Every year dozens of universities around the world change their curriculum and graduation requirements, and to most the story does not go much farther than the front page of the student newspaper. But when your school is nearly 400 years old and named "Harvard", lots of people take notice. For this blog, it is an interesting, developing case study on meeting the challenge of the next 400 years.
In November, Harvard's faculty began debating recommendations from The Task Force on General Education. This body was formed to examine the basic undergraduate degree requirements and post an initial point of view on what its students should know to graduate from Harvard.
Personally, I love the fact that Harvard is able to re-invent itself every few decades in spite of several existing strengths. Certainly students would still apply to Harvard in droves and alumni would still make a huge impact on the world whether or not the core curriculum is tweaked. And since Harvard is a private institution with a massive endowment, it has less pressure to change. Likely it is an intellectual challenge and desire for improvement among alumni, students and professors that keep the school on its toes.
The debate among these three stakeholders is already helping to improve the potential changes. One outstanding opinion comes from prominent economist and Harvard professor, Edward Glaeser. Glaeser argues that the new curriculum should focus more on research methodology versus fact memorization. His argument is the stuff of the Challenge Dividend:
"Harvard's system of general education should emphasize methodology over topic because methods are harder to teach and learn than facts. Facts become easier to absorb by one's self once one has a handle on methods. Harvard students can learn facts about the United Nations Security Council or the Federal Reserve Board from the New York Times or Wikipedia, but they cannot learn the tools to make sense of these institutions so readily. As students learn to think rigorously about society and how to use data to test their thoughts, they acquire a set of tools that can then be used to acquire knowledge in any setting."
Glaeser wants Harvard to challenge its students as much as possible, and to provide them with a tool kit they can use to tackle other challenges for a lifetime.
I will stay tuned to Harvard's curriculum approach, along with hundreds of other universities around the world.
(Thanks to Marginal Revolution for the find)
Comments