First Year Seminars

Description

FYFS 1301 First Year Seminar: Studies in Humanities

FYFS 1310 First Year Seminar: Studies in World Cultural Traditions

First year seminars are general education topics courses.  They are 3 credit-hour seminars limited to 20 first year students and are intended to be reasoning-, writing- and discussion-intensive courses that fulfill the general education requirement in Humanities or World Cultural Traditions. (They are NOT extended freshman orientation classes.) The content of the seminars must meet the objectives for the appropriate general education area of study.

Under one of these topics courses, a full-time faculty member (or team of two faculty members) can propose a first year seminar.  In general, the objectives of a first year seminar are parallel to the objectives of the general education program with an emphasis on the core skills of thinking, writing and speaking. Accordingly, first year seminars emphasize increasing knowledge through skills-based instruction and active student involvement, and not on a lecture-exam, lecture-exam format.

A student cannot take more than one first year seminar. No more than three seminars from any one general education area will be offered during a semester. First year seminars do not count for major credit, unless allowed by the department. Students taking first year seminars should be aware that these seminars may not met requirements for certain professional degree programs (e.g. the BSE in Childhood Education). Students should consult their advisor.

First year seminars should be broad courses that have an interesting and challenging thematic subject matter in one of the two areas of general education noted above, but they should be heavily weighted toward skill proficiency. Students should have numerous opportunities to think carefully and critically, to write creatively and cogently, and to speak clearly and convincingly. As a small discussion-oriented seminar, the course will provide an opportunity for personal feedback to student-generated questions and concerns.

Requirements for First Year Seminars

These requirements guide the deliberations of the General Education Council as it selects specific seminar course proposals.

These courses will be broad thematic courses. "Broad" means that these courses are not simply introductions to a discipline, but are introductions to an area of study (e.g. humanities), and to the skills of thinking writing and speaking.  "Thematic" means that these courses will have an overarching concept that provides unity and focus to the seminar. These courses provide an opportunity for faculty to explore with students interdisciplinary topics.

We expect that first year seminars will deeply involve each student with the core skills of the liberally educated person: speaking, writing and thinking. Evaluation methods should support the skills emphasis of the seminar; there should be no traditional exams. Lectures should be kept to a minimum.

There should be frequent opportunities for the active development of the core skills, as appropriate to the course and discipline. For example, writing assignments could include informal short in-class "question papers" or "critical reviews" of the day's material, reading observations/interpretations/reviews, journal writing, longer more formal case analyses, analyses of arguments, identification of assumptions in a short reading, short essays or research papers. In addition, students might hand in a draft, a rewrite and a final version of the same paper.  

There should be clear instructions and guidelines (preferably with models and examples) to insure that critical thinking is central to the course. For example, assigned papers should be designed to demonstrate a capacity to identify arguments (and distinguish sound from fallacious arguments), recognize good reasons and evidence, and identify assumptions.

There should be opportunities, both formal and informal, to speak. As seminars these courses will stress student participation; the students will be required to bear a significant responsibility for discussion. At a minimum each student should initiate and lead the day's class discussion once, preferably twice.

These general education seminars should be designed to allow students to explore human values and value-systems, and to develop a thoughtful normative perspective on life and learning.

Instructors are encouraged to ask the Coordinator of Undergraduate Studies to link their first year seminar with the learning communities initiatives in Undergraduate Studies.

Submission requirements

Your course proposal should address the above general requirements, the objectives for one of the areas below and include a tentative syllabus.

Area Objectives

The World Cultural Traditions requirement introduces students to broadly significant elements of the cultural traditions of the world in their richness, diversity, and complexity. Each course used to fulfill this requirement entails comparison between several Western and non-Western cultures. After completing the World Cultural Traditions requirements, a student will 1) better understand significant, social, economic and political developments in Western and non-Western history; 2) better understand significant cultural developments in Western and non-Western civilization (religion, art, philosophy, language, and literature); 3) be familiar with enduring expressions of human thought by study of some major texts of Western and non-Western cultures; 4) better understand the interaction of Western and non-Western cultural traditions.

The Humanities requirement seeks to enable students to interpret, evaluate, and appreciate works of human culture that can contribute to a better understanding of the human condition. It does so primarily by exploring the ways humans express meaning and values and by examining enduring questions about the nature of the human condition.

Objectives for students completing the Humanities requirement in general education are 1) to be familiar with some of the classic works of human culture; 2) to better understand and appreciate the nature of human expression and its roles in human culture; 3) to understand that a work of human culture exists within social, historical, and linguistic settings that affect its meaning; 4) to understand that meaning is always mediated by interpretation and that a work of human culture may have multiple interpretations; 5) to be able to employ the skills of critical thinking, reading, writing, speaking, and listening to interpret a work of human culture.

 Skills Objectives

All first year seminars should address multiple general education skills and the objectives therein by providing students with numerous opportunities to develop their intellectual skills in reading, thinking, writing, and speaking.

Attitudes/Values Objectives

All first year seminars should achieve this objective, though we do not wish to specific exactly how they will fulfill this objective. We encourage faculty to include opportunities for students to develop thoughtful and responsible values and attitudes in their seminars.

Assessment of Objectives

The assessment of seminars will be a joint project including the faculty member, the department, and the General Education Council. Before teaching the seminar, each faculty member will meet with the Director of the General Education Council to establish specific procedures for assessment.   

While it is impossible to specify specific area assessments, since the subject matter of the seminars will vary, it is possible to stipulate that each seminar will address the objectives for a relevant general education area as outlined above. To facilitate assessment of the first year seminar every first year seminar instructor will create a course portfolio, including a record of all assignments given and a representative sample of student responses to each assignment. At least two members of the Council will review each portfolio and report results of the review the Director.

To assess the values-based objectives, students will be asked to complete a survey that asks them about the effect of the seminar on their appreciation of the richness of human value-systems, and about the degree of opportunity to explore their own value-systems and life-attitudes. A majority of students will provide positive responses to such questions.

Procedures for Course Proposal Submission

An individual faculty member needs to prepare and submit a thorough course syllabus, paying close attention to the guidelines for new course proposals, general education courses and the requirements outlined above.  Please begin by submitting your proposal to your department curriculum committee and chair for approval. Have your chair indicate that it was approved.  Please submit your course proposal your college curriculum committee for approval.  After that, please submit your course proposal to the Director General Education who will forward it to the General Education Council for approval.

Because the advising center will handle summer freshman registration, these courses do not need to appear in the fall schedule of classes. Please be sure your proposal reaches the Director of General education before April 1 of the preceding fall semester in which you intend to teach the seminar.  

Supervision
The General Education Council is responsible for announcing the opportunity to teach these seminars, selecting from course proposals submitted, coordinating the registration and teaching of the seminars with undergraduate studies, and developing, in concert with the departments, a plan of assessment.