Perspectives on the Liberal Arts and Sciences
Course Proposal
General Education Advisory Committee
Queens College, City University of New York
I. Course Information
Course Title:
Credits:
✔
History 164 Social and Cultural: European VT
3
Prerequisites:
None
Existing course, course number:
New course
Department:
Department Contact:
History
History
Frank Warren
Area of Knowledge and Inquiry
Context of Experience
Extended Requirements
(select one)
(select only if the course
emphasizes one of the
following)
(select only if the course meets
one of the following)
Reading Literature (RL)
Appreciating and Participating
in the Arts (AP)
✔
Culture and Values (CV)
✔
Pre-Industrial Society (PI)
United States (US)
Analyzing Social Structures (SS)
European Traditions (ET)
Abstract or Quantitative
Reasoning (QR)
World Cultures (WC)
Natural Science (NS)
The following information is useful to the subcommittee to estimate the college's progress toward the goal of
offering enough sections and seats in each Perspectives category. How often does the department anticipate the
course will be offered? Please also estimate the anticipated number of sections and number of seats per section.
Every semester
✔
number of sections:
number of seats per section:
1
Every Fall or ✔ Every Spring number of sections:
number of seats per section:
Other:
number of seats per section:
January 2008
number of sections:
30
Page 1 of 5
Course Description
Please include a course description. If the course will include variable topics or be taught in various forms, please
provide as many descriptions of specific sections as possible.
This course will explore social groups and their institutions, and culture in the broad sense of how people lived,
thought, their beliefs and values. It will emphasize the interaction of classes, ethnic, and religious groups within a
particular society or societies. Attention will be paid to differences between social history and other kinds of history.
In social and cultural history, the student does not concentrate on the elites, but, rather, focuses on the people--the
assembly, the army, the congregation, the social activities, and social movements arising from the people. The
course will explore what life was like for these groups in their period in the past and how the knowledge of their
experiences inform the inquiry into broad issues, such as social inequality, the construction of nations and citizens,
ongoing struggles over rights, and the formation of personal and group identities. The course will also explore
collective values and expectations of certain historical populations and how these values and expectations changed
over time.
January 2008
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II. Criteria for Perspectives Courses
Justification
Please describe how the course will address criteria for Perspectives on the Liberal Arts and Sciences courses.
Be sure to include an explanation of the course’s specific learning goals for students to make a connection
between these and the general criteria for Perspectives courses.
Theoretical reading at the start of the course will address the nature of the historical discipline and its relation to a
liberal arts curriculum. Diversity and the nature and construction of difference will be central to all topics taught in
this course. By studying the values and social mores, habits and social patterns of groups within a particular society,
the diversity within that society and how differences are constructed will be foregrounded. Courses which explore
differences between differing geographical cultures or differing periods o0f time will also satisfy the global or
comparative criteria. Change over time is built into the nature of history courses. Primary sources which reveal social
behavior and cultural values will be used in all sections. And active learning will be assured through student
discussion and/or student presentations. One of the learning goals of this course is for students to understand that
history must not only be studied through the elites of society, but that ton have a true understanding of history it is
necessary to study the social and cultural history of the broad mass of people. Another goal is to have students
understand that diversity is not simply a modern phrase, but to show that diversity and diverse experiences-whether they be ethnic, religious,. class, or gender--have existed in all societies and have taken different historic
directions.
Criteria Checklist
Please be sure that your justification addresses all three criteria 1-3, below. For criteria 4-8, please check all that
apply and discuss these in your justification.
A Perspectives course must:
1. Be designed to introduce students to how a
particular discipline creates knowledge and
understanding.
2. Position the discipline(s) within the liberal
arts and the larger society.
3. Address the goals defined for the particular
Area(s) of Knowledge the course is designed to
fulfill.
In addition, a Perspectives course will, where
appropriate to its discipline(s) and subject matter:
4. Be global or comparative in approach.
5. Consider diversity and the nature and
construction of forms of difference.
6. Engage students in active inquiry.
7. Reveal the existence and importance of change
over time.
8. Use primary documents and materials.
January 2008
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III. Course Materials, Assignments, and Activities
Please provide an annotated list of course readings and descriptions of major assignments or exams for the course,
as well as distinctive student activities that will engage students in working toward the course goals discussed in
the course description and/or justification.
Please include the author and title for each reading or text, along with a short description providing information
about how the reading will contribute to course goals.
Please see accompanying sample syllabi
IV. Assessment
Perspectives courses must be recertified every five years, and we are seeking ideas for how to best carry out this
assessment. What forms of evidence that the course is meeting its goals as a Perspectives course would be
appropriate to collect for this course during the next five years? How would you prefer assessment to be
conducted? How might evidence of effective teaching and student learning be collected and evaluated?
The History Department is creating an Outcomes Assessment Committee. Among its charges will be the evaluation
and assessment of the Department's General Education courses. This will involve checking syllabi to see if they are
meeting the criteria and collecting examinations and papers to see if they are measuring the goals of General
Education. Written assignments will be evaluated both in the first year and then over a period of time.
January 2008
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V. Administration
What process will your department develop to oversee this course, suggest and approve changes, and conduct
assessment? Who will be in charge of this process? Also indicate whether the course will be primarily taught by
full-time or adjunct faculty, or by a combination of the two types of instructor.
Proposed General Education courses will be developed using the same process as regular courses--from the
individual who proposes the course, to the departmental curriculum committee, to a department vote, and to the
GEAC and college curriculum committee. The departmental curriculum committee in conjunction with the outcomes
assessment committee will oversee the courses. The course is designed to be taught by full-time faculty, although on
occasion, an experienced and well-qualified adjunct might teach the course.
VI. Syllabus
Please attach a sample syllabus (or set of syllabi, for courses on variable topics or courses that will be taught in
variable formats).
Some resources to guide syllabus construction:
•
The Provost's page outlining guidelines for syllabi:
http://qcpages.qc.cuny.edu/provost/Cur_stud/Syllabus expectations.htm
•
Sample syllabi for W courses, from Writing Across the Curriculum:
http://qcpages.qc.cuny.edu/writing/wsyllabi.htm
•
Goals for Student Writing at Queens College:
http://qcpages.qc.cuny.edu/writing/Goals.htm
•
Harvard’s Bok Center for Teaching and Learning, suggestions for syllabus planning:
http://isites.harvard.edu/icb/icb.do?keyword=k1985&pageid=icb.page29695
•
Lehman College’s Gen Ed Syllabi Project:
http://www.lehman.edu/lehman/programs/generaledu/gened_syllabi_project.html
Submit this completed form and a sample syllabus (or set of syllabi) by email to Eva Fernández
(eva.fernandez@qc.cuny.edu), Director, Center for Teaching and Learning.
January 2008
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