Taking on Big Questions

CUI’s ground-breaking Core curriculum, introduced in 2010, 在提升学术表现和校园对话方面做了如此多的工作，以至于大学以一种重要而相似的方式重组了其通识教育课程. The result is CUI’s signature Enduring Questions & Ideas (Q&I) 这些课程涉及一些重大问题，比如“什么是自由”?” “Who am I and who are they?” and “Who do you say that I am?——并使他们成为每门通识教育课程的重点.

“康考迪亚欧文大学的通识教育课程不再是通往专业的门户课程，而是通往世界的窗口,” says Scott Ashmon, 副教务长兼旧约和希伯来语教授. “We are developing critical thinking skills, communication and collaboration, but those are not ends in themselves. It’s what you do with them that’s important. 我们想引导学生去了解人类一直在努力解决的大问题.”

The shift takes Concordia closer to its liberal arts roots, 关于人的意义的基本问题是通过阅读来解决的, writing and debate. 现在的通识教育课程旨在回答这样的问题:“我将如何生活??” “Why art?” “What is eloquence?” and “How do I understand nature?”

我们想引导学生去了解人类一直在努力解决的大问题.

阿什蒙说:“‘大学’这个词意味着把一切都看在一起. “大学最初并不把学科视为独立的学科, but as ways to see the truth together, to see the big picture. 所有的大学都在处理这些问题，但它们往往被纳入其中. We want to forefront them. 要成为一个受过教育的公民，就需要参与这些问题，并以某种方式共同生活.”

The bold move grew out of the positive effect of the Core curriculum on campus life and academics. The Core introduced paired courses, such as biology and theology, 创建一个框架来参与跨学科的更大的问题. 但一些人怀疑，这种独特的、要求更高的做法是否会影响到中国 Core would dampen student enrollment or drive down GPAs.

“It actually helped students, 部分原因是我们提供了同伴辅导和教授一对一会议等支持,” says Ashmon. “你对学生的期望就是他们能做什么. 教师们看到学生参与初级作业的能力有了明显的提高, ask questions and write about these subjects.” Before the Core在对学生参与度的调查中，CUI的学生正好处于中等水平. Three years after instituting the Core在许多学习实践类别中，CUI排名全国前10%.

“这是一个重大的飞跃，这导致了Q扩展的想法&I,” says Ashmon.

另一种度量——非正式的，但可能很重要——可能被称为早餐卷饼度量. Faculty noticed that before the Core, 学生毕业典礼上的演讲者经常提到早餐墨西哥卷饼，作为毕业生怀念CUI的一个幽默例子, while few mentioned academics.

Since the Core 被介绍，“每一个毕业演讲都提到? Core 在他们的演讲中作为他们经历的形成部分，”阿什蒙说. “It is a significant identity piece in the curriculum now. It used to be breakfast burritos. Now it’s the Core.”

将“核心”方法引入通识教育似乎是自然而然的下一步, so in 2015, 成立了一个委员会，研究和建议如何改变CUI的通识教育方法. Sociology professor Kristin Koenig served on the committee.

“We debated things, 有时候，对于一门课程应该包含什么样的大问题，教室里的人意见不一, 但让我印象深刻的是，同事们回答了问题，并猜测了它可能是什么样子,” Koenig says. “这是一场健康的辩论，也是一个过程，通过这个过程，更广泛的教师会提出他们的课程如何适应这些问题.”

For example, a question like “Who am I and who are they?” runs through psychology, anthropology, economics, sociology and all sorts of disciplines, says Ashmon.

“Each discipline could chime in on that question,” he says. “所有的学生和教师都知道我们正在解决这个问题, and we can talk to each other across disciplines.”

One of Q&I最终的要求是教员们分配更多的主要文本，就像核心课程一样. Gilbert Fugitt, associate vice president and dean of students, 曾经为学生领袖教授一个单元的领导力发展课程，“感觉像是选修课”，人数很少. 为了响应委员会的邀请，在Q&I, Fugitt and others sought to build something more robust.

富吉特说:“我们的努力是把它与古典思想联系起来，让它引人入胜。. “We’re not philosophers. What would this look like to teach? How do we make it hands-on and practical, 将它与大问题联系起来，并将基督教信仰融入其中?”

要成为一个受过教育的公民，就需要参与这些问题，并以某种方式共同生活.

他和几位教员研究了原始资料，并提出了一个教学大纲，其中包括维克多·弗兰克尔的《赌博十大平台排行》, the Gettysburg Address, 以及圣经中强调领导风格的章节. 所有的讨论都指向一个核心问题:“我该如何生活??”

这门曾经沉闷的课程已经重生为面向所有学生的三单元课程，这是“我最喜欢教的东西”,” Fugitt says. “It’s invigorating. It’s fun. I can really see how this impacts students. 你会非常了解他们，看到他们建立起自己作为领导者的信心. 看到人们纠结于这些概念以及如何将它们应用到自己的生活中是很有趣的, families, sports teams and so on.”

这个班太受欢迎了，他们只好把人数限制在30人. 每个人写一篇最终的论文来回答这个问题, “What principles and ethics guide your leadership?”

“I love it,” says Fugitt. “These students really open up in their papers. We talk about how you live, how you lead, how you treat people, how you will run an organization as a businessman, a missionary or a teacher. 我对我们的资料很有信心，圣经的部分真的很有力.”

Koenig says Q&I这种方法并没有把学生锁定在“一门香草味的入门课上，而这门课通常是一门调查课。.” Rather, “It gives them more depth,” she says. “这是展示这些学科之间联系的好方法. Many of us are asking the same questions; we just may come at them from different perspectives.”

In some ways, Q&I demands more of both faculty and students. Students dig deeper into primary sources, and write more, 教员们聚在一起讨论课程进展并就需要改进的地方达成一致.

But in another way, “这变得更容易教，因为你总是可以循环说, ‘What does this have to do with the question?’” Ashmon says. “It’s very fulfilling and a lot of fun.”