Running head: CASE STUDY ONE 1
Case Study One: Comparisons of Higher Education Core Curriculums
Brett Stachler
Loyola University Chicago
CASE STUDY ONE 2
Summary of Selected Universities
I choose to research University of California Berkeley, UC San Diego, Arizona State
University, New York University, and Northeastern Illinois University. All of these universities
are potential job sites, and all are unique in how their core curriculum’s pedagogy and centrality
to a university’s missions. A summary of each university’s core curriculum, mission statement,
and ease to access will be provided below.
University of California Berkeley
UC Berkeley (sometimes called ‘Cal’) is most know as the flagship university of the
University of California system, a diverse campus, and has a history of activism most notably the
Free Speech Movement of the 1960s (Link). UC Berkeley’s mission statement is titled as
Principles of Community, and are summarized as principles of teaching, research, and public
service. The site that lists UC Berkeley’s core curriculum was one of the easier sites to find,
since it is located on the screen for undergraduates interested in learning about the degrees
offered at UC Berkeley, the summary of which will be provided below.
Per the University of California Entry- Level Writing requirement, all UC Berkeley
students are required to Analytical Writing Placement Examination, or fulfill one of the many
fulfillment opportunities in secondary-education. If students do not fulfill the CELW
requirement, they are required to pass the examination in their first year, and begin their reading
and comprehension requirement in the following semester. The reading and comprehension
requirement is required for undergraduate students to develop college level writing skills, and
develop critical thinking skills. The College of Arts and Sciences requires students to take
additional classes that different between each department under CAS.
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UC Berkeley has an American History and Institutions requirement to satisfy that
students have an understanding of history and governmental institutions in the United States.
This requirement can be fulfilled in secondary-education courses, or can be satisfied by taking a
variety of American History courses at UC Berkeley, among other options. International
students may have to take AHI courses depending on a variety of factors, and are advised to
contact the registrar’s office to determine that.
UC Berkeley requires students to complete an American Cultures requirement at any
point during their undergraduate education. Introduced in 1991, the requirement is meant to
introduce students to the diversity of American people and students. The classes cut across a
variety of race/ethnic studies, sociology, and gender/sexualities studies.
University of California San Diego
USSD is another university alongside UC Berkeley in the University of California
system, and has a university mission that is similar by being student centered, research focused,
and service orientated. UCSD has a unique system of colleges, where students select the college
they want to be placed in based on its mission and core curriculum, regardless of their majors.
Although information about the college system, and the core curriculum of the colleges were
easy to find, if a student does not know about the college system they may have difficulty
accessing the core curriculum.
Curriculums are different across all six colleges; I choose to highlight the Eleanor
Roosevelt College. ERC’s core curriculum requires students to take two quantitative methods,
two natural sciences, one fine art, 0-4 courses in a foreign language (may be met by proficiency
or prior course work), and three regional specialization courses. On top of these courses,
students are also required to complete a five-quarter Making of the Modern World program,
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which is a comparative studies program examining the politics, economics, society, and religions
from pre-history to the 21st century. Embedded in MMW program is a two-quarter
developmental writing program.
Arizona State University
ASU’s core curriculum was the most difficult to find, wedged in the academic catalog,
which took many searches to find. ASU’s mission is divided into different goals: high academic
standards for colleges and research, leadership in academic excellence and accessibility, and
enhancing ASU’s local impact and social embeddedness. ASU’s core curriculum is divided into
two categories: university requirements including core general studies prerequisites, and
awareness studies, in addition to college/school major requirements.
The core curriculum within university requirements includes the general studies four core
areas: three credit hours of critical literacy and inquiry, six credit hours split between the two
subjects of mathematics and computer/statistics/quantitative applications, eight credit hours in
total (and six credit hours dedicated to one of the two) subjects of humanities, arts and design;
and social-behavioral sciences, and eight credit hours in total in subjects of natural science with a
lab component completing at least four of the eight. On top of the five core areas, students are
required to take subjects related to three distinct areas in awareness studies: appreciation of
cultural diversity within the contemporary U.S., the development of an international perspective
and an understanding of current human events through study of the past. In total, students are
required to take 29 credit hours in general studies of core curriculum.
