Connecting Global Learning and Science
Education in the General Education Curriculum
By Harvey Charles, Mildred Bray Dean for Global
Education, Wheaton College (Massachusetts)
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Wheaton College |
When questioned about institutional commitment to global
education, faculty and administrators at U.S. colleges
and universities invariably point to their study abroad
programs as an indicator of such commitment. Study abroad
numbers on a national level, however, are remarkably
low—less than 2 percent of total student enrollment
according to the Institute of International Education
(2004). The Commission on the Abraham Lincoln Study
Abroad Fellowship Program (2005) recommends increasing
the number of students studying abroad to one million
per year. Even if we achieve such a goal—a daunting
challenge without significant commitment of funds from
the federal government—the overwhelming majority
of American undergraduates will complete college without
a study abroad experience. In short, study abroad is
not, by itself, the answer for institutionalizing a
global education agenda. It is becoming clearer that
engaging the broadest range of students with global
perspectives requires a strategy that is embedded in
the general education curriculum.
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Wheaton College |
Wheaton College (Massachusetts) has responded to this
challenge by developing a general education model that
supports disciplinary breadth and interdisciplinary
innovation. The centerpiece of this model, the Connections
program, has replaced the familiar “menu”
method of requiring courses from different divisions
with a new vision that emphasizes how subjects and approaches
connect across traditional disciplinary boundaries.
All students must take at least one three-course “connection”
or two two-course “connections” that include
courses from at least two of the following areas: creative
arts, humanities, history, social sciences, natural
sciences, math, and computer science.
Wheaton
Connections Linking Science
and Global Issues |
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Politics and Global Change:
This connection combines international
politics with geology. Its fundamental premise
is that politicians and government regulators
often make decisions that affect our natural world
without understanding the science that underlies
these issues. Water use, desertification, air
and water pollution, and climate change all cross
national boundaries, but global treaties that
would address these problems often prove difficult
to ratify or enforce. Politics and Global Change
combines relevant scientific information with
the political debate needed to help students arrive
at a more balanced understanding of the challenges
facing the natural world as well as possible paths
to resolution.
BioPharma: Combining a course
called Cells and Genes with Introduction to Microeconomics,
this connection presents students with opportunities
to study the global pharmaceutical industry, which
has grown into a multibillion-dollar enterprise
merging economic principles and biomedical research
to develop and distribute therapeutics around
the world. Through topics such as vaccine development
and distribution, drug therapy and human cloning,
and the human genome project, students are able
to gain insights into the economic implications
of biomedical research and examine the biomedical
character of the products that are marketed around
the globe.
Food: The Anthropology of Feast
and Famine is connected to three natural science
courses, permitting students to opt for either
a two- or three-course connection. This anthropology
course explores topics such as eating disorders,
the causes and consequences of malnutrition, and
how culture shapes taste and cuisine, as well
as controversies around genetically modified food.
It can be connected with a nutrition course in
the biology department that examines topics such
as weight control, the world food supply, the
contribution of nutrients to health and disease,
and the influence of advertising on food choice
and availability. A second science course option
is Plant Biology, which deals with the distinguishing
features of each plant phylum and of selected
families of flowering plants, but also looks at
plants that are important as sources of food or
as beverages, medicines, or even objects of aesthetic
beauty. The final option is Edible Chemicals,
a chemistry course that focuses on the chemical
components of food as well as their behavior together
in cooking and digestion. |
This structure has engaged faculty in a voluntary endeavor
that has led to some of the most innovative and exciting
cross-disciplinary work that has ever occurred at Wheaton.
It has spanned some divides that until recently were
thought impossible to bridge. While participating in
the Connections program is not a faculty requirement,
it is the means by which departments participate in
the distribution or breadth requirement of the general
education curriculum. Faculty members seek out colleagues
whose courses appear to make a good fit with their own
and propose the creation of a connection. The proposal
is then sent to the educational policy committee for
review, and once approved, becomes a connection option
for students. Student-initiated connections are also
possible, and these too must be reviewed and approved
by the educational policy committee.
Since the implementation of the new curriculum in 2003,
connections have become an important site for the infusion
of global perspectives in the curriculum (see www.wheatoncollege.edu/
Catalog/CONX for a list of connections). In fact,
at least half of the existing connections have significant
global content. A number of this subset involve science
courses, demonstrating that the challenge of infusing
global perspectives in science courses can be overcome.
Although we are still in the process of collecting
assessment data on the effectiveness of this strategy
in terms of global and scientific learning, we remain
confident that the “connections” model is
engaging students in disciplines that they may otherwise
shun. At the same time, it is demonstrating to students
the profound and ubiquitous ways in which our world
is interconnected and interdependent.
References
Institute of International Education. 2004. Open
doors report 2004. New York: Institute of International
Education.
Commission on the Abraham Lincoln Study Abroad Fellowship
Program. 2005. Global competence and national needs:
One million Americans studying abroad. Washington,
DC: Commission on the Abraham Lincoln Study Abroad Fellowship
Program.
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