How to Take a Course: Our Meta-Education Program

Dear Colleagues, always for the sake of
on--line argument across the curriculum:

"It's one thing to discuss the relative
value of the course for our students

It's quite another to operate as if the
teaching interests of the faculty trump
the learning needs of the students."

Maybe this could be re-framed as dialectic.

On the one hand: the learning needs of the students.
On the other hand: the teaching interests (learning
needs) of the teachers.

Turn up the difference in values. Polarize and characterize. 
Put the 2 in play. Don't let either 'trump or lose.  Anticipate
synthesis: an emerging value that does no injustice to either.

And the same might be said (and framed) for

We WILL end up with a general education
plan that can demonstrate that we know
what we are doing, that we are doing it, 
and then that we are demonstrating that
we do it.          on the one hand

and then on the other: a plan that encourages that we
also  do  not know what we are doing, that we go about
seeing where we are going (frontiers yet unknown) , and
that at the end we look  back, like any Monday Morning
Quarterback and with perfect stalwart pioneering clarity
can say where we've been.

You +1'd this publicly. Undo

[We shall never cease from exploration.
And the end of all our exploring.
Will be to arrive where we started.
And know the place for the first time. (tse)]

These values (both sets: 2 economies) are appropriately
hostile and if rigorously kept separate & in relationship:
complementary and generative (innovative).  Otherwise,
always the sound of one hand clappping and nobody loves that.

On another point: The Media is the Message,
The Context is the Text, The Sturucture is
the Substance

Pattern Language: Here's what our program will probably
look like structurally, regardless of our gen-ed content
subject-object matter and method.  Or not?

Scroll down: here’s what four years of  education looks
like structurally. (the ingrained walk-away
knowing)
 
year 1
 
       syllabus (contract)
* lecture-to-discussion ratios
* attendance policy
* reading and writing assignments
  (texts, term & semester papers)
* quizzes and examination policy
* deadline policy (late penalties)
* presentation/poster policies
* assessment and evaluation policy
* diagnosed learning disability policy    
.
       syllabus (contract)
* lecture-to-discussion ratios
* attendance policy
* reading and writing assignments
  (texts, term & semester papers)
* quizzes and examination policy
* deadline policy (late penalties)
* presentation/poster policies
* assessment and evaluation policy
* diagnosed learning disability policy
.
       syllabus (contract)
* lecture-to-discussion ratios
* attendance policy
* reading and writing assignments
  (texts, term & semester papers)
* quizzes and examination policy
* deadline policy (late penalties)
* presentation/poster policies
* assessment and evaluation policy
* diagnosed learning disability policy
 
       syllabus (contract)
* lecture-to-discussion ratios
* attendance policy
* reading and writing assignments
  (texts, term & semester papers)
* quizzes and examination policy
* deadline policy (late penalties)
* presentation/poster policies
* assessment and evaluation policy
* diagnosed learning disability policy
 
       syllabus (contract)
* lecture-to-discussion ratios
* attendance policy
* reading and writing assignments
  (texts, term & semester papers)
* quizzes and examination policy
* deadline policy (late penalties)
* presentation/poster policies
* assessment and evaluation policy
* diagnosed learning disability policy
 
       syllabus (contract)
* lecture-to-discussion ratios
* attendance policy
* reading and writing assignments
  (texts, term & semester papers)
* quizzes and examination policy
* deadline policy (late penalties)
* presentation/poster policies
* assessment and evaluation policy
* diagnosed learning disability policy
 
       syllabus (contract)
* lecture-to-discussion ratios
* attendance policy
* reading and writing assignments
  (texts, term & semester papers)
* quizzes and examination policy
* deadline policy (late penalties)
* presentation/poster policies
* assessment and evaluation policy
* diagnosed learning disability policy
.
       syllabus (contract)
* lecture-to-discussion ratios
* attendance policy
* reading and writing assignments
  (texts, term & semester papers)
* quizzes and examination policy
* deadline policy (late penalties)
* presentation/poster policies
* assessment and evaluation policy
* diagnosed learning disability policy
 
Year two:.

       syllabus (contract)
* lecture-to-discussion ratios
* attendance policy
* reading and writing assignments
  (texts, term & semester papers)
* quizzes and examination policy
* deadline policy (late penalties)
* presentation/poster policies
* assessment and evaluation policy
* diagnosed learning disability policy
 
       syllabus (contract)
* lecture-to-discussion ratios
* attendance policy
* reading and writing assignments
  (texts, term & semester papers)
* quizzes and examination policy
* deadline policy (late penalties)
* presentation/poster policies
* assessment and evaluation policy
* diagnosed learning disability policy

       syllabus (contract)
 
* lecture-to-discussion ratios
* attendance policy
* reading and writing assignments
  (texts, term & semester papers)
* quizzes and examination policy
* deadline policy (late penalties)
* presentation/poster policies
* assessment and evaluation policy
* diagnosed learning disability policy
.
       syllabus (contract)
 
* lecture-to-discussion ratios
* attendance policy
* reading and writing assignments
  (texts, term & semester papers)
* quizzes and examination policy
* deadline policy (late penalties)
* presentation/poster policies
* assessment and evaluation policy
* diagnosed learning disability policy
.
       syllabus (contract)
 
* lecture-to-discussion ratios
* attendance policy
* reading and writing assignments
  (texts, term & semester papers)
* quizzes and examination policy
* deadline policy (late penalties)
* presentation/poster policies
* assessment and evaluation policy
* diagnosed learning disability policy
.
       syllabus (contract)
 
* lecture-to-discussion ratios
* attendance policy
* reading and writing assignments
  (texts, term & semester papers)
* quizzes and examination policy
* deadline policy (late penalties)
* presentation/poster policies
* assessment and evaluation policy
* diagnosed learning disability policy
.
       syllabus (contract)
 
* lecture-to-discussion ratios
* attendance policy
* reading and writing assignments
  (texts, term & semester papers)
* quizzes and examination policy
* deadline policy (late penalties)
* presentation/poster policies
* assessment and evaluation policy
* diagnosed learning disability policy
 
       syllabus (contract)
 
* lecture-to-discussion ratios
* attendance policy
* reading and writing assignments
  (texts, term & semester papers)
* quizzes and examination policy
* deadline policy (late penalties)
* presentation/poster policies
* assessment and evaluation policy
* diagnosed learning disability policy
.

etc.
"We teach students How To Take a Course"
a biology teacher said a few years back. .