General Education (GE) is a distinctive feature of U.S. higher education. Regional accreditation standards emphasize the inclusion of a GE component in degree programs, the identification of learning outcomes, and the assessment of those outcomes. Although GE reform is occurring on many campuses, the role of student choice of GE courses has…

General education programs often offer students a choice among various courses to fulfill a specific requirement. However, the extent to which these courses equally enable students to achieve the intended learning outcomes can vary, potentially giving some students an unintended advantage. This article evaluates whether students are inadvertently…

Wicked problems have multiple causes, require multifaceted solutions, and have no clear ending point at which the problem is truly solved. Encouraging respectful discourse on campus presented itself as a wicked problem at [institution name removed for the purposes of blind review] when, at the Martin Luther King, Jr. unity march in January 2018,…

Although designed with good intent, remedial math courses have delayed or terminated many students' college careers. Taking remedial courses can delay enrollment into courses for their major, or may, psychologically, result in students feeling unprepared for college. Despite the original intentions of developmental math programs, there is a…

Possession of prior knowledge has been shown to critically influence students' learning in major courses. Yet the topic remains unexplored in the realm of general education in higher education. The study aims at investigating whether students lacking relevant high school knowledge background could benefit in the two courses, one inclined to…

Unequal academic outcomes in postsecondary education persist for students from underserved populations (students of color, low socioeconomic status, first-generation), despite increased access to higher education in the last half century. General education classes present prime opportunities to address academic inequity. They typically have larger…

The current study surveyed students' knowledge of and perceptions about general education requirements at a large research-intensive university. Findings revealed that students harbored misconceptions about general education requirements and illuminated the reasons why students were choosing to take required general education courses at other…

Many arts-focused colleges and universities in the United States offer their undergraduate students coursework in science. To better understand the delivery of science education at this type of institution, this article surveys the science programs of forty-one arts-oriented schools. The findings suggest that most science programs are located in…

Higher education institutions are increasingly interested in infusing sustainability content into their curricula. This can be accomplished through general education programs, which the University of Vermont recently established. The implementation of this new requirement created a unique opportunity to investigate sustainability- related teaching…

The debate over the best delivery of general education, whether through a canon of Great Books, a core curriculum of specific courses and course sequences, or a distribution requirement of course types providing for greater student choice, has existed for generations. Today, the debate plays out in practice across the top-rated colleges and…

Are the humanities relevant enough to the average undergraduate to be included as a required part of a general education program? The University of Idaho (UI) is currently ten years into the challenge of implementing a cross-disciplinary, university-wide general education program--the UI Core--that has the attention, if not always the support, of…

Revisions of general education curricula have been ongoing as universities strive to meet the general education goal of helping students succeed. The importance of health status with regard to the future health potential of college students and the impact the college years have on their health has been highlighted in the American College Health…