Teaching the University: Enhancing Student Understanding and Appreciation of the University

Cohort: 2016
Fellow: Hina Azam

My project is intended to address a lack of understanding among most undergraduate students of the university both as an institution and as a space in which intellectual life is pursued.  This lack of understanding among undergraduates is intertwined, I believe, with a broader lack of appreciation for higher education/academia in our cultural and civic life. This lack of understanding and appreciation is highly detrimental to the well-being of higher education in our society, as the college diploma is increasingly viewed as occupational training and the university is increasingly viewed as a business. The project involves developing teaching resources and instructional modules for instructors of Signature courses, that can be tailored by each instructor and implemented in those courses.  These modules would seek to teach Signature students about a particular facet of academia, in a way that makes sense within the context of that particular course.  It would require buy-in by the instructors as well as by the School of Undergraduate Studies.  It would also require what I call “training,” for lack of a better word, but what is really an explanation of the vision and the modules/resources, as well as discussions regarding how they could be tailored and implemented.