Running head: CASE STUDY #1

Case Study #1
Andrea De Leon
Loyola University Chicago

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Introduction

With over 3,000 existing American institutions of higher education, it is no surprise that
core curricula are unique in design. Some institutions develop a standard curriculum that applies
to all undergraduates, while others have unique curricula designed for specific academic schools.
Even others design unique ways to engage all students in a common learning experience.
Regardless of the similarities and differences, one thing is clear: Curricula are a core component
of higher education. They are a vital element in shaping how and what college students learn.
An analysis of the core curricula at five different institutions sheds light onto the intricacies,
goals, and objectives of core curricula.
Five Core Curricula at a Glance
Loyola Marymount University
Loyola Marymount University (LMU,) a private, Jesuit Catholic university located in Los
Angeles, California has a core curriculum, known as Core, designed to align with the
institutions mission and values. Rooted in the traditional Jesuit emphasis on classics,
philosophy, theology, the liberal arts, and faith that does justice, the Core also reflects the
Marymount commitment to faith, culture, and the arts (Core Curriculum, 2015). The
curriculum is structured as four semi-sequential stages that are designed to cater to students
developmental readiness (Overview of, 2015). The first stage, Foundations, consists of a first
year seminar course as well as other courses designed to help students become more acclimated
to academic life at LMU and begin to confront important issues regarding personal values and
society (Overview of, 2015). The second stage, Explorations, includes courses that engage
students in various disciplines including the humanities, natural sciences, and the arts, among
others. The Integrations stage challenges students to apply skills and knowledge gained from

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previous stages with major coursework and apply them to interdisciplinary consideration of
thematic questions (Overview of, 2015). Finally, Flagged courses include classes in writing,
quantitative reasoning, oral skills, information literacy, and engaged learning, all of which are
designed to build upon skills developed in the different stages of the curriculum (Overview of,
2015). Foundations courses are designed to be taken in the first two years, Explorations courses
in the second and third years, Integrations courses in the third and fourth years, and Flagged
courses throughout a students tenure. Completion of the core curriculum is a graduation
requirement for all undergraduate students.
New York University
New York University is a large, private, research university located in New York City.
With over 20,000 undergraduates, the institution supports students academic pursuits by
maintaining programs in 18 schools and colleges (About NYU, 2015). The College of Arts
and Sciences has its own core curriculum, unique from other schools within the university. The
Core Curriculum of the College of Arts and Sciences seeks to expose undergraduates to a liberal
arts education, including studies in the natural and social sciences, mathematics, the humanities,
and the arts (The College, 2015). The curriculum is divided into four sections including
Expository Writing, Foreign Language Study, Foundations of Scientific Inquiry, and Foundations
of Contemporary Culture (The college, 2015). This particular curriculum defines itself as
unique because students have autonomy in choosing subject matter and instructor, and because
all of the lectures and writing workshops included in the curriculum are facilitated by full-time
faculty members. The Core Curriculum is specifically designed to give students the skills and
breadth of intellectual perspective to flourish in their major programs of study and in their later

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careers (The College, 2015). Completion of the Core Curriculum is required for students to
be eligible for graduation.
The College of William & Mary
The College of William & Mary, the second oldest university in America, is a highly
selective public institution serving more than 6,000 undergraduate students (W&M at a, 2015).
The curriculum in the Arts & Sciences Undergraduate Program includes a Freshmen Seminar, a
series of General Education Requirements, and a group of Basic Requirements (Our
Curriculum, 2015). The Freshmen Seminars are designed to engage students in critical
thinking and independent learning the first step toward becoming creative, engaged scholars
(Freshmen Seminars, 2015). Courses in the General Education Requirements allow students to
explore seven different areas of knowledge which include Mathematics and Quantitative
Reasoning, Natural Sciences, Social Sciences, World Cultures and History, Literature and
History of the Arts, Creative and Performing Arts, and Philosophical, Religious, and Social
Thought (General Education, 2015). The Basic Requirements are additional expectations that
students must fulfill no matter what major they choose. These requirements include Foreign
Language, Digital Information Literacy, Lower-Division Writing, Major Writing, and Major
Computing (Basic Requirements, 2015). Similar to other core curricula, students must meet
all requirements in order to graduate.
University of the Pacific
University of the Pacific is a small private school located in Stockton, California. It is
also the oldest chartered university in California (About Pacific, 2015). Serving just over
3,000 undergraduates, University of the Pacific has a well-developed core curriculum that
includes The Pacific Seminars and The Breadth Program. The Pacific Seminars are a series of

