几个新, collaboratively created pilot courses join this year's undergraduate curriculum as part of BC's three-year core renewal initiative. 教师们讨论他们构思和发展课程的过程, 以及他们希望达到的目标.



Corinne Wong(地球与环境科学)和David Storey(哲学)
Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences Corinne Wong and Assistant Professor of the Practice of Philosophy David Storey

 

课程: 完美的道德风暴:气候变化的科学与伦理

类别:复杂问题

教师: David Storey(哲学)和Corinne Wong(地球与环境科学)

•构思想法

地球与环境科学基本上是一门跨学科的学科, 因为我们要解决的问题需要了解地球的许多不同方面——地球内部, 气候与大气, 河流, 海洋, 还有冰帽, terrestrial and aquatic biospheres – and have critical implications for the health and prosperity of human societies.

气候变化, 特别是, is an issue that requires a fundamental understanding of the natural system to be in the best position to evaluate the consequences of future actions (or inaction), but determining what actions can and should be made given the economic and socio-political realities surrounding us requires expertise from many different disciplines. Teaming up with David to present the objective side while having students grapple with the subjective side of climate change only seemed natural.

层: 的 challenge with exploring the ethics of climate change – and pretty much any environmental problem – is that you can't do so without delving into science, 经济学, 政策, 以及许多其他学科.  但如果你太阳城官网科学, 或者经济方面, 或者政策, 这并没有告诉你个人或政府应该如何行动或制定政策, 或者是什么规范在起作用, 或者应该统治, 全球协定和条约.  没有哪个专家能精通所有这些学科, 所以这是一个自然适合在跨学科背景下太阳城官网的课题. 

I also thought that studying the issue from the perspective of philosophical ethics made a lot of sense; ethics is sometimes sidelined in both political and academic discussions about climate change, 或以肤浅的方式讨论, 但这确实是问题的核心,而且实际上相当复杂.  当我听说新核心的复杂问题课程时, 我立刻知道我想做什么.  加上方济各教皇最近就环境问题发出的通谕, 这让我意识到现在是上这门课的最佳时机, 尤其是对于像BC这样的课程.  就在那时,我联系了环境太阳城官网项目,找到了科琳.  

•课程是如何形成的
: 创造真正综合的跨学科体验, we made a list of essential relevant topics from our respective disciplines and than identified topics to which both disciplines naturally speak to from vastly different perspectives. 例如, future generations: While philosophical and ethical arguments about the consequences of future generations are considered on decadal to centennial time scales, 地球科学家倾向于考虑几千年前的过程, 甚至几万几万年. 

这就是“思想融合”.“作为一名教师,这对我来说是一种全新的体验, 与来自不同学科的教师一起制定教学大纲, 但这是一个非常不同的学科.  上学期,我们每周都见面,把自己锁在一个房间里,耐心地敲定教学大纲.  One of the things we decided early on was to weave together our different disciplinary perspectives in the syllabus.  所以与其, 说, 四周的气候科学, 然后是四周的伦理理论, 我们会把它们更无缝地编织在一起.  理想情况下,这可以鼓励学生经常转换他们的视角, 这样他们就能培养出一种学科上的灵活性, 而不是“这是科学说的”或“这是哲学说的”."  This required us to familiarize ourselves with the methods and topics of each other’s respective disciplines to some extent, 但我希望随着课程的展开,我们也能从彼此身上学到很多东西.
 
连接到不列颠哥伦比亚省的耶稣会,天主教的使命
本课程旨在帮助学生客观地评估一个复杂的问题, 他们这一代人将被迫面对的充满政治色彩的挑战, 然后让他们从主观角度思考:在解决这个问题上,他们可以扮演什么角色,也应该扮演什么角色? 的 goal is to generate a populace that is informed of the challenges that our society faces and inspired to be leaders in working toward solutions.

故事:首先, I think our course dovetails with a sea change taking place in the Catholic world: the increased recognition of how social and environmental justice are intertwined spurred, 很大程度上, by Laudato Si” (学生们将在秋季必修哲学课程中阅读).  环境是年轻人普遍关心的问题, and hopefully our course will give them some tools to help them deepen and direct that care intelligently and compassionately. 

帮助激励学生, 我们一开始就决定大胆尝试,争取高质量的演讲嘉宾, including two former members of the Obama administration (an economist and an ethicist) and a former EPA scientist, 让学生亲身了解专业人士如何应用他们的学科知识. 我们还决定组织小组讨论, 例如, “气候的职业," to provide students with models (including BC alumni) for how they might operationalize what they are learning if they are pulled that direction.



Shawn McGuffey (Sociology); Rhonda Frederick (English)
社会学副教授Shawn McGuffey和英语副教授Rhonda Frederick

课程: Narrating Black Intimacies; Black Intimacy and Intersectionality in the U.S.

类别:持久的问题

教师: Shawn McGuffey (Sociology); Rhonda Frederick (English)

•构思想法

我们在许多大学、部门/项目和学生组织的活动中相遇. 的se more-or-less formal meetings became more regular because we are core faculty members in BC's African and African Diaspora Studies Program. 作为AADS的教员, 我们非常了解对方的太阳城官网领域, 所以我们知道我们对种族有共同的兴趣. 当有机会教一门核心试点课程时, 我们发现我们都对亲密感兴趣, 亲密和接近.

