Articulating Building Connections Courses
Building Connections courses require students to take several perspectives and to explore the unique contributions of knowledge, skills, methodologies, values and perspectives from varied disciplines and social positions.
In addition, students will practice higher-order learning activities such as conceptual thinking, problem solving, innovative design, critical analysis, evaluation of ideas, and creation of knowledge/products.
Some BC courses will have more than one perspective in the same discipline. In BC courses, perspective-taking entails drawing on multiple perspectives, disciplinary and otherwise, in order to develop a more comprehensive understanding of complex questions, ideas and artifacts.
Strategy #1: EP Then BC
With this strategy, advisors start by articulating EP courses, then proceed to BC articulation. The Artist, Humanist, Natural Scientist, and Social Scientist perspectives can often be matched quickly. Once advisors have a sense of the EP articulation, they can then turn toward those courses that do not easily match one of the singular perspectives of EP and articulate for BC.
Strategy #2: Look Closer at "EP" Courses
Let’s say a student has completed five courses that should articulate to either EP or BC course categories in the new curriculum. You’ve articulated five of these courses to four EP perspectives, meaning there is an “extra” EP course in the Artist slot, as seen below:
- EP Artist: Classical Guitar; Intro to Fine Arts;
- EP Humanities: The Detective Novel;
- EP Natural Scientist: Biology;
- EP Social Scientist: Psychology
At this moment, you might have a conversation with the student to see whether or not one of those EP: Artist courses fits within the spirit of BC. After talking with the student, you realize that the Intro to Fine Arts course involved drawing, painting, and sculpture. Intro to Fine Arts could be slotted into a BC course because the different media, particularly sculpture, require students to take different artistic perspectives in the making of artifacts. Therefore, Intro to Fine Arts can be articulated as a BC course.