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Just the thought of general education requirements often conjures up dread. Many students see it as an obstacle course with numerous hurdles preventing them from what they most want to pursue. Claiming it’s not why they’re in college, students regard these requirements as a waste of time and money. Parents, too, are often on a mission looking for cheaper alternatives for their college kids to “knock these out,” reinforcing the idea that they’re nothing more than expensive, irritating roadblocks.
Among faculty who believe in the value of these requirements, there’s the understanding that teaching general education courses is challenging. This is coupled with the knowledge that some colleagues, particularly in vocationally-oriented disciplines, may show impatience toward these.
Let’s examine some ways in which faculty and administrators can better support students’ understanding of the meaning and purpose of these requirements.
Helping students shift their mindset about general education often begins with changing the conversation. When faculty and administrators use consistent, intentional messaging across campus, they can highlight the deeper value of general education and its essential role in students’ success.
“General education is one of the hallmarks of the American education system,” said Maria Paino, associate professor of sociology and co-chair of the General Education Reform Committee at Oakland University. “General education courses are useful for all majors across the university, providing students with critical skills that are necessary in their careers and lives. General education courses often focus on skills like critical thinking, social awareness, information literacy, and effective communication. Students all experience general education, and it’s a shared curriculum. Many students build community through these experiences, especially when they’re in a program with a First Year Experience or one with themes that unite their coursework.”
These requirements are about socializing a new citizenry while giving students the tools and resources to take that community sensibility into their careers and lives. Kimberly Cavanagh, associate professor of anthropology at the University of South Carolina-Beaufort, agrees that these requirements are a crucial pathway for an engaged citizenry and vibrant community.
“General education classes make students think in new and different ways, which can be uncomfortable,” Cavanagh said. “But that uncomfortable space is where deep learning takes place. These courses are so important for shaping responsible, empathetic, and informed citizens. Plus, people’s brains are not fully developed in high school, so it’s not possible for high schoolers to make the wider connections gained through general education courses. We do not live in a vacuum; therefore, we shouldn’t learn in a vacuum.”
General education courses help to generate fluency about a greater range of things, widening students’ aperture, and enhancing a sensibility of world-traveling. In talking with Paino, one thing became clear: general education requirements do much more than fulfill credits. In fact, they’re a strong indicator of cultural capital and a predictor of life satisfaction.
Drawing on research by Richard Detweiler, author of “The Evidence Liberal Arts Needs,” Paino pointed out, “You might be surprised to know that there’s a significant and positive relationship between the number of courses students take outside their major and later life outcomes (including income and satisfaction). So, taking more and more and more courses in one’s major is not necessarily going to result in better gains in one’s life.”
Institutions must showcase the ways these requirements transcend a messy array of disparate courses (as students often assume general education to be) and instead form an organized and cohesive body of thinking, feeling, and knowing that is truly more than the sum of its parts, serving students and the communities they inhabit far beyond students’ time in college.
When I was an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I enrolled in a class designed for non-science types, affectionately nicknamed Physics for Poets. At the time, it was taught by a superstar professor, the late Bernice Durand, who was one of the first female professors in the physics department. She understood that the hundreds of students enrolled with her every semester for that class had little to no interest in being in it, that it wasn’t their forte, but that the science requirement had to be fulfilled. And she literally almost did somersaults to make it possible for students to be excited about the material. I remember her standing on a table and doing exercises to illustrate a lesson about things in motion.
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That science requirement imparted wisdom about creative pedagogy and how to grab students’ attention when they least expect it. On the last discussion board of the semester, where I asked students to reflect on what they learned in my introductory sociology course, one student wrote:
“I know that adopting a sociological perspective will be helpful since I want to pursue a career in nursing. Because nursing isn’t just about treating physical symptoms, it’s about understanding the whole person, including their background, their environment, and the social pressures they’re facing… This class has changed the way I understand myself and the world. It taught me to question, to look deeper, and to give myself the grace I didn’t always allow before.”
Some students might be surprised when a requirement opens the door to something they choose as their major or minor. Even if the content doesn’t encourage a student to change their course of study, the relationship that can be fostered with faculty in these courses can be transformative, paving the way for ongoing mentoring.
According to Paino, “There probably needs to be some branding around general education… I think students don’t realize how their coursework is all interrelated and that general education courses are the foundation for their major, regardless of what that might be.”
This leads me to think that general education itself needs to be renamed. It’s high time to infuse this with greater specificity and meaning. Perhaps words like holistic, contemplative, interdisciplinary, global, or self and society best capture what’s happening in these courses.
What appears to be a seemingly burdensome requirement that students resent can become a course that changes a student’s worldview—and maybe even the rest of their life. But that depends on institutions communicating the value of general education, truly believing in it, and helping students experience it.
A version of this post also appears in HigherEdJobs.
