The Pilot Curriculum
OUTLINE AND OBJECTIVES
The Committee on Undergraduate Education has constructed a framework for a pilot curriculum with the following components:
I. A Pilot General Requirement of four courses, one per semester for the first four semesters (with one possible exception to be noted below). These courses will be new interdisciplinary courses in four categories. In each course, a team of lecturers will be drawn from standing faculty from departments across the School and the wider University. Discussion sections will be as important as lectures in these courses and to the extent possible will be led by members of the standing faculty as well, including but not limited to those providing lectures for the courses. The aims of these courses are:
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To introduce students to the integrative and reflective character of thought that distinguishes a liberal arts and sciences education in a research university from the intellectual experiences that they have already had. |
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To generate shared experiences that go well beyond the classroom and that elevate the intellectual environment for undergraduate life at Penn. |
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To introduce our students to the breadth of intellectual opportunities at Penn, while assuring that they have sufficient freedom to follow their own intellectual interests. |
II. A Skills and Methods requirement that includes the Foreign Language and Quantitative Skills requirements for all students in the College of Arts and Sciences, and replaces methods of satisfying the Writing Requirement with the current single course option. All students in the pilot curriculum will have opportunities for enhancing oral communication skills. These opportunities will be offered to students in the pilot program through a variety of venues including the writing courses, recitations of Pilot General Requirement courses, and freshman seminars.
III. A Major that includes significant opportunities for individual research, scholarship and/or creative projects.
IV. An Elective component that encourages depth, breadth and coherence in the use of elective credits and helps students to see that problems can be tackled from multiple perspectives, multiple disciplines, and in both theoretical and practical ways.
PREAMBLE
This pilot curriculum embodies several premises that we believe should underlie liberal arts education in a research university such as Penn as we prepare to enter a new century and to equip our students for its challenges. The highly motivated and highly selected students who choose to study for their bachelor's degrees within the context of a multi-faceted research university such as Penn have already used their secondary education to develop distinctive interests and numerous competences, and are ready to enjoy the freedom both to develop their existing interests as well as to explore new areas. We believe that it will be worthwhile to experiment with a more compact and well-focused learning experience in the freshman and sophomore years. Such a learning experience may help our students develop a reflective attitude towards fundamental issues in human conduct, inquiry, and artistic expression that will help them become aware of the different disciplines by which many issues can be approached in a research university, and yet will leave them the freedom that they need to pursue their diverse and demanding intellectual interests.
Students who choose the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania are distinguished by their eagerness and creativity, which find expression in diverse program options such as interdisciplinary majors, multiple majors, dual degree programs, and other ambitious and demanding courses of study. Such courses of study have not been imposed upon our students by faculty and administration planners, but have been developed by our faculty and supported by our administration in response to the needs and interests of our students and in consultation with them. We believe that it is vital that our curriculum continue to foster these forms of student creativity while providing a shared basis for the development of the critical practices of inquiry and reflection--practices that will be the most important benefit we can impart to our students to prepare them for the challenges both known and unknown that lie ahead.
CUE has discussed a variety of alternative means by which we might serve and challenge our students' intellectual interests. The components described below are intended to be suggestive, but not definitive, of the direction in which our curriculum innovations might move. They give emphasis both to intellectual skills and competence and to major accomplishments of human, moral and political reasoning, scientific inquiry, social and cultural understanding, and imaginative representation and self-expression.
COMPONENTS
The pilot curriculum has four main components:
I. Pilot General Requirement. This component consists of four semester-long courses, one from each of four course categories, to be taken by every student in the pilot during the first two years of study (with one possible exception noted below). Throughout these courses, approaches from many disciplines in the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences will be introduced, and the perspectives of diverse cultures will be considered. Indeed, conflicts among disciplinary and cultural perspectives will be a central issue in many of these courses: introducing students to the complexities of modern life in the era of globalism as well as drawing on the approaches and accomplishments of multiple disciplines are central reasons why these courses should be team-taught.
This four-course segment of the curriculum represents a modest portion of a student's overall educational experience at Penn and is not by itself intended to accomplish all of our educational objectives. Yet this component has the substantial and ambitious goals of raising the intellectual expectations of our students, fostering an enhanced intellectual environment on campus by providing a shared basis for intellectual interaction among students, and introducing students to the issues and approaches of many disciplines. We also believe that the simplification and reduction of the current General Requirement will improve the faculty's ability to provide more effective advising, allowing more time for faculty members to help students identify and pursue their own intellectual interests. Further, the Pilot General Requirement will also make available a significant number of course units for many students, which can be used to enhance major requirements, to enhance students' work outside of a single major, and in general to enable students to pursue a variety of intellectual interests and build upon the work begun in the general requirement courses themselves.
