Foundations: Reconstructing General Education

It is impossible for any passing pedestrian to be oblivious of the changes taking place on BYU-Idaho’s campus with regards to the landscape.  The tumultuous noise of heavy machinery like backhoes and excavators serenade faculty and students on a daily basis.  These construction sites are not only creating grand edifices, they are symbols of what is taking place within the university’s academic environment.  Foundations is a program that is reconstructing the way BYU-Idaho approaches general education.  Like an excavator, Foundations is plunging into new soil and making way for a platform on which to build an enduring structure.

New Approach
For many, the name “general education” has a dull, unexciting connotation.  A common attitude is that the real fun doesn’t begin until students can begin enrolling in the courses assigned to their major.  President Clark has challenged faculty and students to change that.  Dozens of members of BYU-Idaho faculty have been collaborating for months to design a program that will inspire life-long learning.  Faculty want to teach students how to learn versus what to learn.    Committee member Joelle Moen says, “[Students] will have become strong enough thinkers that, if they are presented with a problem, they will say, ‘Well, I don’t know about that, but I can ask the right questions and find out the right information, so that doesn’t scare me.’”
Bryce Mecham, another member of the Foundations committee, calls the program a major “paradigm shift.”  This new approach to education will require steady input and preparation from both student and teacher and involve abandoning old, comfortable ways of teaching and learning.  “I think, for both students and teachers, this approach, if we implement it right, will be liberating,” remarks Rob Eaton of the committee. 

Logistics
Foundations is to be implemented in the Fall of 2008 with a two-year phasing period.  Courses will be limited to forty credits.  Additionally, all Idaho and Utah universities will continue to accept transfer students that go through Foundation courses.  As faculty collaborate their courses and online components are improved, students will not be required to purchase as many textbooks. The logistics of the program is subject to change.  Moen says, “There will be some growing pains, and we’ll probably have lots of complaints amongst ourselves as we try to figure out how we do this… if it doesn’t work, it isn’t set in stone. There will still be revisions and changes and updates.”

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