Jail, Prison, or Parole Assigning Courses to Disciplines

1
Jail, Prison, or Parole? Assigning Courses to
Disciplines

• Kevin Parker, Michelle Pilati, Randy Lawson

2
Questions to Consider

• Who owns a course?
• Who gets to teach what?
• What is an interdisciplinary course?
• What is the process for modifying the existing
  disciplines list?
• What process is used on your campus for assigning
  a course to a discipline?

3
Description continued..

• This session will discuss why these questions are
  critical to curriculum committees, how ignoring
  these questions may cause problems down the road,
  and how committees can find answers to these
  questions.

4
The Pieces..
5
The Disciplines List

• Preparation maintenance of Disciplines List
  assigned to Academic Senate (Ed. Code 87357)
• Works through local senates
• Consults with statewide organizations
• Makes recommendations to BoG

6
The Disciplines List

• Disciplines organized into two Lists
• Disciplines requiring a Masters Degree
• Disciplines in which a Masters Degree is not
  generally expected or available
• Note A separate list for non-credit also exists
  (Title 5 53412)

7
The Disciplines List

• Board of Governors Approves List
• Must rely primarily on the advice and judgment
  of the Academic Senate
• Used for
• hiring faculty
• placing courses in disciplines

8
Local Decisions

• Equivalency process
• Local requirements may be higher
• MQs reflect statewide minimums for persons to be
  considered qualified in a discipline
• Districts may establish additional qualifications
  more rigorous than those listed on Disciplines
  List
• Consider impact of raising MQs on candidate pools
• Consider impact of not on who is qualified to
  teach your courses

9
What About Single-Course Equivalency?

• Ed Code and Title 5 refer to qualifications in
  terms of Disciplines not courses or subject areas
  within a Discipline (Ed Code 87357 Title 5
  53410 and 53430)
• Alternatives?

10
So..

• Courses are assigned to disciplines
• Faculty meet minimum qualifications for a
  discipline
• A course must be placed in a discipline or
  disciplines in order to determine who is
  qualified to teach it
• Usually, this is simple

11
Placement of Courses in Disciplines

• Local senates maintain responsibility for placing
  courses in disciplines per Title 5
• Academic and professional matters includes (as
  first area) curriculum including establishing
  prerequisites and placement of courses within
  disciplines (Title 5 53200)

12
Placement of Courses in Disciplines

• Required for all courses (credit non-credit)
  for which campus receives apportionment
• Not required for community service courses
• Suggestion Include discipline designations on
  all course outlines
• What do you do now?

13
Placement of Courses in Disciplines

• For most courses, this is simple.
• Psychology 101 is placed in psychology, Sociology
  101 in sociology, etc..
• When does it get murky?
• Biological Psychology
• Social Psychology

14
Cross-listing Courses

• Reason
• Course fits more than one discipline
• Advantage
• Individual with MQs in either discipline would be
  qualified to teach the course

15
Cross-listing Courses

• Examples
• Economic History of the U.S.
• May be cross-listed with Economics History and
  taught by faculty member with MQs for Economics
  or History
• Speech Communication 140 Journalism 140
• Course may be taught by faculty member with MQs
  for Journalism or Speech/Communication
• Potential Concerns
• May impact articulation agreements
• May affect bumping rights

16
Interdisciplinary Courses

• When to be considered?
• Course clearly does not fall within a single
  discipline
• It combines two or more disciplines to such a
  degree that some preparation in each constituent
  discipline is required

17
Interdisciplinary Courses

• More specialized preparation required than with
  cross-listed courses
• Interdisciplinary Studies Masters in the
  interdisciplinary area OR Masters in one of the
  disciplines included in the interdisciplinary
  area and upper division or graduate course work
  in at least one other constituent discipline.

18
Interdisciplinary Courses

• More specialized preparation required than with
  cross-listed courses
• If Western Civilization listed as
  Interdisciplinary
• Components may be art, philosophy, literature
  therefore Instructor qualifications require some
  preparation in each area
• Qualifications must be based on course
  description of record

19
Principles on Placement of Courses

• The guiding principle is course content, not
  personnel issues or FTEs
• Base decision to place a course in a discipline
  on the body of knowledge necessary to teach the
  course
• A decision of the Curriculum Committee

20
Principles on Placement of Courses

• A decision of the Curriculum Committee - a
  decision of the faculty
• Process varies depending on local academic senate
  policies and curricular issues

21
Principles on Placement of Courses

• Regardless of the local situation, discipline
  faculty need to be involved in assignment of
  courses to disciplines.
• Remember Not all programs or department titles
  are disciplines Use the approved Disciplines
  List

22
Principles on Placement of Courses

• A process for placement is needed, as well as a
  means of mediating disputes
• College Vs District
• If each college has its own curriculum, the
  placement of courses may vary
• Local control

23
Principles on Placement of Courses

• When making a decision, the course content should
  be the driving force who is qualified to teach
  it?
• If Biological Psychology is assigned to
  Psychology, all those with Psychology minimum
  qualifications should be able to teach it

24
Principles on Placement of Courses

• If there is no process for placing courses in
  disciplines, one is needed
• Local control/Faculty control
• Keep in mind ramifications if you determine
  that a course is interdisciplinary, will anyone
  be able to teach it?

25

• Questions on anything and anything..