History and systems of psychology: A course to unite a core curriculum

Core curricula are designed, in part, to help undergraduate students become intellectually well-rounded. To merge core curricula with the components of the scholarship of teaching and learning movement, students engaged in core curricula need capstone courses designed to aid them in retaining information over the long term and synthesizing information from the various core areas. We used an existing core curriculum to delineate the congruency of core subject areas with topics covered in a history and systems of psychology course, which may be used as a capstone course for students across disciplines to unite the areas of a core curriculum. The American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), a leading force in the implementation of liberal education in the higher education environment, has highlighted the importance of fostering an interdisciplinary undergraduate education (American Association of Colleges and Universities, 2012). To address this goal, institutions of higher education have created general education requirements, or, as we prefer, core curricula. Core curricula typically consist of general areas of study and align with the key components of a liberal education, containing courses from a wide array of liberal arts and sciences disciplines from which students may choose (Boyer Commission, 2010). Surveys indicate that most AAC&U member institutions offer some sort of core curriculum or common intellectual experience. However, these same surveys reveal that the majority of schools are seeking to modify their general education requirements, including the core curriculum (Hart Research Associates, 2009). At first glimpse, the implementation of such an eclectic curriculum may seem daunting, and rightfully so. Specifically, for university administrators and faculty, it is a formidable task because simply providing undergraduate students with a variety of courses from which to choose and thus construct an interdisciplinary degree is but one early step of many in the potentially protracted process toward graduation.