I know Concordia is trying really, really hard to meet its “Five Goals of Liberal Learning”. Before I begin talking about these goals, it might be important to state them.
- Instill a love for learning
- Develop foundational skills and transferable intellectual capacities
- Develop an understanding of disciplinary, interdisciplinary and intercultural perspectives and their connections
- Cultivate an examined cultural, ethical, physical and spiritual self-understanding
- Encourage responsible participation in the world
And I am not going to lie, the liberal arts education I have received here has certainly met these goals. But has my “capstone experience”?
There are a few things to recognize about the capstone experience before we examine it further. First, it is a class that graduating seniors are required to take. Second, these classes are given the “capstone” listing with the understanding that they emphasize learning in a broader sense than typical classes (i.e. not from textbooks). Indeed, the Concordia College website defines the capstone as follows:
The Capstone Course sequence of the core curriculum focuses on student achievement of the Goals for Liberal Learning, and emphasizes writing intensity and experiential learning. These courses have students reflect on the Goals for Liberal Learning and thus reinforce the connection between liberal learning and various academic disciplines. This part of the new curriculum was implemented in the 2010-2011 academic year. Faculty development will be devoted to managing capstone course development in each academic division.
I worry that Concordia has backed itself into a corner with this definition. How is it that a student can gain a “love of learning” when they are forced to take a class they may not be interested in? Of course, this is the precisely the reason why a large variety of capstone courses are offered: so that a student may find one interesting enough to take. But I was not allowed that choice. The ACS chemistry major (biochemistry concentration) lists neurochemistry as a required course. When I saw that listing, in and of itself, the class was changed from a “liberal learning” course to “just another chemistry course for my major”. It loses all other qualities, simply from my recognition that it was no longer my choice.
Indeed, I love(d) chemistry, and the course was also quite enjoyable from that standpoint. But it was not a “capstone” experience (for me). I wish I could say otherwise, but I would be lying. The writing assignments still felt like assignments, and the tests still felt like tests. And honestly, I cannot complain about the class itself, as I learned much. But to insist that the class behaved in capstone sense (for me) would be fallacious.
Regarding Concordia’s “Five Goals for Liberal Learning”, I had already met them, quite likely during my second year, if memory serves. And thus, as I see it, there is no benefit to the “capstone” experience being labeled as such. If Concordia is truly the strong liberal arts institution I regard it to be, the existence of such an experience is moot. Might I offer a solution that can make both the students and the administration happy?
Students are here to learn, but they do not want to learn everything that is asked of them. Yes, this is hypocritical, but for all intents and purposes this is the truth. Ask any student if they enjoy their homework, and the response will be “no”. And so clearly it follows from this that to “instill a love of learning”, Concordia must ensure that students can pursue their own paths of learning in a subject, however niche or specific that subject may be. And what could the students gain because of this (instead of a grade on a transcript like the capstone course gives)? The students could create whatever they feel fit to create. We already have a Celebration of Student Scholarship each spring. Could it not just be an extra requirement to make seniors showcase their projects then?
What I am proposing, in its most simple sense, is this:
- Set up a 1-or-0 credit class that is called the “capstone”.
- Let a student pick a faculty member to work an independent study (one-on-one) with. They can meet once per week.
- The student must produce something tangible (g. a book, published journal article, work of visual art, composed music, theatre event) to be showcased at the end of the year
- The faculty member gives the student an appropriate grade based on perceived work ethic. (This could even just work as a pass/fail.)
The reason this should work well, is that by senior year, most students have figured out where their passions lie, and if they have not, a single “capstone” class isn’t going to be a “massive epiphany” to them, but conversations with a respected professor might. Even further, this allows each student to leave the institution with something that they can look back at and marvel, saying “I did that”. Administrators would be happy too, seeing a drastic increase in student research and publication (i.e. something they can brag about when trying to convince prospective students to attend).
Did my neurochemistry course mimic anything remotely like this? Sadly, no. Simply put, I learned about neurochemistry. What a “life-changing”, “mind-bending” experience that “prepared me to conquer the problems of the real world” and “instilled a love of learning” in me. Indeed, I almost felt as though sometimes it did the opposite. This semester I had a mathematical breakthrough that will likely change the course of modern mathematical research, and instead of being able to devote my time where it was most efficient, I was writing blogs about neurochemistry that would never be read by more than a handful of people.
Perhaps I have become a cynic, but perhaps there is something inherently flawed about the capstone experience. I am not arguing against neurochemistry as a class, but rather the “capstone” subdiscipline with which it was assigned. I know this blog was supposed to explain how this class met the goals, but my morals got the best of me and I had to tell the truth. And please, don’t take my opinion as the tried-and-true fact; it is likely I could be the exception rather than the rule. If the opinion of the majority is in support of the capstone, then it is likely the best option.
With that said, I believe there is going to be a change in the capstone experience very soon. It is being replaced by PEAK (I don’t know if it is meant to be all capitalized, as I have only heard of it by word-of-mouth). And with any luck, this will let future students avoid some of the cynicism that I have felt my final semester of college.
(Don’t worry about me though, I am truly quite content with life right now. This was just my opinion regarding a very small matter, that in the end will not make much of a difference.)
