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Posted November 25, 2008

GenEd's Philly theme attracts national media

The "Philadelphia Experience" — an innovative theme of Temple's new General Education program that takes students out of the classroom and into the city — continues to attract attention from the media.


This week's issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education, the nation's leading source of higher-ed news, includes a page-one feature story on GenEd and the “Philadelphia Experience” called "At Temple U., the City Is the Classroom." (The full text of the story is available online to subscribers only; the print edition is available at Temple University Libraries and newsstands.)
 
About half of Temple's new GenEd courses have off-campus experiential learning components. "The idea of place-based learning has been in practice for decades," wrote Chronicle reporter Caitlin Moran, "but the breadth and formality of Temple's new approach sets it apart."
   

Moran quoted GenEd Director Terry Halbert, criminal justice faculty member and GenEd instructor Ralph Taylor, two students and President Ann Weaver Hart in her story. The print version of the article also includes three photographs of students in Theater Professor Douglas Wager's "The Creative Spirit" class attending a jazz performance in Center City.


Joseph T. Suddath, a junior transfer student who was quoted in Moran's article, says that "The Creative Spirit" is his favorite class.


"Every time we go out in the city, I see something I've never seen before and go places I've never been before," Suddath said. "To do that in my first semester at Temple — and then to be interviewed by a reporter from Washington — it was very exciting."


GenEd's “Philadelphia Experience” theme was also covered by Inside Higher Ed ("General Education in the City," Sept. 5, 2008) and the Philadelphia Inquirer ("Temple U. Turning Phila. Into a Classroom," Aug. 27, 2008).


"It's terrific that all the energy and work that's gone into GenEd and the “Philadelphia Experience” is getting national media attention," Halbert said.
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