College Curriculum

Joseph L. DeVitis has taught at five universities in his 40-year academic career. Recipient of the Distinguished Alumni Award from the College of Education, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, he is a past president of the American Educational Studies Association (AESA), the Council of Learned Societies in Education, and the Society of Professors of Education. Author or editor of 15 books, he has written extensively on moral development, liberal education, collegiate service-learning, and educational reform. His most recent books are a series of notable readers for Peter Lang Publishing: Contemporary Colleges and Universities (2013); Critical Civic Literacy (2011); Character and Moral Education (2011), edited with Tianlong Yu; and Adolescent Education (2010), edited with Linda Irwin-DeVitis. The latter two books received Critics Choice Awards from AESA as outstanding books of the year.

«All too often colleges and universities go about forming and delivering their curricula without thinking deeply about what goes into them and what their overarching purposes are. Joseph L. DeVitis’s thoughtful and beautifully crafted book asks the big questions: Why do we do what we do? What are students learning? How do we know what we are doing is working? This volume is essential reading for college presidents, provosts, deans, department chairs, faculty members, and students who want to make a difference in their academic institutions.» (Marybeth Gasman, Professor of Higher Education, University of Pennsylvania) «Dr. DeVitis’s book is replete with both practical advice and thought-provoking conceptual and theoretical discussions of curriculum in higher education. This volume makes a tremendous contribution to the understanding of how and why college and university curricula are created and recreated. In addition, readers are introduced to an array of distinctive and innovative curricula from U.S. institutions. They offer fascinating opportunities to explore the unique ways that academe has developed curricula toward specific aims.» (Beth Rushing, Vice President for Academic Affairs andDean of Faculty, St. Mary’s College of Maryland) «Curriculum matters! This collection of essays explores a panoply of curricular approaches to undergraduate education. It highlights the vital importance of curriculum change through the lenses of distinctive initiatives in today’s academic landscape. The book focuses on many key concerns: Core curriculum, civic education, multicultural education, service learning, and cooperative education, among others. It is also sensitive to the particularities of individual institutions. Joseph L. DeVitis understands and celebrates this while encouraging the rest of us to learn from assaying that diversity and picking out insights that might work for us.» (Kenneth Waltzer, Professor of History, Former Dean of James Madison College. Former Director of Integrative Studies in Arts and Humanities, Michigan State University)

• Contents: Roger William Gilman: What Is a Liberal Education? – Christopher J. Lucas: Liberal Education: The Challenge of Consumerism, Careerism, and Commodification – Daniel R. DeNicola: Liberal Education and Moral Education – Donald Lazere: A Core Curriculum for Civic Literacy? – Jonathan D. Stolk: Understanding Student Motivation: A Key to Effective Curriculum Design – Eric C. Sheffield: Community Service Learning and Higher Education: The Need for a Prerequisite to Thoughtful Service – William H. Schubert: Multiple Curricula in Higher Education – Peter Kalkavage: The Habit of Reflection: An Essay on St. John’s College – William A. Frank: An Essay in American Liberal Education: University of Dallas’s «Core Curriculum» – Roger William Gilman: Fairhaven College and the Progressive Curriculum – Duncan Dobbelmann/Isabel Roche: The Plan for Bennington: An (Ever) Emergent Curriculum – Laura Wenk/Kristen Luschen: Multiple Routes, Alternative Learning Experiences: Developing Analytic Abilities, Practical Skills, Creativity, and Self-Reflection at Hampshire College – Susan Oaks: Individualized Undergraduate Curricula at SUNY Empire State College – Kristin Woolever and Paul Burkhardt: Prescott College: Lessons Learned «For the Liberal Arts, Environment, and Social Justice» – Susan A. Ashley: The Colorado College Block Plan – Tim Seiber/Kelly Hankin: A Community of Advisors: The Johnston Center for Integrative Studies at the University of Redlands – Jeffrey Tang: Building an Integrated Science and Technology Program at James Madison University – Lynn Andrea Stein/Mark H. Somerville/Jessica Townsend/Vincent P. Manno: Olin College: Re-Visioning Undergraduate Engineering Education – Amy S. Green: Teaching and Learning Outside the Box at John Jay College of Criminal Justice – Lisa Gring-Pemble: «Connecting the Classroom to the World»: An Integrative, Interdisciplinary, and Experiential Approach to Learning at George Mason University – Terry L. Price: The Liberal Arts Approach to Leadership: The Curriculum of the Jepson School of Leadership Studies at the University of Richmond – Daniel O. Prosterman: Revising the Salem Signature: Crafting an Interdisciplinary General Education Program – Nicholas P. Money: Developing a New Individualized and Interdisciplinary Curriculum for the 21st Century: Miami University’s Western Program Reimagined – John P. Esser/Lily D. McNair/Richard Guarasci: Staying Alive With The Wagner Plan: How to Keep a New First-Year Program Thriving Fifteeen Years Out – Adrienne Bloss/Gail Steehler: The Intellectual Inquiry Curriculum at Roanoke College – Stephen Sharkey/Kathleen O’Brien: Starting With the Students: Integrating Theory and Practice in Teaching, Learning, and Curriculum Development at Alverno College – Thomas J. Mauhs-Pugh/Meriel Brooks: Seeking «Productive, Caring, and Fulfilling Lives» Through the Environmental Liberal Arts at Green Mountain College – Michelle Clare/Anita Todd/Kettil Cedercreutz: Starting Its Second Century: Cooperative Education at the University of Cincinnati – Bruce Keith/Thomas Judd: Building Students’ Capacity to Lead: The West Point Leader Development System – Joanna Swanger: From the Local to the Global, to the «Beyond» and the In-Between: Earlham College’s Peace and Global Studies Program – Robert Baker: Union College’s Ethics Across the Curriculum Program.