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Are introductory courses a proper venue for deep thought about the discipline?

Article Excerpt
An introductory course is the discipline's handshake; it is the greeting that either seals the deal or in varying degrees convinces the learner that this discipline has little usefulness. Given the huge stakes in forming a strategy for the introductory course, how should we structure the course? The argument in this paper is that we should encourage students to think deeply about the discipline. In other words, we should encourage an appreciation for the complexity of the vocabulary, the underlying assumptions, and the kinds of evidence relied on in the discipline in question.

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For some students, introductory courses are the first step in the long process of studying a field intensely. This initial course prepares this group of students for future courses in the same discipline by laying a general foundation of knowledge. Without a proper grounding during an introductory course, students may flounder in future courses.

But for most students in an introductory course, this educational experience will be their first and lonely formal contact with this discipline. Those who teach the introductory course get one and only one opportunity to encourage continued interest in the discipline itself. Consequently, forming an introductory course strategy is one of the most important decisions a group of colleagues can make.

These introductory courses are doubly significant in that other students will probably use these courses to explore possible areas of interest or find a major or concentration. Many learners take these courses because they are required to do so, but an effective introductory course can serve as an efficient way to test and construct interest in the subject matter. This function for introductory courses is probably the most significant because its potential is numerically larger. The introductory class is in a sense a potential marketing endeavor, and whether the student "buys" the subject matter determines in many cases on whether he or she will ever again study this area of knowledge.

Because all types of students sit side by side in a single class, the introductory course faces the question of what should be taught and...

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