CURRICULUM DESIGN INFLUENCES ON GENERAL EDUCATION REQUIREMENTS IN FINE ARTS PROFESSIONAL BACCALAUREATE DEGREE PROGRAMS.

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to identify the forces and pressures that have influenced curriculum design decisions regarding general education requirements in the fine arts professional baccalaureate degree programs and to determine how curriculum planners are responding to these pressures. A review of the literature revealed a national movement to examine general education requirements in higher education. Problems arise when particular degree programs are already discipline-specific in nature with a substantial number of course requirements prescribed in the major area of study. The problems are compounded further in the professional degree programs where emphasis is often placed on knowledge and skills that are acquired through practical application of theoretical principles. The fine arts professional degree programs were selected as the focal curriculum structures. Based on the literature review it was expected that specific environmental forces, such as the renewed national interest in general education, would emerge as influences affecting curriculum design processes in the fine arts. Recent theoretical studies on emerging curricula structures also indicated a prevalence of systems perspectives where curriculum design processes focus on environmental influences that are precipitating a redefinition of program structures. It was anticipated by the researcher that a reexamination of curriculum design processes would reveal a responsiveness to specific forces identified in the theory as both internal and external environmental considerations. The research approach was primarily observational, utilizing parametric estimates and analyses. Particular data gathered were periodically subjected to inferential analysis. The researcher found that a majority of the fine arts curriculum planners contacted for this study were involved in curriculum review and revision of the professional baccalaureate degree programs. It was also revealed from results of the study that curriculum design influences were primarily institutional/internally motivated although current theoretical literature on curriculum design processes indicated that systems perspectives dominated these processes. Finally, it was discovered that fine arts alumni from professional baccalaureate degree programs favor traditional general/liberal curricular structures in higher education.