New York University
NYU is a private university, with a mission to be a top tier research university, and to
have an academic and cultural embrace to diversity. NYU does not have a centralized core
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curriculum, and the autonomy of core curriculum is divided amongst the eleven different
colleges at NYU. Although, this is somewhat vaguely worded in their undergraduate studies
page, and could confuse students who do not understand the decentralization. I choose the
College of Arts and Science’s core curriculum, since that was where my undergraduate studies
were at Roosevelt University.
The core curriculum for CAS is divided into four liberal arts studies areas: humanities,
arts, social sciences, mathematics, and the natural sciences. For CAS’s website, you have to dig
deeper and deeper into the links they provide to grasp a fine sense of how many credit hours
students have to take for each course, and the courses that can be taken to fulfill the
requirements. The core curriculum for CAS amounts to a course year, and a semester.
Northeastern Illinois University
NEIU is a public, Hispanic Serving Institution in Chicago, and has mission values in
access, diversity, and academic scholarship. NEIU’s core curriculum is relatively easy to find on
the website, and is listed alongside other useful academic information. The university core
curriculum is divided into 39 credit hours between five subject areas. Fine arts, humanities, and
social/behavioral sciences majors are allowed waive up to six, and natural sciences majors can
waive all credit hours of their core curriculum areas if students major in those degrees.
Otherwise, students are required to complete six hours of fine arts courses, 12 hours of social and
behavioral studies, nine hours of natural sciences, nine hours of humanities, and three hours of
mathematics and quantitative reasoning.
Comparison of Core Curriculum
There is a vast amount of differences between these core curriculums, yet there are
similarities based on institutional types, missions, and pedagogy. Almost every university has a
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specific writing requirement, though each has different focus. ASU, NYU, and UC San Diego
have critical thinking and analytical development has a goal for their writing component, while
UC Berkley’s critical inquiry is housed in their American Cultures requirement. Almost all state
universities have a centralized core curriculum, requiring all first-year students to complete the
requirements for graduation, regardless of major or college. UC San Diego is an exception, and
is one of only a few colleges in the United States to have a European College system, with
different core curriculums available depending on students’ interests. This is common with other
California state schools, as they were strategically planned to have a small liberal arts college
feel despite their large student populations. NYU has a decentralized core curriculum, which is
somewhat common in private institutions, exceptions being mission driven institutions such as
Loyola. UC Berkeley, UC San Diego (in the ERC), and ASU had some form of diversity or
cultural related core or sequence of courses in their core curriculum. All of the universities that I
researched, in one form or another, had diversity/access/inclusion as part of their mission
statements, yet NYU (at least in CAS) and NEIU did not have these pieces as pedagogy in their
core curriculum.
Synthesis
Bransford, Brown, and Cocking (1999) argue that pedagogy historically has been placed
in a way that requires students to develop from learning nothing in a course, to learning
everything. This is not a conceivable goal, and Bransford, et al. (1999) argue for many different
types of learning environments, including active learning, community centered learning, and
formative assessments. Though the pedagogies of the courses are not delineated on the course
websites, some of the core curriculums include deviations from the intake and regurgitation
pedagogies of old, especially the courses involving critical thinking and cultural differences.
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Similarly, the pedagogies are not laid out in detail enough to contrast them with Fink’s (2003)
taxonomy of significant learning. Though many of the courses provide a foundation of
knowledge of ideas driven by the core curriculum, with the most common subjects being writing,
mathematics, humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences (Fink, 2003). The human
dimension and caring may be present in other areas, but will certainly be present in cultural
based core curriculums (Fink, 2003). As Nilson (2010) notes, students develop cognitively from
thinking absolutely, to thinking uncertainly depending on authority and agency, to thinking
relatively. Though this journey may not be developmentally complete once a student graduates
from their undergraduate institution, the foundational knowledge present across the five core
curriculums may not stimulate cognitive development for students in duality, as these courses
may be similar to Bransford et al.’s (1999) examples of learning of taking in everything, and
displaying it through assessments. The critical thinking courses, or it the foundational courses
has critical elements to them, will facilitate students cognitive development (Nilson, 2010).
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References
Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L., & Cocking, R. R. (Eds.) (1999). How People Learn: Brain,
Mind, Experience, and School. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
Fink, L.D. (2003). Creating significant learning experiences: An integrated approach to
developing college courses. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Nilson, L.B. (2010). Teaching at Its Best: A Research-Based Resource for College Instructors.
San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. (Ch. 1 – 3)