This suggested core model is offered not as a final proposal but as an illustration of how one could globalize the BOR core while preserving much of its current structure.
The Global Future: Building on Excellence
Each institution's core curriculum shall consist of 60 semester hours as follows:
Area A Essential Skills, English comp and math 9 semester hours
Area B Course 2001 or higher of a Foreign Language 3 semester hours
Area C Humanities/Fine Arts 6 semester hours
Area D Science, Mathematics, and Technology 12 semester hours
Area E Social Sciences 12 semester hours
Area F Courses Related to the Program of Study 18 semester hours
As they complete areas A-E, they must also meet the following “overlay” requirements.
Global Diversity, GD
Courses designated as "GD" will provide students with the opportunity to develop skills and knowledge that will enable them to be informed participants in our globally and culturally complex society.
Citizenship and Ethics, CE
Courses designated as “CE” will develop in students an understanding of the connection between citizenship and ethics, emphasizing society’s need for ethical and engaged citizens.
Information Literary and Technology, IT
Courses designated as “IT” will develop skills in using technology as a tool for retrieving, organizing, interpreting, and applying information. IT courses will also develop information literacy: the ability to evaluate information and its sources.
One course may be counted towards both an Area A-E requirement and an overlay requirement. For example, a World History course might count as both Area E and GD.
Rationale:
The core, like life, is all about trade-offs. This proposal represents the view that study of a foreign language would be more beneficial to our students than the current contents of Area B. This is controversial because there are many good courses in Area B. The suggestion that the course must 2001 or higher, is designed to make the core cohere with the College Preparatory Curriculum (CPC), the high school curriculum required by the Board of Regents for entrance to USG institutions. The CPC requires two years of a language and the national norm is that one year of high-school-level language study is equivalent to a semester of college-level language study. It would, in effect, count the first two semester of a language as high school level work.
Overlay requirements are quite common at institutions around the United States. They are a natural way to building on the traditional academic areas. The three overlaps suggested here are merely illustrations. There are many other possible overlay requirements.
I have borrowed almost all of the above from various different academic sources. In particular, the three overlap requirements are drawn from a core proposal discussed at Georgia College and State University
George Rainbolt, Professor of Philosophy, Georgia State University
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