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GEC Issues – Fall 2011

GEC Issues – Fall 2011. Review of GenEd designations for Foundations, Focus and Diversification courses. Critical Thinking Working Group WASC accreditation criteria list instruction in “ critical thinking skills ” as an important core curriculum component of undergraduate education

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GEC Issues – Fall 2011

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  1. GEC Issues – Fall 2011 • Review of GenEd designations for Foundations, Focus and Diversification courses. • Critical Thinking Working Group • WASC accreditation criteria list instruction in “critical thinking skills” as an important core curriculum component of undergraduate education • Susan Hippensteele has pioneered the use of the Critical Thinking Assessment Test (CAT) to determine whether courses are actually teaching this. CTWG is monitoring this effort and will examine the results. • Will canvas Departments to see to what extent critical thinking skills are incorporated into the program SLOs. • Will examine GenEd Hallmarks and see if critical thinking skills are consistent with the existing Hallmarks.

  2. GEC Issues – Fall 2011 • FS compliance among undergraduates • Foundation-Symbolic Reasoning - Students must pass 1 FS course in their first year • Prior analysis in 2006-07 indicated that only 60 % of students comply with this requirement. Only 76% are in compliance by the end of the 2nd year. Proposed Solution: • Although the catalog lists FS as a 1 year requirement, treat it as a 2 year requirement. • Send reminder emails: • Friendly email to incoming freshmen and transfer students (n=1435) • Warning email to students with 25 – 54 credits (n=654) • Stern warning to students with ≥55 credits (n=656) • Future proposed penalty – place a registration hold on students with ≥55 credits that have not fulfilled the FS requirement

  3. Is it time to re-evaluate the Foundations: Symbolic Reasoning (FS) requirement GEC and the Foundations Board have been studying the FS requirement for 2-3 years. This was prompted by: WASC accreditation review criteria Relatively few course choices for fulfilling FS High failure rates among many FS courses – FS courses have become a bottleneck in retention and graduation Anecdotal evidence that quantitative/mathematical skills of many of our incoming students are poor Disagreement among Foundations Board members and other faculty concerning how to interpret the FS Hallmarks What is really important for a liberal arts education in the 21st century?

  4. Some Historical Background • The FS requirement was created during General Education reform in 1999-2000. • Prior to GenEd reform, there was a 3 credit ‘Math or Logic’ requirement • Fulfilled with an introductory Mathematics or Philosophy course • One perceived problem with this arrangement was that the Math and Philosophy departments had a monopoly on offering courses that fulfilled the requirement.

  5. The Current FS Requirement • 3 Credits of an FS course required in the 1st year • Hallmarks of an FS course: • Expose students to the beauty, power, clarity, and precision of formal systems • Help students understand the concept of proof as a chain of inferences • Teach students how to apply formal rules and algorithms • Require students to use appropriate symbolic techniques in the context of problem solving, and in the presentation and critical evaluation of evidence • Not focus solely on computational skills • Build a bridge from theory to practice and show students how to traverse this bridge

  6. Current FS Courses • Business 250 - Applied Math in Business • ICS 141 - Discrete Mathematics for Computer Science I • ICS 241 - Discrete Mathematics for Computer Science II • Math 100 - Survey of Mathematics • Math 112 - Math for Elementary Teachers II • Math 140 – Precalculus • Math 161 - Precalculus and Elements of Calculus for Economics and the Social Sciences • Math 203 - Calculus for Business and Social Sciences • Math 215 - Applied Calculus I • Math 241 - Calculus I • Math 251A - Accelerated Calculus I  • NREM 203 - Applied Calculus for Management, Life Sciences, and Human Resources • Philosophy 110 - Introduction to Deductive Logic • Philosophy 111 - Introduction to Inductive Logic

  7. Perceived Problems? • This is still fundamentally a Math or Logic requirement. There have been no diversification of offerings due to the restrictive hallmarks. • Courses that teach quantitative skills often do not qualify as FS courses due to the lack of ‘symbolic’ rigor • Students can get a 4-year degree without taking any type of math, statistics, or computational courses • WASC accreditation does not recognize ‘Symbolic Reasoning’ as a core general education objective. • WASC accreditation does require courses in: • College-level quantitative skills • Critical analysis of data and argument

