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General Education Proposal Goals
Informed by AAC&U research on high-impact educational practices proven to enhance student learning and retention, this emerging proposal for a coherent, integrated 42-credit General Education program is being collaboratively designed to meet several goals.

  • First, the program will help our students make a successful transition from high school to college;
  • second, it will engage them intensively in the Essential Learning Outcomes (ELOs) adopted in May 2008, by UW Oshkosh; and
  • finally, it will provide connection between General Education outcomes and the concentrated work students do in their majors.

This sustained immersion in the skills, knowledge, and competencies of a contemporary liberal arts education will help to prepare our students for the challenges of work, for citizenship, and for a meaningful and satisfying life.

Emerging Structure
The UW Oshkosh campus community is working to ready a collaboratively constructed General Education program proposal for the Provost's Teaching and Learning Summit: Collaborating…for a Change (10/24-10/28/11).

Conversations to invite input on the emerging draft are occurring at the department and program levels throughout the Fall semester, and as we consider the intricacies of implementation together, details of the model are shifting.

Now is the time to become involved, to read the emerging proposal, and to share your impressions by participating in the dialogue!

The intentional, cohesive program proposal is structured by three different levels of academic inquiry. These three overlapping and interlocking levels are called:

  • Question
  • Exploration
  • Connection

The entire program is guided by three Signature Questions based on our campus' Essential Learning Outcomes:

  • How do people understand and create a sustainable world?
  • How do people understand and engage in community life?
  • How do people understand and bridge cultural differences?

Question
Incoming students will begin their general education at UW Oshkosh with paired courses that address the three Signature Questions and include both first and second year high-impact experiences.

Exploration
While they Question, students will also begin their Exploration of disciplinary ways of knowing, providing them with a breadth of disciplinary knowledge.

Connection
During their Exploration of knowledge, students will synthesize knowledge related to the Signature Questions with an intentional cluster of courses (including an advanced composition course that serves an important assessment function). Finally, students will take a Capstone Connection course (or experience) in their majors that will enable them to retrace and reflect upon this General Education journey.

Check the General Education Reform website to read more about coursework being considered in these interlocking components.

General Education Reform Participation
Weekly meetings of the General Education Reform Team and numerous departmental and program conversations are currently affecting the details of this developing proposal. The on-going goal is to work collaboratively to construct an intentional, cohesive general education program based upon best-practice research that results in the highest possible levels of student learning.

To comment on General Education Reform, participate in the online discussion or contact a member of the General Education Reform Team for conversation.

 

Stay Up to Date with General Education Reform at: uwosh.edu/usp

 

Participate in the General Education Reform Discussion

 

Schedule a Visit from a Member of the General Education Reform Team

Questions or Comments?
Please send them to Lori Carrell, CETL Director and General Education Reform Facilitator, at carrell@uwosh.edu.
Watch for General Education Reform each Tuesday of the Fall 2011 Semester!
University of Wisconsin Oshkosh
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