Rethinking Curriculum at Hack the Core
Over rolls of falafel and shawarma, students gathered in a corner of the Arts Center on Sept. 20 to workshop NYU Abu Dhabi’s Core Curriculum. Teams of ...
Oct 3, 2015
Over rolls of falafel and shawarma, students gathered in a corner of the Arts Center on Sept. 20 to workshop NYU Abu Dhabi’s Core Curriculum. Teams of three to five were given three hours to hack the curriculum and craft proposals of what they thought the university's Core should look like.
About 30 students took part in the hackathon, hosted by Bryan Waterman, Associate Vice Provost for Undergraduate Academic Development.
“Over the last two years, and even longer, students have been really active in discussions about revising the Core,” said Waterman. “But in a way, I felt like we hadn’t really received enough examples of student proposals.”
The top two Core models of the night indicated that students were looking for intellectual breadth in their course selection.
Dubbed the Toolbox Model, sophomores Alejandro Mora, Davis Teague and Daniel Carelli’s winning proposal did not include any Core classes. Instead, students would work with a checklist while choosing introductory or elective courses from a range of majors.
Regular curriculum courses would fall under one of the four tentative categories: Interpretive and Aesthetic Understanding, Beliefs and Societies, Empirical Thinking and Logical Reasoning. Students would then have to fulfill two courses from each category.
The Toolbox model was the only proposal that avoided Core classes entirely.
“We felt that the Core could be improved to be even more innovative, so we decided to join forces and see what we could come up with,” wrote Mora. “The interdisciplinary nature of our project is definitely its biggest strength.”
The runner-up model introduced the idea of Core classes that are co-taught by two professors from different disciplines. Designed by seniors Diana Gluck, Cole Tanigawa-Lau, Soichiro Hattori and Dean Shaff, the model aimed to keep NYUAD’s Core special, while allowing more flexibility.
[blockquote_image image="https://cdn.thegazelle.org/gazelle/2015/10/SAM_5103.jpg"]There are radically different proposals on the table that solve problems in different ways. I feel like we’re dealing a little bit with a Rubik’s cube.[/blockquote_image]
The proposal requires students to take courses in three categories: Qualitative Reasoning, Critical Reading and Hands-On. Students could choose to fulfil each category either by taking a co-taught class or two introductory courses.
“We incorporated co-teaching as a way to have cores speak to ‘big questions’ or simply bigger concepts without one professor needing to teach outside their area or expertise,” wrote Gluck.
Students would be required to take at least one co-taught course, and at least one pair of introductory courses in a single area, giving the minimum of five courses in the core curriculum.
Proposals from Hack the Core were forwarded to the university's Core Committee, the university body currently deliberating over the future curriculum. The Committee has received around a dozen proposals from faculty and students so far, according to Waterman.
Earlier this year, the university's Electra Street journal published a series of essays that discussed and proposed models for the Core Curriculum.
“There are radically different proposals on the table that solve problems in different ways. I feel like we’re dealing a little bit with a Rubik’s cube,” said Waterman.
Waterman said that the full implementation of any model from Hack the Core is unlikely.
“In the best possible world, we would have new requirements announced in time for their adoption next year,” said Waterman.
The Core Committee currently meets at a minimum of once a week. Two students representatives, seniors Soichiro Hattori and Layan Abu-Yassin, sit on the Core Committee as well as the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee, which oversees proposals for all new courses.
To be successful, a Core proposal needs to pass a Core Committee vote and a faculty vote before it is forwarded to provost Fabio Piano.
“I think our ideal is to come up with a core that both offers breadth and flexibility and still provides the feeling of a common intellectual experience at the heart of undergraduate education,” said Waterman.
Joey Bui is editor-in-chief. Email her at feedback@thegazelle.org.
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