New common core grant
Alyssa Scott
Issue date: 4/30/09 Section: News
More heads have always been better than one. On Saturday morning ten professors, gathered together with coffee and breakfast for their weekly meeting to discuss the Common Core Curriculum.
Acknowledging their work, the Davis Educational Foundation granted Sacred Heart University $80,000 to provide stipends for the professors teaching the new curriculum. As of now, ten members of the faculty from various disciplines come together each week to develop an innovative multidisciplinary curriculum, and in the fall of 2009, an additional ten faculty members will be added.
"The work they are doing is unique, distinctive, and challenging because it asks each faculty member to reach beyond his or her own discipline to learn and study material from their colleague's discipline," said Dr. Michelle Loris, professor and associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.
Forming this new curriculum, the team of professors hope to offer their students an invaluable experience that can apply to their life after college. Based on the Essential Learning Outcomes research, students need an education that challenges them to answer philosophical dialogue in all subjects.
"The Core has really allowed these kinds of conversations to take place, and the Davis Fellows are especially lucky to have time set aside specifically to development these integrative models of thinking and learning," said history professor Jennifer McLaughlin.
However, it has not just provided a rigorous program for students but a new challenge for faculty as well.
"As a Davis fellow, I have really appreciated the chance for intellectual dialogue with my colleagues from other departments. I have a deeper understanding of some of their disciplinary perspectives and a broader sense of what teaching in the Core can and should be," said Jennie-Rebecca Falcetta, an assistant professor of English.
Through their joint efforts, the professors have had the opportunity to more thoroughly explore different subjects of knowledge and communicate their own.
Acknowledging their work, the Davis Educational Foundation granted Sacred Heart University $80,000 to provide stipends for the professors teaching the new curriculum. As of now, ten members of the faculty from various disciplines come together each week to develop an innovative multidisciplinary curriculum, and in the fall of 2009, an additional ten faculty members will be added.
"The work they are doing is unique, distinctive, and challenging because it asks each faculty member to reach beyond his or her own discipline to learn and study material from their colleague's discipline," said Dr. Michelle Loris, professor and associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.
Forming this new curriculum, the team of professors hope to offer their students an invaluable experience that can apply to their life after college. Based on the Essential Learning Outcomes research, students need an education that challenges them to answer philosophical dialogue in all subjects.
"The Core has really allowed these kinds of conversations to take place, and the Davis Fellows are especially lucky to have time set aside specifically to development these integrative models of thinking and learning," said history professor Jennifer McLaughlin.
However, it has not just provided a rigorous program for students but a new challenge for faculty as well.
"As a Davis fellow, I have really appreciated the chance for intellectual dialogue with my colleagues from other departments. I have a deeper understanding of some of their disciplinary perspectives and a broader sense of what teaching in the Core can and should be," said Jennie-Rebecca Falcetta, an assistant professor of English.
Through their joint efforts, the professors have had the opportunity to more thoroughly explore different subjects of knowledge and communicate their own.
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