Sinclair Lewis' Arrowsmith lends itself to an analysis of management issues related to social responsibility. Students describe the role of interest rates and supply and demand on the agricultural family characters in Jane Smiley's 400 Acres or trace modern business ethics to the writings in the Old Testament. Creative Writing students might write a story which presents ethical dilemmas, and students in a Study Skills course can use an article's context to define business and management terms. [N] These uses of literature to explore occupational dilemmas are quite similar to the development of hybrid courses for gen ed purposes, courses that we further describe in Chapter 6, "Incorporating Education for Citizenship: The Economic, Political, and Social Aspects of Work."
However creative these activities may be, they were not generated to meet an instructional dilemma widely identified by faculty, and have therefore been only sparsely implemented. Conversely, at Colby Community College in Kansas, occupational faculty identified a specific deficit in student preparation for a career and involved their academic counterparts in devising a solution. The faculty noted that "Even though students received instruction and practice in their Composition I classes--a required course for all business students--they were not transferring this know-how to other class situations" and were unable to write legal summaries or abstract analyses. A joint English-business faculty team planned a series of cross-teaching activities to help students transfer composition skills from an academic class (English Composition) to business applications. [II-1] In this case, the faculty were jointly motivated to remediate writing deficits, and cross-teaching has continued through other interdepartmental collaborations.
In other instances, colleges have infused writing into occupational courses; students gain practice in learning to write at the same time they use writing as a way to "think on paper" about the content of a discipline. Broome Community College in New York, Kapiolani Community College in Hawaii, and Prince George's Community College in Maryland offer occupationally related courses from which students may meet a writing-intensive course graduation requirement.[8] Writing-intensive occupational courses and linking literature or composition courses with occupational courses resolve the ever-present dilemma for English faculty to identify writing "prompts" or topics which are complex enough to elicit critical thinking yet are also engaging for students.
While many of the efforts to infuse academic competencies into occupational programs have been informal, several campuses have taken steps to formalize such efforts, especially in composition. The best-known of these is Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC), in which students write about content topics, and reinforce content knowledge through writing. Although several instructors reported the use of personal journals as a way to encourage student reflection and writing practice, in this survey we did not find the type of carefully considered writing-to-learn programs described in the literature. About 10% of colleges responding to our survey reported WAC, but very few colleges were able to offer course outlines, syllabi, sample assignments, or examinations demonstrating meaningful cross-curricular writing support. The most common approach has been the addition of one or more essay questions to a multiple-choice examination, or the assignment of a short paper with little accompanying instruction or composition criteria--approaches far short of the potential benefits from cross-curricular writing.
Hybrid Courses
Recently, some exciting forms of communications courses have appeared which explicitly blend transfer requirements with career perspectives, and demonstrate that transfer outcomes can be maintained when content and text adaptations are made. In these cases, the schedule of classes often designates these courses as "especially appropriate for" a particular group of students, although enrollment is never limited to only that group. For example, at Merritt Community College in California, an innovative instructor adapted an English 1A class so that it was especially appropriate for health career majors, requiring expository, persuasive, and comparative writing assignments to analyze the moral, ethical, and economic issues related to the national health care reform proposals of 1994-1995. [II-2] Similarly, by modifying topics for written assignments and reading materials, the Volunteer State Community College in Tennessee developed three forms of the introductory transfer English course--rhetoric, literature, and workplace oriented. The Workplace Based English course features a number of ethical case studies such as The Case of the Willful Whistle-Blower, which students examine from several perspectives. [II-3]
At San Jacinto Community College in Texas, one literature course was revised to address the many students who doubt the practicality of the study of short stories, plays, and poems. Using two short stories by Faulkner ("Barn Burning" and "Rose for Emily"), the students write newspaper articles, use Internet research, and prepare public agency memoranda related to familial and community dysfunction described in the two stories. [II-4] Similarly, Broome Community College in New York offers a course called 20th Century American Working-Class Literature, which examines themes and structures of several genres written by authors from working-class backgrounds alongside the sociopolitical contexts of their works. Among the writing options in the course, students complete an oral history project about a retired worker, asking how work shaped his or her life, identity, and ability to act on the environment. [II-5]
Mt. Hood Community College in Oregon is developing an application-based, technology-supported, one-track curriculum (ATO) with the support of a National Science Foundation grant. In response to the demands of industry, the ATO curriculum integrates geometry, data analysis, and statistics in addition to algebra topics into entry-level mathematics. Incorporating the NCTM standards, the program encompasses analytic (algebra), visualization (geometry), and data analysis (statistics) skills with industry-related problem-solving activities interwoven. In the four-level curriculum, students work collaboratively to create their own understanding of mathematical concepts, make connections between different representations of mathematical models, and solve application problems which arise from other disciplines and the workplace. The five-credit courses involve four hours of lecture with a two hour hands-on lab component each week. [N]
Linked or Cluster Courses
Although a growing number of colleges offer thematically linked clusters or learning communities incorporating transfer-eligible liberal arts courses, only a few innovators have incorporated a career-related theme. Several colleges have done so by identifying content which has a natural connection--in which the skills from each content area complement one another. There are several examples of writing linked to both liberal arts and occupational courses at Solano Community College in California; one example connects electronic research and word processing in a duo titled Cruising the Information Highway: Composition and Computers. [N]
At Monroe Community College in New York, Money in Literature is linked with Business Administration. Students explore the human dimension of economic behavior, study society's formation of economic values, and discuss the economic aspects of individual lives. They identify the major "business deals" and strategies described in Clavell's King Rat, and compare the views of various authors towards the question "What is money?" [II-6]
Faculty who elected to work jointly at Peninsula Community College in Washington linked English with Criminal Justice. In this course, students describe the picture of a lawman represented by Heck Tate in To Kill a Mockingbird, and analyze the criminal justice system in the American South in the 1930s. Other research papers are linked to criminal justice, with sample topics such as of the changing role of women in high security institutions, and a critique of violence against women as both a cause and a result, based on Susan Glaspell's Trifles. [II-7] Another example of faculty seeking an avenue for collaboration is found at Montcalm Community College in Michigan, where English Composition and Introduction to Social Science are linked and targeted to Criminal Justice majors.
