In my early time at UD, how can I get the competencies and experiences I will need to succeed academically and professionally?

How can I explore the range of academic possibilities at UD–including different disciplines and majors, research opportunities and discoveries--in a simple and efficient manner?

How do I link what I learn from these experiences to life outside the classroom?

These are some of the questions that incoming freshmen have when deciding which courses to take during their first semester at UD.

Pilot program

Now, thanks to a pilot program, Pathways of Discovery, there is a way for freshmen to address these issues early in their academic careers by taking courses that help them develop basic intellectual skills, including critical thinking, through a combination of innovative teaching methods and technological support.

To accomplish this goal, Pathways offers courses with topics of general interest, but in an interdisciplinary format designed to make students aware of the many resources available here and the wide range of career choices made possible by a UD education.

Programs such as Pathways, and its counterpart LIFE (Learning Integrated Freshman Experience), are designed to generate a sense of excitement about learning among freshmen while indicating to prospective students and their parents that UD is serious about its commitment to meeting the needs of its first-year students.

"We wanted to give students a more focused experience in their early career at UD," William Frawley, director of the Office of Undergraduate Studies, says. "Pathways courses are meant to be an initial exposure to the UD experience. They cut between disciplines and teach students to be open to new ideas."

By demonstrating the connections that exist between the different academic disciplines, the program, offered by the General Education Initiative in the Office of Undergraduate Studies, opens up to students a variety of ideas and issues that may indeed become a pathway to finding a major and a career.

Pathways also meets several of the General Education Initiative's "10 goals to success," including the attainment of effective communication and reasoning skills, working independently and collaboratively and developing an intellectual curiosity for lifelong learning.

Another of these goals is the development of critical thinking skills, where students are sometimes asked to solve real-world problems by making judgments and explaining the reasons for their decisions.

Participating faculty are asked to complete a Pathways portfolio that summarizes the ways in which Pathways courses promote essential competencies, such as the use of information technology, collaborative problem solving, oral and written communication and reasoning skills.

Faculty also are asked to determine how these courses differ from traditional survey courses in making students aware of the many academic disciplines and support resources available at UD.

A key component of any Pathways course is fostering the improvement of general communications skills among students as they prepare course material for presentation.

These communication activities include writing and speaking as well as other forms of information presentation, such as electronic documents, web sites and video documents.

Students also are often given individual and group assignments that include the use of the library, computer labs and laboratory resources as research tools.

"Pathways courses are unique opportunities for introducing new topics of instruction," Frawley says. "The courses offer team-teaching and new instructional methods, and the results of these efforts show that students and faculty alike are benefiting from the Pathways experience."

Faculty involvement

Bahira Sherif, assistant professor of individual and family studies, who taught "Relationships" as a Pathways course, notes that one of the biggest differences for faculty is the use of a group approach in planning and teaching the course.

Team-teaching in this instance involved Sherif, who served as the principal faculty member, along with Department of Individual and Family Studies colleagues Robin Palkovitz, professor, and Martha Buell, assistant professor, who both helped out by brainstorming topic ideas and serving as guest lecturers.

Sherif says that while she used traditional teaching tools, such as lectures and individual assignments, students also were required to sharpen their communication skills through group discussions and the completion of group assignments.

"I asked them to give a plausible explanation for their view on a particular issue and to take the same approach when evaluating research," Sherif says. "In addition to getting them to improve their reading and speaking skills, I wanted them to become more aware of the diversity in our society."

Sherif says the class, which dealt with work, school and personal relationships, actually met several Pathways goals, including exposure to various academic disciplines and programs and the resources these departments offer to students of all majors.

"The course, with its mixture of guest lectures and group sessions, introduced them to a number of disciplines they never realized existed," Sherif said. "In this sense, the course really serves as a potential pathway to a number of different career choices. As a faculty member, it was challenging and brought about a certain amount of personal fulfillment."

Larry Peterson, professor of music--who taught "Otello and Othello," with Lois Potter, Ned Allen Professor of English, in the spring and fall of 2001--says that, while Pathways courses require a different time commitment on the part of faculty participants, they also offer students a unique learning experience.

"We had several interactive activities, including the acting out of different scenes from a Shakespeare play, and four guest lecturers from the theatre and music departments," Peterson says. "One major difference between this course and a non-Pathways course is the use of faculty support groups and assessment, which included two meetings and two writing exercises for our students."

Students also attended an Opera Delaware production of Otello at Wilmington's Grand Opera House, while classroom presentations included performances by UD faculty and visiting guests artists.

Peterson and Potter say that, while teaching a Pathways course has not greatly changed their approach in designing a class, there are lessons to be learned in determining overall effectiveness of an instructor's teaching methods.

"I generally try to use performance in my classes anyway," Potter says. "Now, I think I might monitor future courses more closely, checking up on a student's understanding of a subject at the beginning and end of a course based on the Pathways model."

Peterson says one of the benefits of teaching a Pathways course is the reaction of students to the somewhat different structure and instructional nature of such classes.

"I feel it is working well, and I appreciate the extensive planning time involved," Peterson says. "I believe that the students really grew during the semester in their writing abilities and in their ability to communicate verbally in discussion and presentations."

Avron Abraham, associate professor of health and exercise sciences, who teaches a Pathways course, says he has received positive feedback from students regarding the group approach to health-related cases and time spent volunteering for health-related organizations.

Abraham also says he believes that the Pathways program can only get better with time.

"We are working to enhance certain aspects of the class that will make it better, including the use of information technology as a teaching tool," Abraham says. "We also are working on focusing on the multicultural aspects of health, including health-care disparities."

Frawley says that the Office of Undergraduate Studies and the fund for General Education will continue to support innovations like Pathways, and that a number of faculty in both the sciences and the humanities, have received substantial grants to develop Pathways courses.

Through the completion of the fall 2002 semester, Frawley says, about 30 Pathways courses have been made available to more than 1,700 students.

For Frawley, the Pathways program represents one of the many ways UD is trying to transform the undergraduate experience by fostering a seamless connection between the discovery of knowledge and its conveyance in different kinds of teachable moments.

"Pathways is just the kind of program that a major research university can use to build an undergraduate experience with substance--it encourages an active, guided inquiry and the linking of knowledge to everyday practice," Frawley says. "Just as important, we also are learning from our ongoing evaluation of the program that--thanks to the energy and focus of our faculty and the engagement of our students--these courses are having the beneficial effects they were designed to achieve."

--Jerry Rhodes and Josh Tootell, AS 2002