Dean College officials say they will take a harder look into the effectiveness of the institution?s general education courses in the coming year, thanks to a $100,000 grant from the Davis Educational Foundation.
?The grant is going to be used to do a deep examination of our general education curriculum,? said Melissa Read, assistant vice president for academic affairs. ?It?s all about the student learning. Are students learning what we want them to and what we believe they need to know in order to prepare for their next step??
Read said that Dean College begins the process of re-examining its general education courses every five years, and then rolls out the resulting changes so that there is continuous progress.
The difference this time around is that the $100,000 grant allows Dean College to spend more time debating the advantages and disadvantages of the changes, with faculty members as well as administration, and of helping faculty become adjusted to those changes with week-long summer and winter training sessions, which are called ?institutes.?
?What the grant allows us to do is carve out time.? Read said. ?We?ve never had the resources to do that so that?s really exciting.?
Past assessments of the general education courses resulted in a complete redesign of those courses in the mid-90s and a later, tailored change to keep students testing into remedial courses on track to get their degree.
Read said the college does not yet have an idea of what changes it will make because a team of faculty members and administrators need to look at recently collected data.
?We?re approaching this with a very open mind,? Read said. ?(Grant money) is tremendously helpful, particularly at small colleges. People work hard and we?re running in lots of different directions.?
Read did note that the college will roll out any changes by the fall of 2013.
(Alison McCall can be reached at 508-634-7521 or amccall@wickedlocal.com.)
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