A freshman program: Learning how to learn

✍ Scribed by Larry Cobb; Clyde Combs; Ann Kemmerer

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1985
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 511 KB
• Volume: 1985
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0271-0633
• DOI: 10.1002/tl.37219852108

✦ Synopsis

A new dynamic pervades classroom and campus as colleges lower the barriers to admission and recruit students previously deemed unqualified. The student population increasingly resembles a cross section of society at large. A small group of faculty at Slippery Rock University responded to the altered student population by developing a course that would advance the whole range of studentsthe bright, motivated, and gifted as well as those who entered college under a special admission program designed to overcome academic, social, and economic deficiencies. The faculty had two goals: to prepare students for a life of reflective thought, esthetic appreciation, and active participation in society and to convince colleagues that their frustration with shifting, even declining, classroom standards and their ebbing personal career satisfaction were not permanent.

Building a Learning Subculture

The resulting proogram is known as Human Inquiry. Its core is epistemology: learning how to learn in various academic disciplines and studying and reflecting on some of the dominant modes of thought J. K.u (Ed.). T a s l7m& Stwhfs M.lraaL New Dinctiau for