AAC&U News | December 02

Coe College's Curriculum: A Model of a Practical and Engaged Liberal Education

Coe College, a small school of 1,200 students in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, is one of very few private, liberal arts institutions that make practical experience a requirement to graduate. But practical experience is only one aspect of the Coe Plan, a curriculum the institution believes best educates students for life after college. The plan serves as a good example of the ways campuses are working to bring together student affairs and academic affairs leaders to offer a more integrated and coherent learning experience for students.

The plan originated in 1997 when a committee comprised of student affairs staff, faculty, and the academic vice president set out to design a curriculum that would make undergraduate study more meaningful by tying together theory learned in the classroom and practical experience. Originally called "the bridge," educational leaders designed the Coe plan as an illuminated road map to help students get the most out of their education.

As a result of this vision, all students at Coe have required checkpoints (such as resume-writing workshops and community service) that culminate in a junior or senior year practicum. The committee based these requirements on benchmarks that were proven to enhance student learning. Lou Stark, the vice president for student affairs, characterizes it as "a deliberate plan. We are always thinking about how we make these steps qualitative-we don't want them to just be a rubber stamp."

The Pre-Practicum

All students first embark on a pre-practicum experience that includes one "issue dinner," a set number of community service hours, introduction to resume writing, introduction to resume skills, and a pre-practicum workshop. The workshop must be specific to the students' planned practicum experience that might be an internship, a research project, a study abroad program, or other experiences. When the plan was first implemented, students participated in general workshops that emphasized leadership skills, but those were subsequently revised to tailor them more specifically to preparing students for an experience that might either take them out of the country, into an office, or into the lab or library.

Through the pre-practicum experiences, students learn to market themselves. These workshop skills are designed to help them prepare for a variety of experiences: their first job, securing an internship, finding a study abroad placement, or applying to graduate school.

The "issue" dinners have proved, by far, the most popular feature of the plan. "We feel the issue dinners are the truest form of a liberal education," says Marc Roy, vice president for academic affairs. According to the Coe's Web site, the event gives students "the opportunity to formulate, articulate, and defend views in a civil conversation. Coe firmly believes this is an acquired skill that all liberal arts graduates should master." The next issue dinner planned has a waiting list of forty students. "Under God: A Violation of the Separation of Church and State," will feature a speaker who is the head of an atheist society. After this presentation, students turn to their dinner mates-fellow students, faculty, and community leaders-to talk in depth about the issue. "This is just one instance where the students must apply what they are learning in the classroom and be articulate about these issues," says Roy. Other topics include "The U.S. and Southeast Asia -A Year After 9/11" and "Truth and Brotherhood: Being Gay in a College Fraternity."

The Academic Practicum

Coe describes the academic practicum as "an experience involving the supervised practical application of previously studied theory." It might involve either study abroad, other off-campus study, an internship, an independent project, student teaching, or an honors thesis or project. A recent assessment revealed that students often prefer to do more than one practicum experience before they graduate. "In our assessment," Roy says, "we found that students doubled up on the requirements and had multiple experiences. To us, this means that the students find great value in the practicum experiences."

The practicum also "allows for tremendous research opportunities for our undergraduates," says Stark. The National Science Foundation, for example, recently awarded Coe one of its Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) grants. This grant will enable seven students to engage in physics research for ten weeks with a salary. The grant also supplies travel money for students to present their findings at conferences.

To receive credit for these steps, students must complete an evaluation within thirty days of the end of the course. "We have a longitudinal assessment to evaluate the success of the plan," says Stark. "My office (Student Affairs) evaluates the pre-practicum and Marc's (Roy) evaluates the academic practicum." An independent assessment committee also evaluates the entire plan.

One challenge to the Coe structure is the integration of non-traditional students and transfer students. The proponents of the Coe plan say they are not interested in making a non-traditional student who's spent fifteen years in the world of work "jump through hoops" to complete the plan by embarking on an internship, for example. Non-traditional and transfer students have the option of working with an advisor to opt out of aspects of the plan they may have already fulfilled.

For more information about the COE plan, visit www.coe.edu/CoePlan/.

The Coe Plan is an example of the kind of integrative learning recommended and described in AAC&U's recently released report, Greater Expectations: A New Vision for Learning as a Nation Goes to College. To see the report and other examples of practical and engaged liberal education, visit www.greaterexpectations.org.