JMS 480 Project Proposal Notes: Center for Teaching and Learning

New set of compliance for the GE curriculum

There are new statements of what students will learn in the GE
requirements
7 essential capacities: they’re viewed by the academic senate
They’re not at the level of students being able to analyze
They’re designed to be applicable to all GE requirements
Professors are required to put what capacities are going to
be taught
1.) Construct analyze and communicate arguments
2.) Apply theoretical models to the real world
3.) Contextualize phenomenon (when we see something happen and
how we understand it in it’s natural context)
4.) Negotiate differences (to negotiate differences in opinions, goals,
needs, perspectives, etc) – like political differences
5.) Integrated global and local perspectives
6.) Illustrate the relevance of concepts across boundaries – see how
things are related, like PR being related to politics
7.) Evaluate the consequences of actions

Problem is that our faculty are not familiar with this. Most don’t know how
they’re going to incorporate that in their course. They have to use at least 3
and a lot of the GE professors use this.
To make the directions more explicit on how to incorporate into the
course.
To help the students on what they’re supposed to learn in the course.
To explain what they’re supposed to gain from taking the course.
Hidden consumer of hidden graduate consumer (parents)
To explain why you’re doing this or that as a major
To give them a clearer idea on what the objectives are at SDSU

Ideas = It’s likely that President Weber should give a speech on the new
capacities
To go to President Weber on writing the speech,
Special lunch or ceremony.
Use his endorsement and use that to pump through conduits
To get news on this

Every meeting in September for Faculty, talk about it from Weber to a large
number of faculty. Video tapes his speech? Using the President, he has the
ability to get the resources for the message.
Why he would be more likely to do this? At the most recent graduation,
he gave a charge to the students and he got up to give a charge to the
students.
Unknowns – Product endorser (Weber).
A plan on how his speech will be impactful.

What is the research? How do we use these instruments of communication?

Mostly a campaign to raise awareness.
How do you help people develop and aware and an idealism of
these values?

Team’s goal are what we need to research about this and what potentials
avenues can we use to implement this.
This is a particular target initiative but we’re trying to create a broader
understanding on the learning outcomes to describe expectations of
students in a classroom.

One of the lunch series: Architecture of the Curriculum

A series that was devoted to this issue (30 to 40 faculty, when there’s
about 1600-1700 faculty) – most of the faculty are lecturers.

Try to increase the general awareness of what the general outcomes

are and why it’s important for us to be aware.

If we had a piece that went into the 360 magazine, or press release,
news coverage.
A much larger campaign, to let students know what they are working
on.
To know what they are going to learn in their course work.

Rhetorical frame: it’s about empowering. Descriptions on empowering

students, empowering people over the people you’ve taken responsibility
over.
Students are NOT ready when they graduate and go out into the real
world.
Thomas Friedman – The World is Flat

GE learning requirement just for SDSU or for CSU?

- Look at 1990 placement capacities “integrate, etc”
- Almost every university has this issue, what are GEs?

Approved by a special task force, academic senate a year ago.

SDSU faculty (version of AS)

Publics: students, teachers, faculty, parents

IE. One of the biggest arguments in the engineering dept is that the
 newer graduates do not know how to work in teams

Faculty: find a way to say that this isn’t something more it’s something
you’re already doing or making adjustments, clarity about the expectations
of a class

How do we take this and change the culture? How can this been seen as
something “cool”?
What techniques do you use?

KNOWLEDGE (awareness), ATTITUDE (thinking), BEHAVIOR (and actually

doing, there’s already a guide for this already).

The lunch series is how to take the 7 strategies and how to incorporate it into
the course.

Response & Measure:

Lunches for 5 years
Evaluations = what is the likely hood of what you learned will influence
your teaching? Discussion with colleague? Benefit the university?

If we get President Weber, costs will be invisible for them.

Able to do a good campaign, if using the school’s resources.

We have to be prepared for faculty that is going to resist.

If you’re clear, you can prioritize.

Is there a campaign-estimated budget? Nothing.

There are problems still when it is currently being implemented.

Some professors are out of the loops.
Try to get more awareness in lecturers.

During budget cuts, tenure staff members mostly teach things.

Dr. Kathy Williams – kathy.williams@sdsu.edu

Associate dean of undergraduate students

Field research, is seeing if one of the reasons to why we tuition is increasing