Nov. 6, 2001

Inquiring Minds: Columbian College Wants to Know

Hewlett Grant Funds CCAS Project for Inquiry-Based Education, Encourages Use of Washington Resources

By Thomas Kohout

An ambitious, two-year project recently launched by the Columbian College of Arts and Sciences (CCAS) has the potential to redefine the undergraduate experience at GW. Funded in part by a $150,000 grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, as well as matching funds from the University, the project will establish a series of academically challenging courses for freshmen that open doors to Washington-area resources.

“We’re looking at our students and trying to figure out ways that we could reengage them,” says Cheryl Beil, director of academic planning and assessment. “It’s part of a national trend at research universities, rethinking the general curriculum and how to get students to stop thinking of the general requirements as something you just get over with.”

The Hewlett project proposes to develop 10 to 15 courses based on the CCAS Dean’s Seminar series begun by former Dean Lester Lefton in 1999. The courses would be relatively small and taught by the school’s senior faculty, using a new theory of teaching — inquiry-based education.

“Pedagogically quite a different approach to the style most faculty use,” says CCAS Associate Dean Michael Moses. He explains that inquiry education, or problem-based learning as it is sometimes referred to, offers students greater control of, and responsibility for, their education. It begins with questions or problems that require a semester’s worth of information or skill to answer. Students attempt to solve the problem based on what they have already learned. Faculty then discuss with the students what types of formulas, information, or resources are necessary to tackle the query, and direct the class where they can find these data or skills.

“It begins with the problem and has the students find the information that they would need to solve the problem,” explains Moses. “It’s a much richer experience. It’s similar to the approach that researchers and graduate students use. You are not learning the way undergraduate classes are taught, which is always putting the cart before the horse. We present the theory and then we say ‘here are applications of the theory.’ At the research level you are using all of this information that you have already collected.”

The idea for a new approach to undergraduate education is not new to CCAS. The school has been interested in establishing a more challenging regime for its increasingly advanced student body for some time. The Dean’s Seminars focused on putting freshmen students in contact with senior faculty in a small, stimulating class environment. The courses cover creative topics such as “Monsters and Medieval Identity,” “The Psychology of Leadership;” “Politics and Religion;” “Material Culture in America,” and “How to Read an Artifact.” Though the series proved to be very popular among the school’s leading students, by relying on the scarce resource of senior faculty and more intimate class sizes, the series also proved to be costly.

In their search for the means to expand the series, Elizabeth Curtler, executive director of corporate and foundation relations in the development office, suggested they apply for the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation grant. The grant, which Curtler wrote, borrowed from the concerns voiced in the Boyer Commission Report published in 1998. Boyer was harshly critical of undergraduate education at research universities arguing that recruitment materials from research universities are quick to cite the schools’ prominent faculty, but few undergraduates ever get the chance to study under those “world-famous professors or taste genuine research.”

“This is something that we’ve seen at GW,” says Beil. “I do a lot of research with undergraduates, and many of our top students aren’t engaged. Students are coming to GW for Washington, not the education. The quality of our high school students keeps increasing, they have better grades and higher SAT’s than they had 10 years ago, but they’re not more intellectually engaged in the classroom.”

In the process of writing the proposal, Beil and Curtler developed the concept of inserting a Washington-centric element. All of the courses would have some aspect of Washington, DC, and the area resources at their root.

“If you look at GW’s mission statement, it’s almost all about undergraduate teaching with very strong statements about using Washington, DC, resources,” says Moses, adding he believes this may be the highlight of the whole project. “What we felt at the start was that we would make this a requirement for people submitting courses, to exploit the city’s resources.”

“For instance if you are taking a geology course,” Beil explains, “you might be using local natural resources to learn how rock formations occurred, or use resources from the US Geological Society. It’s bringing Washington into the classroom, and exploiting the multitude of assets available in the city.”

During the current academic year, the Hewlett Steering Committee, composed of senior CCAS faculty and administrators such as Beil, will sponsor information sessions on inquiry-based instruction in order to form GW-specific definition of inquiry-based education. Following the year of training and discussions, faculty members who have been previously selected to be Hewlett Fellows, will receive a $4,400 stipend to develop their courses over the summer to be ready for fall 2002. According to Moses, it is possible that only nine or 10 classes will be offered in the fall, saving five or six for the spring semester to maintain interest and give more students a chance to participate in the program. Following the 2002–03 academic year, the fellows and the steering committee will closely evaluate the effectiveness of the project and issue their findings to the school and the Hewlett Foundation.

According to Beil, assessment of the courses will play a central role in the program as well as the training.

“You have to know how much these students are learning,” says Beil, “and we have to make sure students are learning what we want them to learn.”

Although learning material directed toward problem solving can be more interesting, Moses warns there is a risk. “Students may just focus on the problem and forget that the problem is just a gimmick to understand this material.”

The Steering Committee is currently developing a Web site and a listserv to post materials and initiate discussion about the concepts involved in the project.

“We’re hoping that we’ll create a cadre of faculty who are rethinking how to teach undergraduates, and then passing that on to younger faculty,” says Beil, “and we’ll have a rebirth in looking at ways to improve undergraduate teaching.”

 

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