ABSTRACT
It goes without saying that general education curricula in undergraduate education are important for students to develop different perspectives. Students in general education programs should receive a generous orientation to intellectual expectations, acquire skills of thought and expression and integrate ideas from across disciplines to illuminate interdisciplinary issues, and so on. The problem with general education, however, is that teachers often are ill prepared. Research indicates that teachers are frequently not knowledgeable about a variety of teaching innovations and strategies, and that they identify more with their disciplinary interest and less with general education (Bakutes, 1998; Cranton, 1994; Heppner and Johnson, 1994). In addition, traditional pedagogical approaches in higher education do not work effectively with most of today's students, whose learning styles challenge teachers to employ more diverse and interactive teaching strategies. Unfortunately, there is no teacher training program at the college level to help faculty members to design and practice courses for general education. Facing a lack of adequate preparation in education, junior faculty members usually play multiple roles – teaching, research, service. Consequently, they spend little time on improving their own learning and teaching (Davis, 1993). Thus, some college faculty members simplify the teaching materials of introductory or lower-level courses for use in general education courses. Even worse, some college faculty and students treat classes in general education as easy-earned credits that require little effort in learning or even teaching.