  8. Requirements Baccalaureate programs engage students in an integrated course of study of sufficient breadth and depth to prepare the for work, citizenship, and a fulfilling life. These programs also ensure the development of core learning abilities and competencies including, but not limited to: • College-Level Written Communication • FW (3 cr) and W Focus (5 courses) • College-Level Oral Communication • O Focus (1 course) • College-Level Quantitative Skills • FS requirement? Not really since Hallmarks don’t require quantitative skills. • Information Literacy • No requirements • The Habit of Critical Analysis of Data & Argument • No requirements

  9. How to ensure we are teaching quantitative skills? • In Spring 2011, the Foundations Board and the GEC voted to recommend a change in the explanatory notes to one of the hallmarks that would have the effect of requiring some quantitative content in an FS course Hallmark 5 not focus solely on computational skills • Students should be challenged to use symbolic trails of reasoning not only minimallly but in maximally efficient and elegant ways • Students should not simply be trained in mechanical, computational or formulaic techniques • The course must include college-level quantitative skills

  10. Proposal forwarded to the Multi-Campus Foundations Board • The UH Systemwide Articulation Agreement of 2004 requires that all changes to the Foundations requirements, hallmarks, or explanatory notes must be approved by a system-wide committee • The proposed change was conveyed to the MCFB in Nov 2011. They will hold 3-4 meetings and will vote on this proposal by March 2012 • If they do not approve this change, they have been asked to consider whether an overhaul of the FS Hallmarks is needed and would be supported at the system level.

  11. What solutions are possible? • Change the hallmarks to make the FS requirement strictly a quantitative skills requirement (in keeping with WASC standards) • Split the FS requirement into two requirements (6 cr total): • Quantitative Reasoning (FQ - 3 cr): Math, Statistics, Business, and other forms of applied math • Logical and/or Critical Reasoning (FR - 3 cr): Philosophy and other courses that teach formal logic and critical analysis of argument • Create an overlapping requirement: • 1 combined quantitative and logic course (3 cr), or • 1 quantitative course and 1 logic/analysis course (6 cr total)

  12. What Do Peer & Benchmark Institutions Require?

  13. Summary of Peer & Benchmark Institutions • 5 of 12 peer institutions have a 3 or 6 credit math-only requirement • 9 of 18 benchmark institutions have a 3 or 6 credit math and/or logic requirement • 18 of 36 peer and benchmark schools had a broader requirement that included, in various combinations: math, philosophy, statistics, computer science, economics, business, psychology, etc. • The schools are evenly split in requiring 3 or 6 credits

  14. One proposal that might work well at UH: The University of Utah has the following requirement: Quantitative Reasoning (3 or 6 credits) – students must take either: -One QA (mathematics) course and one QB (statistics or logic) course, or -One QA/QB (combined mathematics and statistics/logic) course • We would propose modifying this for UH purposes: Foundations – Quantitative Reasoning, Logical and Critical Reasoning Students must take either: • One quantitative reasoning course (3 cr) and one logic/critical reasoning course (3 cr), or • One course that offers both quantitative reasoning and logic/critical reasoning (3 cr)

  15. Foundations – Quantitative Reasoning, Logical and Critical Reasoning Students must take either: • One quantitative reasoning course (3 cr) and one logic/critical reasoning course (3 cr), or • One course that offers both quantitative reasoning and logic/critical reasoning (3 cr) • Quantitative Reasoning could include math, statistics, business math, applied math, economics, and other courses that are predominantly teaching quantitative skills • Logical and Critical Reasoning could include philosophy, critical thinking, and other social and natural science courses that incorporate deductive reasoning skills

  16. Where to now? • Do faculty at UH Manoa agree that there should be a quantitative skills requirement? • Do we want to study whether one of these solutions will work at UH Manoa before invoking a system-wide committee? I suggest convening a working group and seeking broader faculty input. • Eventually the Requirements and Hallmarks would need to be formulated and approved by the MFS and then a system-wide committee. Next year perhaps?

  17. CAT Test • developed at Tennessee Tech and tested over several years at numerous institutions • Short answer essay test, one hour long • Faculty scored, detailed scoring guide Skills Assessed by CAT Instrument: • Evaluating Information • Separate factual information from inferences. • Interpret numerical relationships in graphs. • Understand the limitations of correlational data. • Evaluate evidence and identify inappropriate conclusions. • Creative Thinking • Identify alternative interpretations for data or observations. • Identify new information that might support or contradict a hypothesis. • Explain how new information can change a problem. • Learning and Problem Solving • Separate relevant from irrelevant information. • Integrate information to solve problems. • Learn and apply new information. • Use mathematical skills to solve real-world problems. • Communication • Communicate ideas effectively.

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