Reflections Magazine Issue #53 - Summer 2000 | Page 13

Gen 301: Preparing adults for college success. tudents at Siena’s off-campus centers shape their education through another General Education seminar: GEN 301, The Adult Learner. “I see the two seminars as bookends,” says General Education coordinator Susan Conley Weeks. “301 prepares returning students for success in a liberal arts environment. GEN 301 lays out our values and lets students know what to expect, while 401 is an opportunity to reflect on what’s been learned and what it all means.” Bernie Pelland has taught both courses. She taught 401 for the last 8 of her 30 years on the Adrian campus. Since retiring four years ago, she’s taught GEN 301 as a parttime professor at our Lansing and Southfield centers. Both courses provide a theoretical framework and emphasize the value of lifelong learning, she said; but 401 deals with integration and 301 with transition, especially the transition from technical training to degree education. 401 students develop a philosophy of life; 301 students develop a degree completion plan. GEN 301 helps returning students polish their writing, speaking, research and presentation skills—and learn how to use these tools to be successful, in school and on the job. “They also learn to think reflectively, not just technically,” Pelland said. “Liberal arts learning is about questions, not answers; whereas technical modalities usually deal with the here-andnow, and with hard-and-fast answers.” As working adults, the students in GEN 301 focus attention on such themes as managing change, understanding paradigm shifts, and adapting to the multiple demands of jobs, families and academic schedules. Sometimes, Pelland says, students need to learn how to unlearn old ideas so they can consider new ways of thinking. “We also focus on the 13 collaborative modes that are so essential to the workplace.” In addition to reading, discussion, and lots of writing, GEN 301 students complete a Learning Project in which they apply objective research and learning skills to expand their knowledge on a subject of personal interest. Among the topics chosen by Pelland’s recent students are sailing, diabetes, updating a home computer, planning for a 3-year-old’s college education, and managing sexual issues with a pre-adolescent daughter. A few students resist the class but for most GEN 301 is a very positive experience, Pelland says, “and I really value the experience of teaching it. It’s very exciting to help students gain the tools to make their own growth a conscious process.” n The Other Bookend Ethics and Values