urriculum integration in the Communication and Humanities Department
at South Suburban College (SCC) has existed in some form or another
for a number of years. For example, several of the Department’s
General Humanities courses are "multi-disciplined," and
include units in Art, Literature, and Music. Much of the success of
these courses comes from integrated co-teaching. Pedagogy and content
are consistently being updated, making these hybrids advantageous
to students and their learning.
On a smaller scale, curriculum integration can be found within
related disciplines in the Department. For example, the disciplines
of Philosophy and Communication often share strategies to help students
understand the material. By exchanging ideas on a regular basis,
faculty in these disciplines eventually present the students with
a shared pedagogy in courses such as the Introduction to Philosophy;
Oral Communication (Speech); Ethics, Logic, Persuasion; as well
as American Studies (with English), Writing for Radio and Television
(with Journalism), and the History of Rock n’ Roll (with Music).
Toward Academic and Vocational Integration:Collaboration
Begins
In 1997, Dr. Linda Uzureau, then Dean of Liberal Arts and Sciences,
and Mr. Dan Segebarth, Dean of Career Education, approached faculty
members in Allied Health and Communication and Humanities with the
idea of creating specialized sections of two courses, Oral Communication
and Ethics, specifically designed for the Radiology Technology and
Occupational Therapy programs.
The first initial meeting of faculty — Jody Ellis (Rad Tech
Coordinator), Jennifer Myler (Occupational Therapy Coordinator),
Dr. Herman Stark (Philosophy), and myself — and administration
took place over a casual lunch and served as a brainstorming session.
It was decided that the pilot project between Liberal Arts and Sciences
and Career Education would not only benefit student learning but
also faculty development.
After the initial meeting, the administration let the faculty "run
with the ball." The faculty focused on how to integrate course
content, provide specific examples for a specialized audience, and
perhaps most importantly, how to learn and master content from a
different discipline. In March of 1997, the four pilot-project faculty
and two administrators attended the Academic/Vocational Integrated
Curriculum Conference in New Orleans, sponsored by the National
School Conference Institute. Although there were some interesting
seminars and workshops, perhaps the greatest thing to emerge from
the conference was the camaraderie established among the faculty.
During that short stay in New Orleans, (perhaps because the faculty
was away from SSC), more detailed work took place than at any other
point in the development process.
Curriculum Integration
Numerous changes took place in the design and implementation of
the Oral Communication course. We adapted curriculum to meet the
needs of Allied Health students, while still maintaining the requirements
of a general education course demanded by the State of Illinois,
by retaining the original skeleton of the course but changing specific
subject matter and assignments:
- Allied Health students chose their speech topics from a list
of career-specific topics.
- More individual exercises and group work replaced the minor
speech and classroom exercises.
- In response to employers’ needs, Jody Ellis and Jennifer
Myler designed realistic "phone" exercises and doctor/nurse/intern
scenarios.
- Specialized group assignments reflected true work situations.
- Written assignments were tailored toward specific Allied Health-based
content.
Changes like these were also made in the Ethics course, most significantly
in the course content. As Dr. Stark pointed out, "I had to learn
and master, medical writings that cover the details of various illnesses
and on-the-job responsibilities of Allied Health professionals."
Stark also pointed out that he had to make sure, more than normally
in regular ethics, that his students also "mastered such details."
Finally, Stark added that he had to "emphasize the distinction
between the legal and moral more heavily in the integrated course,"
and that he had to "fight the tendency of students to collapse
ethics into a set of tricky, often anomalous biomedical cases;"
since the focus on such cases "can cause students to forget the
deeper and richer concerns of ethics, like what are the virtues possible
in the modern world, etc."
Over the past three years, the two integrated courses received
positive student evaluations. Nevertheless, the Oral Communication
course enrollment declined in its third year because many Allied
Health students were taking regular Oral Communication prior to
entering their specific program. The Ethics course has faired far
better and is now part of the required curriculum in the Nursing
program. The success of curriculum integration in the Communication
and Humanities Department at SSC is based upon several poignant
issues:
- The willingness of faculty to participate;
- Administrative cooperation;
- Adequate preparation time to learn and master course content;
- Giving faculty freedom to explore and develop new ideas; and
- Availability of requisite resources.
The failures of these courses can be traced to:
- Not fully understanding student needs;
- The lack of a coordinated public relations campaign, e.g. the
failure to synchronize the printing of program descriptions;
- The lack of institutional understanding, e.g. registration of
non-Allied Health students in the integrated courses; and
- The inability to properly advertise the integrated courses to
their specific audiences.
As of the writing of this article, the Spanish discipline (in
Communication and Humanities) is currently designing integrated courses
as well. Spanish for Allied Health Students and Spanish for Law Enforcement
Agents are being developed and will be implemented in the upcoming
fall semester.
John Geraci is the Department Chairperson of the Communications and
Humanities Department at South Suburban College (SSC) in South Holland,
Illinois. He is Vice-President of the SSC Faculty Association, three-time
Faculty Negotiation Committee member, member of the Illinois Articulation
Initiative (State Panel) for Mass Communication, and chairperson of
the SSC Distance Learning Committee. For more information, contact
John Geraci at jgerac@mailserv.ssc.cc.il.us
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