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three courses with two being completed during the first year and the third being completed
during the senior year. The first seminar course focuses on helping students understand what a
good society is. The second seminar course builds upon the themes that emerge from
experience in the first course. The third and final seminar course provides graduating students the
opportunity to practice self-reflection, an understanding of ethics, and a robust self-awareness
(General Education, 2015). The Breadth Program is a collection of general education
requirements, which all students must fulfill in order to graduate. They include coursework in
the disciplines of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Arts and Humanities, and Natural Sciences
and Mathematics (General Education, 2015).
DePaul University
DePaul University is Americas largest Catholic university. Located in Chicago, Illinois,
DePaul is home to over 16,000 undergraduate students who pursue nearly 300 different programs
of study (Key Facts, 2015). DePaul has a detailed core curriculum that serves as a graduation
requirement for undergraduate students. This curriculum, known as the Liberal Studies Program,
is made up of the Common Core and the Learning Domains (Core Curriculum, 2015). Both
components emphasize critical thinking, problem solving and communication skills (Core
Curriculum, 2015). The Common Core is infused into each year of a students experience at
DePaul, including experiences such as a first year seminar, a first year writing course, an
experiential learning component, and a senior year capstone. The fulfillment of the Learning
Domains requires that students take classes in Arts and Literature, Philosophical Inquiry,
Religious Dimensions, Scientific Inquiry, Self, Society, and the Modern World, and
Understanding the Past (Core Curriculum, 2015). While the Learning Domains reflect a

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common liberal arts curriculum, the courses are not discipline-based, encouraging diversity of
ideas and perspectives among students in each classroom.
Emerging Themes
A Focus on the First Year
After reviewing these core curricula at five different American institutions of higher
education, it is clear that a focus on the first year is important in developing a core curriculum.
Loyola Marymount University, The College of William & Mary, University of the Pacific, and
DePaul University all explicitly detailed a first year seminar course as part of their required core
curriculum. Furthermore, these first year seminar courses are designed to help students begin to
develop critical thinking skills and an understanding of both self and others. The curricula
reviewed are also designed to connect what is learned in the first year seminar to skills and
knowledge gained in other components of the curricula. For example, Pacific Seminar II at
University of the Pacific has a direct connection to the learning and understanding gained in
Pacific Seminar I, the first year seminar class. The core curriculum at NYUs College of Arts
and Sciences does not explicitly require a first year seminar, but the design of the curriculum
demonstrates an attention to the pursuit of learning and development, much like other
institutions curricula.
A Developmental Structure
All of the curricula reviewed are developed as a sequenced or structured design. For
example, Loyola Marymount University expects that students complete the various components
of the curriculum, such as Explorations, during a specific time of their college career, such as
during the second and third years. DePaul University disburses the requirements of the Common
Core over the course of four years, with requirements such as the experiential learning

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component and the senior year capstone happening in the later half of a students undergraduate
experience. The College of William & Mary designed its curriculum so that students can move
from an exploration of breath and variety in the first year to focus on depth and a specific area of
study in the third and fourth years. NYUs core curriculum requires that students prioritize
completion of the Expository Writing requirement, as the skills learned in this course will be
used and applied in later learning and development. University of the Pacific intentionally
designed The Pacific Seminars so that Pacific Seminar II and Pacific Seminar III can build upon
content, skills, and knowledge learned in previous seminars. Some of the curricula examined,
such as LMUs, are more explicit in their structural design while others allow for more flexibility
and customization. While not all students develop in the same way or at the same pace, it is clear
that many institutions of higher education value the structure of a sequenced curriculum and its
ability to help students develop gradually during their time in college.
A Focus on Liberal Arts
One more theme that seemed to emerge from these curricula is the focus on liberal arts
education. All five institutions support a core curriculum that focuses on aspects of a traditional
liberal arts education. These include subjects such as natural and social sciences, mathematics,
the arts, and the humanities. Whether in a seminar course, an elective, or a general education
requirement, each of the curricula described expect that students are being challenged to develop
skills such as critical thinking, oral communication, and creative writing through an offering of
courses that focus on the liberal arts subject areas. For example, NYUs College of Arts and
Sciences prides itself on its liberal arts core. It strives to prepare students to be lifelong learners
in all aspects, not simply trained employees in one concentration. Education in the liberal arts
does not involve a fixed canon of knowledge; instead, it builds your critical, analytic, and