Courses developed for this requirement will employ both historical and contemporary perspectives, examining both the development of the ideas and issues they concern and the variety of systematic approaches to them. These courses will make extensive use of primary sources, current interpretative materials, and contemporary educational and informational technology. They will provide ample opportunities for both writing and discussion, and will also provide opportunities for students to develop their familiarity and skill with emerging technology and media.
Given the ambitious objectives of these four courses, the appropriate format for them will also be a subject of experimentation. During the pilot program, a small number of courses, each with a team of faculty lecturers as well as faculty-led discussion groups, will be offered in each category. If the program is to be offered to all students in the College at the end of the experiment, a larger number of courses in each category will have to be offered, and a variety of sizes and teaching methods for these courses will also have to be developed.
The sections that follow are meant to describe the objectives of the Pilot General Requirement courses rather than to provide rigid specifications for them. Specific syllabi for these courses will be developed by teams of faculty members during the period of preparation for the implementation of the pilot program, and will undergo constant refinement during the period of the pilot program by the faculty teams responsible for them as well as review by the faculty group that will be constituted for the review and development of the pilot program as a whole. The category descriptions and titles will undoubtedly evolve and improve as we gain experience developing specific courses. During the period of experimentation, faculty members from throughout SAS will be invited and encouraged to develop courses for the Pilot General Requirement within these broad categories. The Pilot General Requirement will thus be a site for continuous faculty participation and experimentation, and indeed this program will contribute to greater collegiality for the SAS faculty as well as for Penn students.
The suggested course categories are as follows:
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Structure and Value in Human Societies. Courses in this category will examine the value systems, political forms, and social and economic institutions that have shaped human societies around the world. An important aspect of many of these courses will be the examination of the moral and political ideals of liberal democracy in the modern world, but it is expected that most of the courses offered in this category will give to students some comparative perspective--over time and across cultures--on the ways in which human societies are organized. These courses will employ the methods and perspectives of various disciplines such as philosophy, political science, history, religious studies, economics, sociology, and anthropology. The courses will employ both original texts and contemporary materials. Toward Science Literacy. Mindful of the goal articulated in the SAS Strategic Plan to increase "science literacy" among Penn undergraduates, CUE spent a significant portion of its time discussing the best means, within the context of a four-course general requirement, to improve science education for all our students. The two categories described below are intended not to encompass all that we would like our students to comprehend in the area of the sciences, but rather, to introduce them to a range of problems in the sciences in a way that will encourage subsequent study of particular areas of science. Courses in these two categories will examine the emergence of the modern sciences, their accomplishments and continuing challenges, their intellectual relations to other disciplines and forms of human understanding, and their social costs as well as benefits. These courses will look at a wide range of scientific projects and accomplishments from a variety of standpoints, thus introducing a general and reflective approach to the sciences that will be invaluable for all our students in the coming century, both those planning on careers within science and technology as well as those preparing for careers and professions outside these areas. The construction of these courses will be an ambitious undertaking and will depend upon the participation of faculty from several divisions of the school. |
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Science, Culture and Society. Courses in this category will examine the modern conceptions of the natural and social sciences and their emergence. Special attention will be given to methodological issues, such as the use of mathematical methods and the relation between empirical observation and the construction of scientific theories, and to social and cultural issues including the relation of modern science to other forms of understanding such as philosophy and religion and the perspectives of different cultures on modern science. |
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Earth, Space and Life. Courses in this category will concentrate on major developments in the contemporary physical and life sciences. Attention will be given to interconnections of the sciences, to the driving forces of scientific advancement, both practical and aesthetic, and to the benefits as well as moral and political challenges derived from scientific advancement. Note: Students who believe that they will be science majors or who are preparing for medical careers will complete the courses in categories 1, 2 and 4 in their first three semesters. If by the middle of the sophomore year they are still planning a science major or medical career and have completed a two-course sequence in the physical or life sciences, then they can be exempted from course category 3. |
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Imagination, Representation and Reality. Courses in this category will study the representation and transformation of natural and cultural reality by the human imagination in literature, fine art, music and other forms of human expression. The courses will study a selection of works in various literary, artistic and musical media from antiquity to modernity in their aesthetic and historical contexts. Special attention will be given to connections among the different arts within particular cultures as well as to similarities and differences in the forms of representation and expression developed in different societies, cultures and religions. Clashes among aesthetic, political and religious perspectives on the works of human imagination and expression will inevitably be a theme in these courses. These courses will again depend upon participation by faculty from many disciplines. |
II. Skills and Methods. Clear written and oral communication, mastery of at least one natural language other than English, and familiarity with the quantitative skills necessary for comprehending the contemporary world as well as for preparing for specialized work in many fields are already central criteria for admission to the College of Arts and Sciences. But all students admitted to Penn, no matter how proficient they already are in these vital skills and methods, are also capable of developing their proficiencies to the next level. The requirements in the pilot curriculum are designed to help them do that and indeed to make the continuing development of these skills a part of their education throughout college. Computing and technological skills are also vital, but are still so rapidly evolving that we believe it will make more sense for the cultivation of these skills to be encouraged throughout our courses and curriculum than for them to be the special subject of one particular course or requirement.
