revisiting the first year experience

[freixenet]

My university is currently revamping its curriculum, moving away from the course credit system toward the course unit system instead. (The difference, to oversimplify, is that rather than working for say 36 hours in the major, the students work for 11 or 12 courses instead, with the advantage of being therefore limited to taking four courses a

Comments

[drenilop]

I think it might be to your advantage to get someone from the hard sciences and from the social sciences in on the project with you. My first thought, as a social scientist who teaches mainly first year students, was that a handbook that describes inquiry only in the terms that humanities people use/know would be doing my students a disservice by making them think that's the *only* way inquiry can be conducted. Perhaps a brief chapter or section on how disciplinary norms differ

[freixenet]

I'd thought about including a section (dragged out of my non-liberal arts colleagues) about what they expect from their students' writing--thanks for confirming that. And yes, modeling the writing expectations, with relevant comments and grades from a range of professors, is in the plans. Thanks for the feedback--good to know my current thinking is making sense!

[max_ambiguity]

Have you tried searching for programs that stress writing across the disciplines/majors/fields? They might have handbooks or course syllabi online somewhere. (I don't know any offhand.)

[freixenet]

It's a constant search process, believe me. I've found a couple, but oddly, considering how much we all say we prioritize writing, I've been able to find only those few. I must be hunting through the wrong search terms, or perhaps the materials are just not online. Cross curricular textbooks are my next stop, to see if those authors have good programs at their schools.

Thanks much for the suggestion!