Editor's Notes

Welcome to the Journal of General Education, Volume 54, Issue 2. This issue shows the broad range of works that can enrich our understanding of the field of general education. It contains works that range from considering how to teach within general education courses to considering higher education as a competitive market.

Two articles in this issue take teaching in general education courses as their subject. Sarah Wyatt, in an article titled "Extending Inquiry-Based Learning to Include Original Experimentation," helps us to consider using approaches that have traditionally been reserved for laboratory courses to improve lecture based courses. In "Ideology, Life Practices, and Pop Culture: So Why Is This Called Writing Class?," Karen Fitts argues that writing courses should move students to deeper levels of understanding, not only understanding the writing process but also themselves as writers. Fitts presents some writing assignments that demonstrate how this goal might be accomplished.

In thinking about how to teach within general education courses, it is also important to consider the students as learners. Shawn Glynn, Lori Price Aultman, and Ashley Owens do this in their article entitled "Motivation to Learn in General Education Programs." The authors consider how to motivate students, presenting motivational theory and describing its application and use in general education programs.

While considering teaching and student learning, educators must consider how they know when their efforts are being successful. This need for information coupled with the increasing calls for accountability in higher education has led to a growth of the assessment movement. Helen Gerretson and Emily Golson, in "Synopsis of the Use of Course-Embedded Assessment in a Medium Sized Public University's General Education Program," provide us with a snapshot of course-embedded assessment with a single institution.

Finally student learning, teaching, and assessment all happen within the broad context of higher education. In his article entitled "Higher Education in Competitive Markets: Literature on Organizational Decline and Turnaround," David A. Paul takes a broad view of the field. Paul reviews the literature on competitive markets and their cycles of decline and turnaround, situates higher education within this environment, and considers examples from two universities.

I hope you will enjoy this issue and that in reading these important works, you will be inspired to make your own contributions to the Journal of General Education!