Summer 2007 - Northwestern College

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A task force has compiled a list of tentative goals for Northwestern’s general education program and will spend the next school year designing a curriculum to accomplish
those goals.
A plan for learning
Northwestern is revamping
its general education program—but
not because the
last major revision to gen ed
requirements was made in
1983.
“Part of what’s happening
in higher education is a
renewed focus on student
learning and the need to
articulate clearly what we
expect students to learn,”
says Dr. Jasper Lesage, vice
president for academic
affairs.
That need led to the creation
of Northwestern’s
“Vision for Learning,” a document
that describes the college’s
goals of teaching students
in a way that enables
them to trust, love and worship
God; engage ideas; connect
knowledge and experience;
and respond to God’s
call.
With those goals in
sight, the eight-member
General Education Task
Force, composed of faculty
and administrators, spent
2006–07 reviewing
Northwestern’s general education
program.
“One of the things we’re
trying to do is have a more
coherent program that has
scope and sequence,” says
Lesage, who is chairing the
task force. “We’ve always had
scope, but there’s no clearly
articulated framework for
how these courses all hang
together.”
Northwestern students
currently may take general
education courses in any
order they want, Lesage says.
“We’d like to see a better
recognition of development
in students during the four
years they’re here.”
After a year of work, the
task force has compiled a list
of tentative general education
goals. Those goals
emphasize integrative learning
that permeates all aspects
of campus life and enables
students to explore, develop
and discover:
• a stronger sense of God’s
call in their lives,
• personal and social responsibility,
• intellectual and practical
skills, and
• knowledge of human cultures
and the physical and
natural world.
The task for 2007–08 is to
design a general education
curriculum that will accomplish
those goals.
That, says Lesage, is
going to be the tougher job.
8 ▲ Summer 2007