•课程是如何形成的
弗雷德里克: 从文学的角度看, 我从情感真理的角度来探讨亲密的概念. Shawn was interested in how creative narratives represented sociological truths in ways that are compelling to students. I am interested in how sociology offers documentable "evidence" for themes that recur in the narratives I read and teach. It became clear that we both believe that truth/truths comes in different forms and that there are multiple ways of rendering and portraying them. 我们的课程将探索这些可能性.

我课程表上的一本小说是 Corregidora 盖尔·琼斯. 这是一个引人注目的例子,一个白人奴隶主和一个被奴役的黑人妇女家庭之间的强迫亲密关系, 但它也以肖恩的家乡列克星敦为背景, Ky. 他找到了另一本小说, 一个仁慈 托尼·莫里森(Toni Morrison)所著,对阶级、种族和移民的惊人描述.

连接到不列颠哥伦比亚省的耶稣会,天主教的使命

也就是说: 所以我们在这里, 期待着两门课的授课,展现出强大的力量, 细致入微的, unavoidable connections between and among blacks and whites that sociological studies and creative narratives present. 我们希望每个课程都使用相同的主题, 在我们各自的学科中找到有意义的主题是很困难的. 最终, 我们拓宽了主题(“灰色,”“白,”“黑,(“回到格雷”),并找出每个学科和我们的主要阅读材料如何指定给定的主题. 从那以后,一切都很顺利. 我们可以认为没有更好的方式来体现学生的学术理念, 智力和个人的形成比探索种族内和种族间的亲密联系——被迫, 抹去, 但往往是富有创造力和生命力的.



Crystal Tiala(剧院)和Spencer Harrison(卡罗尔管理学院), 管理及组织)
Associate Professor of 的atre Crystal Tiala and Associate Professor of Management and Organization Spencer Harrison

 

课程: 创造力能拯救世界吗?

类别:复杂问题

教师: Crystal Tiala(剧院)和Spencer Harrison(卡罗尔管理学院), 管理及组织)

•构思想法

哈里森: 很长一段时间以来,我一直想教一门关于创造力的课程. 这是我太阳城官网的内容,也是一种与我热爱的世界互动的方式. 因此,关于这个话题教一整节课的想法一直在我的脑海里萦绕, 等待机会, 大概有十年左右了. 我非常支持核心的新愿景. I love BC's focus on liberal arts and developing the "whole person" but I was concerned that I didn't see insights from other disciplines emerging in conversations in my business class. I think the new core provides an environment that helps students see ideas as interchangeable building blocks rather than siloed disciplines.  

TIALA: 我一直积极致力于教授如何成为一个有创造力的人,并运用创造力来解决问题.  大约八年前, 我开始与学生志愿者合作,看看艺术如何以对社会负责的方式帮助世界.  我帮助学生们把艺术带到当地的学校,和孩子们一起工作, 并邀请了一些在艺术和社会正义领域工作的有创造力的人来做演讲或开研讨会. 目前我的工作重点是促进监狱艺术拓展项目.  Each year about 20 great student volunteers go to the two women's prisons in Framingham on a regular basis and create art of all kinds with them to help empower and bring some humanity back to their lives. 这是一个完美的例子,说明艺术的力量是一种与最需要它的人联系的手段. 

•课程是如何形成的

哈里森: We actually used the same creative process we are teaching the students – the same sequence of steps – to generate the design for this course. 我们觉得,如果我们要认可一种方法,那么它必须是我们自己使用过的方法. 我发现自己学到了很多东西. 我认为作为教授,我们现在必须更加灵活, 更多的实验, 更愿意根据自己的行为和全班的反应做出改变. It's made the teaching more dynamic but I think it also requires more from the students because the course is not as linear as other courses are.

我觉得奇怪的是,我们俩都没有偏离我们的纪律太远. 部分原因是我们主题的性质. 作为一种实践,创造力需要从不同的知识库中汲取知识. 因此,从不同的知识体系中汲取思想并不奇怪. 我认为最奇怪的可能是有多少重叠.

TIALA: 我一直是一个喜欢尝试新事物和冒险的人.  现状从来没有吸引过我.  我有强烈的学习和尝试新事物的欲望.  斯宾塞教了我很多. 这既是谦卑的一课,也是学习如何更有效地做事的好机会. 我确实积极地尝试调整我的知识和教学方法,以适应这种商业模式.  然而,我不觉得这是一个很大的延伸.  创新的商业实践是通过太阳城官网有创造力的人如何工作而发现的.  所以我一点也不觉得陌生.  最大的区别是我们说两种不同的语言.  一旦我翻译了斯宾塞的话,我发现这个过程非常熟悉. 我也不习惯教大班.  My classes in the past have been more like studio art classes so it is a huge learning curve for me to figure out how to translate my past teaching methods to a large class.   

连接到不列颠哥伦比亚省的耶稣会,天主教的使命

TIALA: 我已经找到了艺术如何成为社会责任,以及它可能发生的多种方式.  这门课的重点是创造解决社会问题的表演和产品. ​I see our class as providing the creative building blocks to solve any problems students may encounter as they go forward.  戏剧真的有助于建立自信、团队合作、同理心和观察技巧. 同样,创新团队学习如何很好地合作,并提出令人兴奋的新想法.

大学核心太阳城官网网站 includes detailed descriptions of all the pilot courses as well as short videos in which faculty members discuss the classes.
 

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