Guest Editor’s Note

This special issue of the Journal of General Education takes a detailed look at the practice of assessment of higher education general education programs. The articles selected for inclusion intentionally take a broad view to incorporate consideration of several issues that are problematic and often unattended. This issue endeavors to provide examples on how to address some of these problems and extends a few possible solutions.

At the inception of an assessment program, it is critical to establish meaningful goals and objectives. For many programs and faculty members, this is a challenge that has not been previously encountered. It seems peculiar that general education and academic programs could be designed, curriculum in place, teachers identified, and students graduated without a firm and clear understanding of what the program was intended to accomplish. The challenge of crafting student learning outcomes for general education programs is particularly arduous due to the inherent breadth of content and scope of courses included in any given area. The first article, by Joe, Harmes, and Barry, “Arts and Humanities General Education Assessment: A Qualitative Approach to Developing Program Objectives,” demonstrates how qualitative approaches can contribute to the identification of program learning objectives. In the fine arts and humanities, it has traditionally been particularly difficult for content-area faculty and assessment practitioners to articulate that which they hold so dear. It is believed that the content analysis and thematic networks approach used in the reported setting will easily generalize to other general education program areas.

An enduring higher education problem is the low perceived value students place on general education. We frequently hear students referring to the core curriculum as a nuisance to “get out of the way” or a “hurdle” that must be overcome. The low standing in which students hold general education is in stark contrast to its high priority for employers, graduate schools, and many other stakeholders. It may be that this perceived lack of importance may lead to orientations that are not conducive to the use of deep learning strategies that are most likely to produce lifelong learning. While most institutions of higher education espouse lifelong learning as central to their mission, we know remarkably little about student learning goals as they pertain to general education. The Miller and Sundre article, “Achievement Goal Orientation Toward General Education Versus Overall Coursework,” provides an in-depth description and comparison of student generic and general education achievement goal orientations, as well as new and demoralizing findings concerning their change over time. The article is instructive in providing available means to study these important outcomes and, we hope, to alter them in the future.

The final article in the issue, by Anderson and Thelk, “The Effects of Reporting One’s Gender on General Education Test Performance,” provides a timely inquiry into a basic form of stereotype threat, gender. The study attempts to invoke a form of gender stereotype threat that has previously been demonstrated to systematically reduce test performances. The study employs a low threat threshold in a low-stakes testing condition to test whether merely seeking gender information is sufficient to trigger differential stereotype threat in males and females. The results are consoling, but a great deal more research is needed to more fully comprehend how the anxiety produced by certain testing contexts predictably produces fear of stereotype fulfillment, which results in bias in test performances.

Taken as a whole, this special issue of the Journal of General Education has provided a rare opportunity to query a few of the most tenacious and problematic concerns in higher education assessment. It is hoped that the research examples and findings obtained will promote more inquiry as well as more understanding. I thank you for the opportunity to contribute.