General education is central to Northland Pioneer College's purposes, its definition and its academic commitments. Through a general education program, the College commits students and faculty to the pursuit of comprehensiveness in learning--to seeing the relationship of special interests to the larger academic and cultural contexts which we share. It offers vantage points from which to sharpen our awareness of the development of our own culture and its relatedness to others. The search for an integrated understanding requires a general desire to learn, an energetic interest in the world and a willingness to put ourselves in the place of those whose beliefs and outlooks are different from our own. A general education program, pursued by curious and empathic faculty and students, provides a structure in which the accumulation of knowledge and the practice of disciplined, independent thinking can grow into comprehensive understanding, appreciation and reasoned value.
An effective general education program requires the exercise of thoughtful and precise writing, critical reading, quantitative thinking and processes of analysis and synthesis which underlie valid reasoning. Therefore, students must have a solid foundation in writing, reading, mathematics and critical thinking.
Studies in the traditional academic disciplines are built upon foundation skills in thought and communication, and lead students to grasp the conceptual frameworks that govern different fields of study. Such courses demonstrate that the study of specialized subject matter in any of the traditional knowledge areas--Arts and Humanities, Mathematics, Physical and Biological Sciences, Social and Behavioral Sciences--is critical to the central dialogues of general education.
General education studies focus on the conceptual frameworks through which a thinker, a culture, or an academic discipline may approach an issue. We discover both the ordering power and the potential limitations of the fundamental models of understanding that have shaped our thinking throughout the history of civilization. We acknowledge the dependence of thought upon these models, judge them through comparison with alternative models from other thinkers and cultures, and yet are able to continue to participate with active, discerning commitment in the political, ethical and aesthetic life of the community.
The purpose of general education is to give each student pursuing an undergraduate degree the fundamental skills and the familiarity with various branches of knowledge which are associated with college and university education and the cultivation necessary for a lifetime of learning, problem solving and responsible, humane action.
Assessment is an ongoing process aimed at understanding and improving student learning. It involves making our expectations explicit and public; setting appropriate criteria and high standards for learning quality; systematically gathering, analyzing and interpreting evidence to determine how well performance matches those expectations and standards; and using the resulting -information to document, explain and improve performance. When it is embedded effectively within larger institutional systems, assessment can help us focus our collective attention, examine our assumptions and create a shared academic culture dedicated to assuring and improving the quality of higher education (AAHE Bulletin, November, 1995, p. 7).
The principle of assessment, and use of assessment feedback for measuring and improving overall student academic achievement and institutional effectiveness, is an integral part of Northland. Assessment of Student Academic Achievement applies to all five major academic related missions of Northland: General Education, Transfer Preparation Education, Basic Skills/Developmental Education, Customized Education, and Personal Interest Education. Assessment is integral to the matching of instructional resources to the diversity of student academic needs in a manner that is accountable to all stakeholders.
Assessment of Student Academic Achievement includes the extent to which each instructional academic unit (department, etc.) actually contributes to the incremental learning of its students in:
Hence, over time each academic unit is expected to measure its performance in facilitating Student Academic Achievement in these areas. Each academic unit's faculty helps collect assessment data through faculty-directed student activities designed to enhance learning.
Students at Northland are expected to take an active role in their acquisition of knowledge, skill and attitude. This includes the student's responsibility in acting upon appropriate:
Specifically, over the length of a course or program Northland instructional units will collect samples of students' work across the College district, for use in assessment of collective student academic achievement. Such collected samples of students' work generally will be from selected course work required to complete a program or degree, or representative of work done up to a predetermined point along the way to program or degree completion. Similarly, students and alumni may also be asked to complete surveys reflecting aspects of student academic achievement related to their programs.
Student work submitted by faculty for assessment of student academic achievement across time and district will be reviewed anonymously. However, students are still expected to do their best, whether the work selected was used by the faculty toward a course grade and/or by the academic units as a broader assessment of Northland students' academic achievement.
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