Cultivate Creativity: Curriculum Development
Our goal is ambitious, our approach transformative. The Center for Intercultural Teaching and Learning (CITL) puts our research findings to work improving student access and achievement, and faculty and curriculum development is critical component in transformation.
We develop programs that support interdisciplinary and integrative learning that enables faculty to use and maximize the benefits of difference in the classroom, rather than merely being able to tolerate or accommodate it. Even though the classroom is a public place, much of what happens there between teachers and students ironically is not talked about outside the classroom. All of our programs are about curriculum and faculty development that supports the growth of a teaching culture in the college that is more public, more collaborative and more grounded in evidence that teachers gather about how well their approach achieves their goals.
We work to foster a stimulating, intercultural learning community that prepares all Goshen College students for the communication, understanding and collaboration skills needed in the twenty-first century. Specifically, that means:
- Redesigning the first-year student experience with special programming for Latino students
- Cultivating intercultural learning initiatives across the curriculum for all students
- Providing faculty development opportunities in cross-cultural communication, pedagogy, curriculum development and Spanish language learning
- Bridging curricular and co-curricular opportunities for all students through the Multicultural Affairs Office
Sharing our findings and inviting participation is a big part of transformation, and we offer seminars and grants that support our objectives.
CITL & Foundations of Excellence
In 2008, CITL established a formal relationship with the Policy Center on the First Year of College, which selected Goshen College to participate in its 2008-2009 cohort of schools for the Foundations of Excellence (FoE) Self Study Process.
FoE is a structured process that led us through a comprehensive self-study of all aspects of the first-year experience for students.
Using our findings from the self-study, we are developing a data-driven strategic plan for improving students’ experience in the first year of college. The long-term vision is to use what we learn during this self-study to build a comprehensive academic assessment program and a foundation for revising the rest of the Goshen College general education program (the Goshen Core) within the next 18-24 months.
The Policy Center on the First Year of College is an academic center founded and led by John Gardner, founder and former Executive Director of the National Resource Center on the First Year Experience and Students in Transition at the University of South Carolina.
