Developing a Bachelor of Arts
capstone subject for WIL
The Bachelor of Arts degree
• The Bachelor of Arts degree
- once the foundation stone of university education
- decreasing popularity resulting from contemporary
profession-focused, employment-centered tertiary
education landscape
• University of Technology (QUT) shut down entire
BA program in 2007 citing ”heavy financial losses in
traditional arts courses, lower enrolments, high
Sally Kift’s Six principles for first
year curriculum design
• transition
• diversity
• purposeful curriculum design
• engagement,
Context and History
• JCU’s Bachelor of Arts degree flagged in
2009 as requiring “deep attention.”
• Development of two first year core subjects
that:
- aid with transition
- retention
- skill building
Context and History
• Two first year subjects developed and delivered for
the first time in 2010
BA1001 -
Time, Truth, and the Human Condition
-
investigates ideas of 'truth' and 'ways of knowing'
as they have developed over time
-
provide an overview history of attempts to
understand the world
-
show how this history has led to present
Context and History
• Two first year subjects developed and delivered
for the first time in 2010
BA1002 –
Our Space: Networks, Narrative and
the Making of Place
-
focuses on the related notions of "place,"
"networks," "narratives," and "identities”
- explores different ways that academic disciplines
approach shared concerns and address shared
questions
- introduces students to a range of methodological
approaches and academic disciplines that are
= SUCCESS!
• critical thinking
• communication (written and oral)
• independent thought
• social awareness
• problem solving
• teamwork (cohort identity)
• creativity
Where to next?
• Develop a capstone subject for the BA ready by
SP2 201
• Capstone as means for final year students to
transition from university into the workforce
• Common in business subjects but not in fields
such as Law and the various BA discipline
• Recent emphasis on ‘final year experience’ and
the student life-cycle
Team members
- AProf Kay Martinez, School ADTL
- Dr Allison Crave, BA3000 team leader
- Dr Richard Lansdown and Dr Nigel Chang, BA1001 leaders
- Dr Victoria Kuttainen and Dr Anita Lundberg (Singapore), BA1002 leaders
- AProf Deborah Graham, Psychology
- Dr Amy Forbes and Dr Greg Manning, Humanities - Dr Marie Caltabiano, Cairns campus
- Sharon Moore, Indigenous Studies
Four major types of capstones
Magnet
– put together learning within a
major or program
Mandate
– required by an outside body
Mountaintop
– across disciplinary
specialisations to engage in multi- or inter-
disciplinary enquiry
Challenges specific to this
capstone
• the need for enhancement of the currently
stagnant outlook for graduate transition and
employability;
• embrace of a recently acquired student cohort
in JCU Singapore;
• and address to the university's strategic
intent in re-branding its historical tropical
Q & A: Design Challenges
(Questions and Arguments)
Core subject learning outcome:
•
Integrate BA as
more
than the disciplines —
ethos, spirit?
•
Cross-cultural — how now? Space? Time?
•
Interdisciplinary — how? What is that?
Multi
disciplinary?
•
Industry — what sort of confidence?
Q & A:
(Questions and Arguments)
• The BA
ethos
, the Arts spirit— is this
getting clearer under the capstone?
• Two key flexibilities, time and space,
history and culture — have they
grown stronger or perhaps become
atrophied in disciplinary study?
Q & A:
(Questions and Arguments)
• BA1XXX: ‘I want to get started on my disciplines; why are you stopping me?’
• BA3000: ‘I want to keep going with my disciplines; why are you taking me away?’
• How can we allow students to be independent of their
disciplines — the final goal of flexibility?; as synthesis and a bridge
BA3000 Draft –
Lessons from FY cores
• Staff input/teaching — obviously
• Clear
expectations
— essential
• Assessment requirements — certainly
• Good
organization
— vital
• Team experience — surely
• Analytical/problem-solving skills — less so?
• Written communication — of what kinds
now?
BA3000 Draft
• ‘Networked’, outward-facing, writing
and research: the CV, the report, the
discussion paper
• Continuing academic life: lifelong
learning
• Look back to BA1: fill them out —
one’s
time
in the BA, one’s future
Current draft
This subject is the core capstone subject of the BA course. It prompts students to reflect on the outcomes of their
degree studies, to tabulate their skill base, and to apply
their learning to a group project, The Edge. The project will be based on a theme derived from the unique situation of Arts in Far North Queensland and Singapore, taking into account local and global priorities, Indigenous perspectives and ethical frameworks derived from the various
disciplinary interests represented by the students, and
themes of seminars. Students will synthesise and integrate their learning across the BA, examine the place of Liberal Arts education in contemporary national and global
There may also be opportunities for international exchange,
including between Australian and Singapore campuses, and possibly other destinations.
In this culminating subject of the BA, you will be given
licence and encouragement to ‘cap off’ your studies at JCU in ways that are meaningful and interesting to you as BA graduands, and which benefit you, your peers, and your community, while working within the JCU community and beyond it. You will seize outlets to demonstrate very high levels of understanding and communication that will
advance you into your future.
More work and challenges…
• A generous teaching resource including: literature
on capstone theory and practice; discipline
capstones; first-year core materials; vocational
resources, etc, etc.
• A latest version of the subject outline and
graduate attributes
• An annotated bibliography of 131 items by
discipline for tropical curriculum
• Initial designs and content for LibGuides with
links for: Tropical Boundaries; Tropics as Other;
Sustainability; Cultures of the Tropics)
BA3000 Arts Edge
represents not only an expansive exercise in applied and self-directed learning for students but also a unique
enterprise in trans-disciplinary staff interaction (involving lecturers and graduate students from Humanities,
Languages, Social Sciences and Psychology) as well as engaging alumni, community and industry.