This fall Southwestern University will begin the second year of its curriculum with Paideia, clusters of classes focused on interdisciplinary thematic questions and cultural and civic engagement, as a requirement for all students.
“Students will leave Paideia with a deep knowledge of their major but also the skills and attitudes to explore outside of that discipline and work with others with different educational backgrounds,” said Sherry Adrian, director of Paideia and associate professor of education. “The faculty is challenged to teach and learn as well.”
About 89 percent of Southwestern’s faculty is teaching at least one cluster theme course this year, and in the 2015-16 school year about 900 students will be engaged in Paideia, Adrian said.
In 2002 the university launched the Paideia Program, which bridged academic and nonacademic experiences, and was available to a small number of students. While re-examining the university’s curriculum, faculty members decided to expand Paideia to all students, Adrian said.
“The university chose to make interdisciplinary teaching and learning the focus for our new curriculum,” she said. “That called for faculty to come together to generate proposals around thematic, real-world issues.”
Each year faculty members collaborate and submit proposals to form new cluster themes.
“The fun part from a faculty perspective is the way we come up with ideas is talking to other faculty members,” associate professor of Spanish Katy Ross said. “We’re hoping for students to make connections among their different classes.”
Students take three classes within their Paideia cluster theme during their freshman, sophomore and junior years. After the three courses are completed students take a Paideia seminar class during one semester of their junior or senior year, Adrian said.
Two faculty members from different disciplines lead the beginning of the seminar, and then the students are asked to take over and co-create the remainder of the seminar’s curriculum.
“The students become co-designers of their own learning,” Adrian said. “We want them to be reflective learners.”
Along with their course work, students can participate in some form of civic engagement as well as some form of intercultural learning, she said.
“We want students to make the connection between civic engagement and academics,” she said. “All of us become better citizens [through this process].”
Students who participate in civic engagement and intercultural learning as well as earn a grade point average of 3.8 or higher in their Paideia classes can graduate with Paideia with Distinction, Adrian said. However, other ways to earn the distinction could be added.
The curriculum will continue to be refined by faculty and students, she said.
“This is faculty- and student-driven,” Adrian said. “We have to be open to the notion that it will continue to develop.”