Brigham Young University (BYU) Diversity Elimination
BYU-Idaho general education changes
BYU-Idaho news release
Friday, Feb. 06, 2009
In Fall semester 2008,
incoming freshman at Brigham Young University-Idaho were introduced to a new
general education program known as Foundations. This program has been designed
to replace the previous general education courses and provide a more focused and
complete approach to learning.
The Foundations program stemmed from a charge to raise the quality of every
experience a BYU-Idaho student will have. In his inaugural address on Oct. 11,
2005, President Kim B. Clark stated:
"As we pursue that mission in the years ahead, I believe there are three great
imperatives before us, three great things the Lord would have us do. The first
is that we must raise substantially the quality of every aspect of the
experience our students have. As good as it is today (and believe me, it is
very, very good), every dimension of the BYU-Idaho experience -- spiritual,
intellectual, social -- must increase in its quality. We must do all of this to
better prepare our students for a very challenging world. This will require
inspired innovation and important changes in many aspects of our work."
"The
Foundations initiative has been under development for more than two
years," said Bruce C. Kusch, associate academic vice president for
curriculum. "This is a dramatic change to our general education
program; it has been completely redesigned."
There are a few key differences between the previous general education
program and the new Foundations program. First, Foundations requires
students to gain a more focused education. Past general education
courses focused on students receiving a broad education in areas
outside their chosen discipline. "The traditional general education
program was not meeting the needs of students once they entered the
workforce or entered graduate school," said Kent Barrus, director of
career and academic advising.
The Foundations program differs from general education in how students
are able to choose their required courses. In the previous general
education program, students had a longer and more diverse list of
classes to choose from. This created a significantly different
experience for each student. Foundations has purposefully limited the
number of classes that a student can choose from. Therefore, all
students that complete Foundations will have similar experiences and
will have received a more focused educational experience.
Second, the Foundations program uses the BYU-Idaho Learning Model and
applies the principle of students teaching students. The principles of
the Learning Model ask students to prepare, to teach one another and to
ponder and prove. "Every Foundations course is designed to implement
the BYU-Idaho Learning Model," Kusch said.
The third difference between the previous general education program and
Foundations are the skills that students will gain from completing
Foundations courses. "The important and underlying principle of the
Foundations program is that it helps students learn how to learn. They
will learn skills that will carry over to their lives after they leave
BYU-Idaho," Barrus said. Foundations will assist students in gaining
critical thinking skills that will benefit them in the workforce and
will help them learn how to analyze situations and solve problems. The
principles learned in Foundations will also benefit students in their
present and future homes. "In the home, they will be able to resolve
conflicts and analyze situations," Barrus said.
The last major difference between general education courses and
Foundations deals with how the curriculum for Foundations was created.
Foundations courses have been designed to be interdisciplinary,
providing students with the ability to dive more deeply into the
various subject matter areas. For example, the Pakistan Crossroads and
Conflict Foundations course required faculty members from the history,
geography and religion departments to formulate the curriculum for the
class.
"This has required thousands and thousands of hours of preparation by
the faculty," Kusch said, "all with the intent to give students a
better foundation to build upon for their lives and their BYU-Idaho
experience."
Jeff Andersen, a faculty member in the Department of Humanities and Philosophy, teaches the Foundations course Heroic Journey.
The curriculum in the Heroic Journey course has made an increased
effort to implement the Learning Model. Classes prior to Foundations
were generally lecture based. "Lecture has its place and is still used
to lay a foundation upon which group learning is based, but more
insights are gained through group discussions than through [the
teacher's] own knowledge," Andersen said.
Kip Hartvigsen, Department of English faculty, believes that
Foundations courses can benefit teachers as well as students.
"Foundations brings teachers to class with freshness. They have to
learn along with their students. The challenge of teaching Foundations
courses renews a teacher's investment in the course he or she is
teaching. Teachers are learning as they teach," Hartvigsen said.
The Foundations program is not without its challenges. "Foundations is
a significant change from the previous general education program. It
requires a complete paradigm shift. But this will be one of the things
that will set our students apart," Barrus said.
The new Foundations requirements generally will not affect current
juniors or seniors as most of them should have completed all of their
general education courses. However, incoming freshmen will be required
to take Foundations courses. Other students may choose to enroll in
some Foundations courses, depending on the amount of previous general
education work completed. For transfer students, if an associate degree
has been earned, the Foundations requirement is complete except for the
Foundations Capstone course and Eternal Truths, which are the religion
courses. The curriculum for the Capstone course is currently being
developed and will be offered in future semesters.