass media, Prof. Menke-Fish, sees it, general education is exactly like exercise. She believes that general education is a daily workout that students need to take advantage of.

The people that mostly appreciate exercise are usually elders, because then is when they realize the little exercise they did while they were young helped their present health. As with exercise, general education is for the long run, and unfortunately, as Prof. Menke-Fish believes, students will only realize the importance of the program until 20 years have passed; when they have more experience and maturity. This is why students are not willing to take general education classes, they are not looking into the future; they are only concentrating on the present.

Prof. Menke-Fish also believes that with general education we can explore every aspect of the world and therefore be able to think about things from numerous perspectives. Like exercise, where every muscle needs to be kept fit, in general education we need to learn about every subject. To be solid and well rounded human beings, we need to be “tuned into the world around us and approach the problems we face from multiple points of view; a well designed liberal arts education brings that opportunity.”

To make the class memorable for the students, as she believes it constitutes an important part of their education, Prof. Menke-Fish does not make her students read the syllabus on their first class. Instead students will be tested on how they view the world and how their perceptions are affected by the media. Prof. Menke-Fish welcomes the students, and tells them that they should believe everything that the media says; she will support this with a video that states how students should view things. This will help the students question the way in which they think about society, and realize the impact the media has on their opinions and stereotypes.

Throughout the class, Prof. Menke-Fish will use to several videos, posters and especially slides which will help the students visualize the ideas and stereotypes present in the media. They will also have to take risks in weekly projects called “in the media, about the media”, where they will have to apply that week’s readings in group presentations.

Prof. Menke-Fish clearly believes that general education is one of the most important parts of the learning experience. As advice to students she concludes “this is the last opportunity to think about a topic in a way you will never encounter again, it should not be taken lightly… general education will sustain you”.

A student perspective: Zach Ulrich

Zach Ulrich, AU undergraduate student and two-time General Education Faculty Assistant, had this to say about the General Education program:

As part of my experience at American University I had the privilege of assisting in two General Education courses, Astronomy and Western Legal Traditions. In many ways, these two classes' curricula are exemplary of the wide variety of thinking that General Education brings to students' lives. Astronomy taught me to think "not only out of the box, but out of this world"; I was able to place myself within the amazing scientific discoveries that researchers have come upon over history -- and truly get in touch with what it meant for me to be a human amidst the world around me. In contrast, Western Legal Tradition taught me to take otherwise abstracted concepts and use argumentative structures to analyze, synthesize, and then present my thoughts on precise rhetorical points.

General Education is not about having a bunch of different courses, it's about being able to think a bunch of different ways. A well-rounded adult/citizen/parent/worker/contributor to society needs to be able to hold many different types of ideas, sometimes contrasting, in their minds at once and use their own experience and skills to form independent conclusions. Indeed, many philosophers have remarked that the true mark of intellectual development is the ability to understand and grapple with competing ideas at the same time. General Education, for me, was not about getting in front of a classroom as an assistant and having students memorize facts -- it was about exploring and understanding such vastly different ways of interpreting the world that I had no choice but to grow, to mature, and to see life and indeed myself in whole new ways, ways otherwise impossible.

So, the next time you stop to choose your next General Education courses, I sincerely encourage you to step outside of your comfort zone -- take the opportunity to enter realms of thought you never would experience otherwise; you never know...you just might learn something you'll never forget.

Creating a "method of thinking"

This week I had an enlightening conversation with Prof. Abraham, the professor for Greatness in Music. He told me he believes his class is not about “learning a specific theory or history or even a single topic, it’s about using music as a vehicle to learn about critical judgment and aesthetic theory.” Does this ring a bell? Well, if you read the comments from last week’s post, something should light up; “An American from Cairo” argued that for him, general education classes are “the initiators of a method of thinking that should continue throughout one’s life.”, and I agree that this too is part of what a general education encompasses.

Through the Greatness in Music course, students are able to develop independent thought. They are stripped away from preformed opinions caused by experience, tastes and influence from others, until they can form their own judgment of what is “good” and “bad”. After taking this class, students will not only know about music itself, but will think about values in a different way and will posses critical thinking capabilities.