We envision that every student in the pilot curriculum will satisfy the Writing Requirement by taking a single writing course during the freshman year. These courses will be offered by various departments on the model of the current "Writing About..." courses. Opportunities for enhancing oral communication skills will be developed for students in the pilot curriculum within some of the writing courses as well as in other venues currently under consideration by the SATU Committee (Speaking Across the University).
The Foreign Language and Quantitative Skills requirements will be satisfied in the ways currently prescribed or being developed for students in the College of Arts and Sciences as a whole.
III. Major. Every student in the College is expected to develop a high level of knowledge, skill and creativity in at least one discipline or concentration of disciplines of human inquiry, and will thus satisfy the requirements of at least one major. Consistent with the principles enunciated in the SAS Strategic Plan, we will work with students in the pilot curriculum to ensure that they not merely learn what others have already discovered but also that they learn how to advance the boundaries of human knowledge and creation for themselves. We will encourage all departmental and inter-departmental major programs to afford each student a significant opportunity for conducting individual research, scholarship or a creative project. Many formats will be appropriate for this purpose, including research seminars, independent study projects, and senior theses, and there will be many appropriate venues for such projects, including individual and team work in the laboratory, library, studio, or outside community or environment.
IV. Electives. The four course Pilot General Requirement, by reducing the number of courses, expands the opportunity for students to use their electives creatively to maximize their use of University resources. Students may wish to explore previously unsampled areas of knowledge, add to their repertoire of analytical tools, reinforce their command of a particular subject with courses in areas that may not appear to be related yet can add significantly to an understanding of that subject, or supplement the major with a set of electives that are integrated into a coherent program of study.
With the help of the College advising system, students will be encouraged to shape a program that fits their individual interests and needs. The paths students will follow may take a variety of forms including:
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Thematic clusters. Under the guidance of faculty mentors, students may create individualized clusters of four to six courses that are interdisciplinary and integrate perspectives from two or more areas. We encourage the inclusion of an undergraduate research or independent study course within the cluster. Groups of departments are also encouraged to develop thematic clusters to offer to students. |
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Enhanced study abroad. By choosing to spend a semester abroad, students commit themselves to an in-depth investigation of another culture. The four or five courses taken abroad should be supplemented by an additional one or two advanced courses in the language (or in the history, society, or culture of the host country in case of English language programs) taken at Penn upon completion of the term abroad. |
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Community-based research option. The application of knowledge toward the solution of community problems is a long-standing tradition at Penn. Such programs frequently extend beyond the normal time commitments of academic coursework and are themselves evidence of a student's intellectual flexibility and willingness to apply theory to practice. Students choosing this option should complete three or four participatory action research courses supplemented by several courses allowing them to place their work in an appropriate historical, cultural, or sociological context. |
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Thematic semester. A semester spent on a single related theme, such as the Washington semester, when supplemented by appropriate coursework, is another way to integrate electives into a creative and challenging program of study. |
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Dual majors/degrees/minors. The most traditional way to organize electives in a coherent program of study is through an interdisciplinary major, a double major, a major and a minor, or with a dual degree with another of Penn's undergraduate schools. |
All students in the pilot program will be required to prepare a well-articulated plan for the use of electives. The initial plan will be reviewed by the student's faculty advisor or mentor no later than the spring semester of the sophomore year and will be updated and reviewed at the end of the junior year. Certification that the student has prepared a plan and discussed it with an advisor will be a prerequisite for preregistration for the following semester. Following the final review, students will be asked to write a short statement describing how their electives complemented one another with special emphasis on unexpected and surprising connections.
Committee on Undergraduate Education, CAS
November 1999