Members of faculty interested in developing a general education course for the new Fredonia Foundations are invited to register for one of three course design workshops slated for Friday, Oct. 7.
Workshops are scheduled for 8 and 10 a.m., and 2 p.m., in the Horizon Room of the Williams Center. To register for a workshop – visit the Professional Development Center website at www.fredonia.edu/pdc.
The active workshop will provide an important first step in developing an effective course for Fredonia Foundations. Guest speaker Paul Hanstedt will be facilitating. Dr. Hanstedt is a professor of English at Roanoke College, where he directed the revision of a campus-wide general education program, coordinates the college’s e-portfolio system and is currently designing a Teaching Collaborative. He is the recipient of several teaching awards, including a 2013 State Council for Higher Education in Virginia Outstanding Faculty Award and the 2014 CASE-Carnegie Virginia Professor of the Year Award. He received a Fulbright award to aid curricular revision in Hong Kong, and authored “General Education Essentials,” a faculty introduction to current trends in liberal education. He is currently working on a course-design book focusing on student authority.
The course design workshop will explore the current trends in general education, paying particular attention to the movement toward more integrative models. After examining some of the rationales for the trends, faculty will have the chance to explore the opportunities the changes create for their own courses and their teaching: how might an integrative course open up possibilities for faculty? How might it allow us to better engage students? To collaborate with our colleagues? And what are the challenges in all of this?