In order to reach this goal, Prof. Abraham has his students read an article every week, whether about aesthetic theory, cognitive education theory or ethnomusicology, and generate a reader’s response that will be discussed during class. In this discussion, students learn to recognize the effect of society on their opinions, and are able to get rid of them to create their own judgment. They are also able to reach these conclusions by studying the language of criticism. By looking at reviews students identify how language is used to express a judgment value. They later apply this to their own critique reviews, which they have to create based on a performance they saw, where they can fully comprehend how a critique affects people’s opinions on what is determined as “good” or “bad”.

Because of the approach to the class, there is no assigned text for it, and most of the classes are characterized by discussion and dialogue amongst the students. This allows students to be independent thinkers while also considering other’s points of view.

Therefore, I believe general education is both to create “a method of thinking” as “An American in Cairo” said, and to make us “informed citizens of the world”, as Prof. Nadell said.

General Education opens door for new Ideas

The article listed below is published in American Today, an on-campus newspaper.

October 2, 2007

Gen Ed town meeting opens door for new ideas

BY SALLY ACHARYA

A student who meant to follow her father’s wishes and become a doctor changed her major when she found a love of political science through a general education course.
Another student took a philosophy course, became a double major, and now plans to go to graduate school in the subject.

The General Education Program is intended to ensure that all AU students are exposed to a world of academic thought that goes beyond the narrow goal of preparation for the careers they first imagine they want.

For some students, the experience is transforming. Others, like the author of a recent Eagle editorial calling for the program to be scrapped, charge it with rigidity and irrelevance.

How is the General Education Program doing at AU? What is it doing well, and what is less successful? Are there aspects that might be modified? Those are some of the questions Patrick Jackson is considering as the program’s new director. “The idea is to broaden your horizons—to become broader than what you would have come to college thinking you were going to study,” said freshman James O’Donnell, School of International Service (SIS), at an open meeting on General Education last week.

Nathan Wick ’08 expressed appreciation for the ways in which his General Education courses ended up relating to other courses in unexpected ways. The SIS senior found it exciting, for instance, to read Merchant of Venice in one course, learn about the Holocaust in another course, and be able to draw connections. Several students and an adjunct faculty member said they discovered their majors through the General Education Program.

But students also expressed frustration with aspects of AU’s “cluster” model, which some said was too rigid and others said didn’t go far enough in requiring students to experience subjects outside their majors. Jackson provided context by describing the two main models for the design of General Education programs: a “core” model, in which all students take designated courses deemed important for their education, and a “distribution requirement” model, in which students can simply take a “smorgasbord” of courses outside their major.

AU’s model is an “alloy,” Jackson said, offering “choice within limits.” The program has five broad curricular areas, such as Creative Arts and Natural Sciences, that all students must study. These areas, in turn, are divided into clusters, so that students take a series of courses in the same sequence.

For instance, to complete a sequence in Creative Arts, students decide at the outset whether they prefer to focus on the arts through practice or theory. Those who choose courses from a cluster called Understanding Creative Processes might end up taking a foundation course such as The Studio Experience and a second-level course such as The Artist’s Perspective: Painting.
Those who prefer to look at art more theoretically look at the cluster called Understanding Creative Works, where the offerings include courses in art history, Shakespeare, African literature, and other topics.

While students said it was good to broaden their horizons, Wick noted that students typically pick courses that fulfill a major requirement, whether or not they really like or want that particular course. As a result, “I was able to get rid of six classes without broadening my horizons,” said the SIS senior, which he felt in retrospect was not a good thing.

Wick also said that the goal of cross-college diversity was not being met in practice, because students from particular schools and colleges tend to flock to the same courses.

Some faculty and students contended that small class sizes were imperative for General Education courses. But Jackson pointed out that, lacking “billions of dollars in endowment,” a mandate for small class sizes in General Education courses “is not going to happen.”

He said, though, that such methods as online discussions and blogging can be used to facilitate interaction and small group discussion. O’Donnell, the SIS freshman, said that he has found online discussions and blogs helpful.

Jackson said he is evaluating the program and its courses to see what changes might be needed, and where “a bit of housecleaning would be in order.” He maintains a blog on the topic.