Associate Editor's Notes

As its regular readers will acknowledge, it is most often the case that a "normal" issue of the Journal of General Education will cover several topics related to general education. This practice is particularly useful since the field of general education includes various and sundry topics and subtopics and, perhaps more importantly, the diversity of institutions that comprise postsecondary education appropriately provoke a multiplicity of possibilities for general education practice. This issue, however, is a bit different. It includes four submissions (three essays and one book review), two of which focus on interdisciplinary approaches to general education, and two of which give prominence to the impact of notetaking and other study skills in general education curricula.

Ghnassia's and Seabury's essay, Interdisciplinarity and the Public Sphere, is a must read for those who are committed to or interested in the relevance and power of interdisciplinary practice in general education. They begin by presenting a brief, but compelling, argument for interdisciplinarity given its normative focus on integrative thinking and collaborative teaching and learning. But the relative take-away value of this piece may be the detailed description that they offer of an interdisciplinary, general education course entitled "Epidemics and Aids," that includes a service-learning component as well as a "public voice" component. The authors thoughtfully conclude by commenting on "how many laudable [educational] goals can reasonably fit within a 14-15 week semester?"

Kristen Renn's book review nicely complements the Ghnassia and Seabury article. It examines Barbara Smith's and John McCann's recent book on interdisciplinary studies entitled Reinventing Ourselves: Interdisciplinary Education, Collaborative Learning and Experimentation in Higher Education. Renn provides a succinct yet thorough description of the contents of this treatise by two Evergreen State College colleagues, allowing readers a very clear snapshot of its relative usefulness within various institutions.

The other two essays in this volume focus prominent attention on notetaking. I suggest reading Williams' and Eggert's Notetaking in College Classes: Student Patterns and Instructional Strategies first, followed by Williams' and Worth's Thinking Skills and Work Habits: Contributors to Course Performance. The first article (Williams and Eggert)—because it presents instructional strategies for maximizing the effectiveness of notetaking—will help instructors who teach courses with a strong content base to understand how notetaking contributes to student success as well as how they might promote effective notetaking in class. Those who teach general education courses in which a lecture format is the primary pedagogy should particularly take note (excuse the pun!) of this essay. The second article by Williams and Worth, offers valuable empirical insight into the relationship among various student inputs and their successful classroom performance. For example, the authors contend that critical thinking is the strongest predictor of high performance on multiple-choice exams; attendance is the best predictor of effective group problem solving; taking notes on course reading assignments is the primary predictor for high scores on both quizzes and projects; and taking notes on class lectures is the principal predictor of combined course outcomes. Thus, Williams' and Worth's research may go a long way towards helping faculty understand the relative impact of pedagogical practice for student success in general education (and other) curricula.