Why Change the Calendar
In the course of conversations about rethinking our curriculum, I have heard
claims that the current calendar is the cause of any number of problems in the
intellectual life and development of our students. While structures do matter,
we must be careful to recognize that changing the calendar will not cure all or
perhaps even most of the concerns we have. Changing the calendar will not, for
example, cause our students to do the reading for our classes. And students can
be as dependent on us as we allow them to be or as independent as they choose
to be under any calendar we might design. That said, there do appear to be some
concerns that could be addressed through structural change.
1. Students need time to reflect and
absorb information, and meeting classes everyday does not allow for that.
2. Faculty need blocks of time to prepare for classes and to do their research.
3. Winter term is too short to accomplish what some departments need to do in
their courses. And if we lose days to bad weather, it is very difficult to
recover.
4. Spring term can be very long without a real break (I’m not
counting beach weekend) if Easter comes early, and there is a tendency for
students to check out mentally well before the term ends.
We may want to consider a structural change in calendar to
address these concerns, but we must be careful not to lose the positive aspects
of our current calendar or create unintended negative consequences. There are
benefits to our current calendar we might wish to preserve:
1. Because class meets everyday, it is easier to continue a
train of thought from one class to the next. This may enable us to cover more
material during the term than would be possible in a system where classes did
not meet daily.
2. Daily interaction with our students allows us to get to know them better and
allows us to adjust our pedagogical methods and assignments during a term in
response to students’ different learning styles or classroom dynamics.
3. Students typically take only three courses at a time, allowing them to
immerse themselves in those courses and think more deeply about them.
Proposed Change:
Fall Term-- 12 or 13 weeks
Winter Term-- 12 or 13 weeks
Spring Term-- 5 or 6 weeks
Classes in fall and winter would meet 50 minutes MTTHF with
Wednesdays off. Spring term could operate like that with a longer class period
(90 minutes), or we could have classes that meet 2 or 3 days/week for a longer
time period. Students would take 3 courses in the longer terms and 2 courses in
the short term.
Rationale (benefits of this proposal):
1. Students can concentrate on a small number of courses as they do under the
present calendar (as compared to a semester system), but they have a day off to
reflect or catch up. If we go to a system where they are in class everyday,
even if it is a different class everyday, the students are probably not going
to use the time to think about the courses they just got out of; they will use
it to get ready for the next class that they haven’t
thought about since it last met. Putting the day off in the middle of the week makes it less
likely that students will use it to extend their weekend.
2. Faculty would not have to be in class everyday. They could use Wed. for
research or preparation for class or meeting with students. This would be an
improvement over our current system and possibly even a semester system where
it is quite likely many or most faculty would still have to teach daily.
3. Making winter term a long term and spring short lessens the impact of snow
days.
4. For sequenced courses that continue in content from one to the next
(particularly language, math, and science courses), putting the two long terms
back to back allows for more continuity from the first class to the second. For
example, under the current system, students who take Physics 11 in the fall
must wait two months before they can take Physics 12 in the spring because it
is not typically offered winter term.
5. The shorter spring term would allow for some experimentation with the
curriculum. Many departments would probably need to create or revamp courses specifically
designed for this term. It would not, for example, be a good term to offer
traditional introductory courses or most GER courses. However, this would be a
good term for each department to provide freshman seminars or senior seminars.
It would be an opportunity to offer intensive upper level courses on more
narrow or specialized topics than we typically offer, giving faculty more
opportunities to teach their specialties or involve students in their research.
It would be a good term for students to do independent research. It might be a
good time to offer 2 hour courses. Some study abroad trips might fit better
into a short term (and that would cut their costs), and some of the trips that
typically take place during the winter might move to spring.
6. Putting the short term in the spring would probably make it less likely that
students would check out mentally at the end of the school year. Because the
spring term would be short and presumably the courses would be something
students are interested in—either a major course or some sort of seminar or
engaged learning opportunity—the students’ interest and focus might be more
easily maintained. There
would also not be the specter of 7 weeks of uninterrupted classes like we
sometimes face with the current spring term. And if all that fails, the
academic cost of checking out mentally before the end of the term would be
substantially higher than it is in the current spring term.
7. We could have spring break during the spring (as opposed to the last week of
February), say somewhere around the first weekend of the NCAA basketball
tournament. (I’m not really sure there is an academic or pedagogical
justification for this, but we should consider the total person.)
Posted by love at
October 1, 2004 09:22 PM
Discuss
this proposal in the forum, or leave a comment below!
I think this is a great idea. I really enjoy not having so many
classes during each term--it really allows me to focus in on my classes and
absorb the material. This proposed calendar also solves a lot of the problems
associated with the current calendar, as the proposal itself points out. I
think that while students gripe about the workload during Winter term, most
would prefer to have three terms, providing that their Spring Break was more
aligned with those of their friends at other schools. This proposal should
definitely be considered, and I hope it will be approved.
Posted by:
at February 2, 2005 01:27 AM