DIVISION I – please make sure your students know about the newtohamp blog. You might find it useful too!
Find the college requirements on the academics page.
Here are some ways to think about the requirements and some tips for talking about them with students:
Why do we have a distribution?
Some of the most creative minds have developed new ways of working because they were grounded in a number of disciplines. Since the college’s inception, distribution has been the focus of Division I. Before entering Hampshire, many students have learned in classrooms that focus on content rather than process. They have often not been involved in the endeavors of a field that uncover how knowledge is created – what kinds of questions experts pursue and why, what the underlying assumptions are in a discipline, what the strengths are of the methodologies, what the limitations are, etc. Distribution at Hampshire means beginning to see how we work in a field. Division I courses ought to have students “doing” work in a field, reflecting on the types of questions asked and the some of the methods used to answer them. As students begin to understand the kinds of questions and methods that most interest them, they develop, often new, directions and begin to formulate questions that might drive their Division II’s.
What does the Campus Engaged Learning (CEL-1) do for students?
CEL-1 has as its main goal, building community at Hampshire. Students in Division I must carry out at least one campus-engaged learning (CEL-1) activity that engages with fellow students and expands the ways they learn and reflect. For many students this requirement helps them think about the role of out-of-class learning in their Hampshire education and they go on to integrate many community engaged experiences into their Divisional work.
Students select appropriate CEL-1 activities that are sponsored by staff, faculty, or Division II or III students. Activities are listed on the CEL-1 website. Any newly proposed activity must be entered through this site (sponsors can post new ones on their own or as students help develop them). Students document their CEL-1 work and include a reflection on it in the Division I retrospective essay.
The CEL-1 requirement is 40 hours, approximately equal to course contact hours.
What are the cumulative skills about?
One task of Division I is to begin to understand and make progress on college level skills. So far, we have articulated what work looks like in 4 different skills. Students ought to show work that demonstrates their skill in these skills in their Division I portfolios – and then keep progressing throughout their Hampshire careers according to their own priorities. Please make sure your Division I students have seen these rubrics (because they help some students understand what the skills are). They might find them useful in evaluating their own work and setting their goals for improvement.
Download the Cumulative Skills Rubrics
- Writing and Research Cumulative Skill
- Independent Work Cumulative Skill
- Quantitative Cumulative Skill
- Multiple Cultural Perspectives Cumulative Skill
HANDOUTS FOR STUDENTS (downloaded as Word documents – so you can edit)
Many faculty have created handouts for students to explain Division I and to help them prepare their portfolios. Here are a few. If you have created handouts you would like to share, please send them to the Center for Teaching and Learning at ctl@hampshire.edu