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communications skills, hones the imagination, and promotes creative thinking (The College,
2015). The other four institutions examined also focus on liberal arts education through their
core curricula.
Integrative Analysis & Concluding Thoughts
The descriptive analysis provided makes it clear that core curricula at some American
institutions of higher education are focused on developing students into critical thinkers who
have been exposed to learning in various disciplines. These curricula demonstrate a commitment
to creating opportunities for students to learn about themselves, others, and the world. Through
various delivery methods, such as seminars, internships, and capstone projects, students are able
to have significant learning experiences. Fink (2013) said, significant learning is learning that
makes a difference in how people live and the kind of life they are capable of living (p. 7).
Significant learning experiences are those that help students connect what they have learned to
their personal lives. At DePaul University, the Common Core has an experiential learning
requirement that provides students with the opportunity to reflect and make personal connections
between their lived experiences, such as an internship or study abroad trip, and the knowledge
they have gained in the classroom. This is an example of what Fink (2013) calls connecting the
life file to the course file (p. 7). Similar opportunities at the College of William & Mary and
Loyola Marymount University support the same objective.
In addition to fostering significant learning experiences, the curricula described focus on
creating structure. Nilson (2010) described structure as being a critical component of human
learning and asked, Is it not our responsibility as teaching experts to help our students acquire a
structure quickly, so our short time with them is not wasted? (p. 7). These ideas about structure
support the developmental structure of the curricula described. All five of the institutions studied

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have a core curriculum that is intentionally structured to give students a big picture view of the
curriculums goals and learning outcomes. The intentional structure helps students make
connections between previous knowledge had and new knowledge gained. From detailing which
requirements should be achieved in which years, to requiring some courses as prerequisites for
others, many of these structured curricula are also designed to be developmental, particularly
with the intention of facilitating students cognitive growth, which Nilson (2010) mentions as an
important priority for effective and meaningful teaching.
In his book How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School, John Bransford
(1999) describes four learning environments. Learner-centered environments pay careful
attention to the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and beliefs that learners bring to the educational
setting (Bransford, 1999, p. 133). Knowledge-centered environments take seriously the need
to help students become knowledgeable (Bruner, 1981) by learning in ways that lead to
understanding and subsequent transfer (Bransford, 1999, p. 136). Assessment-centered learning
environments are those that focus on providing both formative and summative assessment to
help students make connections to learning goals. Lastly, community-centered environments are
those that connect students to some sort of community, whether the classroom community, the
school community, or the larger community of homes, businesses, states, the nation, and even
the world (Bransford, 1999, p. 145). While an ideal learning environment incorporates a focus
on learner, knowledge, assessment, and community, the core curricula described do not do this.
Some components, such as The Pacific Seminars, or the Senior Capstone Experience create these
different learning environments, but none of the curricula successfully create all four of them.
This is evidence that while American institutions of higher education develop seemingly
beneficial and efficient core curricula, there is still much room for improvement.

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References

About NYU (2015) Retrieved from http://www.nyu.edu/about.html

About Pacific (2015) Retrieved from http://www.pacific.edu/About-Pacific.html
Basic Requirements (2015) Retrieved from
http://www.wm.edu/as/undergraduate/curriculum/basics/index.php
Bransford, J. D., Brown, A. L., & Cocking, R. R. (Eds.) (1999). How People Learn: Brain,
Mind, Experience, and School. Washington, DC: National Academy Press
Core Curriculum (2015) Retrieved from
http://academics.lmu.edu/undergraduate/overview/corecurriculum/
Core Curriculum (2015) Retrieved from
http://www.depaul.edu/academics/undergraduate/Pages/core-curriculum.aspx
Fink, L.D. (2003). Creating significant learning experiences: An integrated approach to
developing college courses. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Freshmen Seminars (2015) Retrieved from
http://www.wm.edu/as/undergraduate/curriculum/freshseminars/index.php
General Education Overview (2015) Retrieved from http://www.pacific.edu/Academics/Majorsand-Programs/General-Education-Program.html
General Education Requirements (2015) Retrieved from
http://www.wm.edu/as/undergraduate/curriculum/gers/index.php
Key Facts (2015) Retrieved from http://www.depaul.edu/about/Pages/key-facts.aspx
Our Curriculum (2015) Retrieved from
http://www.wm.edu/as/undergraduate/curriculum/index.php

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Overview of the Core (2015) Retrieved from
http://academics.lmu.edu/undergraduate/overview/corecurriculum/overviewofthecore/
Nilson, L.B. (2010). Teaching at Its Best: A Research-Based Resource for College Instructors.
San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. (Ch. 1 3)
The College Core Curriculum (2015) Retrieved from
http://core.cas.nyu.edu/page/abouttheprogram
W&M at a Glance (2015) Retrieved from http://www.wm.edu/about/wmataglance/index.php

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