San Diego City College in California used technology as the theme for a cluster titled "History from a Workplace Perspective," which presented American History in light of technological breakthroughs and their impact on society, by joining U.S. History with introductory English. A third instructor from Computer Sciences added a lab component, so that students could practice keyboarding and software competencies while they wrote class assignments. [N] This and other clusters are offered under the umbrella of "Link and Learn in City Blocks--Where Courses Fit Together and Make Sense." These clusters are publicized to help students "understand the course material; read and think critically by going beyond memorization of facts and figures; apply what you learn; bond with other students by spending 6 hours/week with them in class; and satisfy 5 or 6 units of gen ed requirements concurrently."
In one of the most ambitious efforts we have seen, Dutchess Community College in New York formed a 30-week, 32-unit integrated cluster which meets half of the requirements for an Associate degree. The cluster was initiated by requests from IBM seeking upgrade training for employees lacking prerequisite skills for learning to troubleshoot equipment and production failures, and is fully enrolled by working adults who meet twenty hours per week. The cluster combines English, calculus, economics, computer applications, physics, and chemistry, and uses work-related applications to the extent possible. The incentive for devising this particular arrangement was the negative feedback from previous contract education students about the lack of relevance in traditional physics classes. [N]
Although most colleges have reported positive faculty interaction from linked courses, another case suggests some caution about turf issues. A math instructor and a baccalaureate-level English instructor chose to link courses around a social issues theme, examining issues such as the high rates of incarceration of minority youth within the state. Students used statistics and readings from social journals and the popular press to argue viewpoints and write cogently about social dilemmas. But because the vocational faculty had not been involved in planning the courses, they successfully argued that the English and Math faculty were "stealing their issues," and the cluster has been dropped.
Another caveat comes from a college reporting difficulties when introductory and advanced level courses are linked. Not only was instruction complicated by students of varying preparation levels, but enrollment was sparse because most students in the advanced course had already completed the paired introductory courses.
Even though many academic faculty have been reluctant to modify transfer-level
academic courses, enough colleges have experimented with this idea to prove
that it can be done. There is nothing inherently "low-level" about the
resulting fusion, hybrid courses, and clusters, and the results are ways of
incorporating career preparation content into transfer-oriented majors, so that
all students benefit from learning that is connected to future goals and
everyday interests.
[8] At Broome, guidelines for writing intensive courses are elaborated in a faculty handbook, encouraging instructors to use a series of short assignments rather than one long one so that students can learn from their mistakes, try again, and improve. Each department is encouraged to create at least one "W" course so that students can meet gen ed requirements within their major. Broome students may meet the writing intensive graduation requirement by completing such courses as Nutrition, Dental Hygiene II, Developmental Psychology, Senior Physical Therapy Seminar, Special Radiographic Procedures, Material Testing for Civil Engineering, Advanced COBOL, Introduction to Small Computer Systems, Engineering Physics III, and Hospitality Law. [N] At Kapiolani, there is a thoughtful distinction between the various levels of Composition courses. The Business and Technical Writing courses are at the same level as English 100 (Expository Writing), but focus on directed rather than expository and academic writing, and satisfies a written communication requirement for the Associate of Science degree. Students may select from Business and Management Writing, Basic Nursing Concepts, Nursing Transitions, Introduction to Physical Therapy Assisting, Special Radiological Procedures, and Introduction to Juvenile Delinquency.[N] Prince George's students may select a second required English course from career-related alternatives which emphasize evidence-based analysis, evaluation, interpretation, and persuasive presentation of conclusions. Students generate a 500-word memorandum describing the operation of equipment or a technical process, including graphics.[N]