K Plan for the 21st Century: Revitalizing a Fellowship in Learning

Abstract

The Distinctiveness Initiative Task Force (DITF)1 distributed their original set of recommendations to the faculty of Kalamazoo College in September 2007.2 The fall quarter of 2007 was used as a listening period in which DITF and EPC members facilitated faculty discussions and met with individual departments. During December 2007 and January 2008, the DITF reviewed and summarized faculty feedback before using this information to revisit and revise the original recommendations. The proposals described in the present document are somewhat different from the original recommendations, and this is a direct result of the faculty feedback compiled in fall 2007. Our present recommendations represent a renewed commitment to the central role of rigorous academics, experiential learning, and study abroad to a distinctive K education. Many of our proposed changes are designed to provide faculty with the freedom and the resources to use their classrooms as laboratories for innovation in teaching and learning. Other proposed changes should provide students with a curriculum that allows them the freedom to design a unique K education that is meaningful and integrated. By capitalizing on the best thinking of all faculty members and the spirit of innovation demonstrated throughout Kalamazoo College’s history, we can collectively create the K Plan for the 21st Century.

This is the revised document for the curriculum change adopted in 2009. This document succeeds the original proposal of 2007 (Revitalizaing a Fellowship in Learning: K-Plan for the 21st Century; A proposal from the Distinctiveness Initiative Task Force to enhance what Kalamazoo College already does well, https://cache.kzoo.edu/handle/10920/25434) and precedes the adopted 2009 document (K Plan for the 21st Century: General Education Curriculum, https://cache.kzoo.edu/handle/10920/25470).