1. What are Big Questions?
Big questions are the problems and issues that drive intellectual inquiry and help us explore the many facets of the human condition from different disciplinary perspectives. Big questions are not easily answered; they require investigation, debate, and reflection. In pursuing big questions, we recognize the complexity of the world around us and identify opportunities for constructing knowledge.
Sample big questions include:
Where does creativity come from?
How do we reduce global poverty?
Is athletic prowess a product of nature or of nurturing?
How does technology affect relationships?
How can we lead sustainable lives?
What are the sources and implications of economic inequality?
How do we define “family?”
Why go to college?
2. Why include Big Questions in FYS?
Big questions help students understand the broader intellectual contexts for their FYS courses, which in turn helps them connect the content and activities of their courses to their own concerns and academic interests. In addition, big questions model for students the opening stages of the research process, in which scholars explore topics that align their intellectual interests with issues and problems that are relevant to specific communities.
3. How can Big Questions fit into my FYS?
It is important to note that the course does not have to be solely about the big question.
The FYS program asks that you work with students to define and address your course’s big question at least once during the semester. For some courses, this work could entail a week-long unit of study. For others, it might recur at particular points of the semester. Instructors are to include this big question learning outcome among their other course learning outcomes:
- Students will engage a question of enduring and/or contemporary importance and be able to define and discuss the complexities and implications of the question.
This objective is to be assessed through a written essay assigned at an appropriate time during the course.
4. What assignment is associated with Big Questions?
Each student will write an essay (300-500 words) that defines the big question of her FYS and explains its complexities and/or implications for academic disciplines or civic communities. Guidelines for the essay assignment can be found here. Instructors should determine for themselves how to introduce and teach to the assignment.
5. How should the Big Questions essays be evaluated?
Instructors should determine the best way for evaluating the essays in their own courses. The FYS Program can provide a sample rubric and help with response strategies, but it does not require that the essays be graded in any specific way or according to any specific metric.
6. How should the Big Questions essay factor into my course grading calculations?
Instructors should determine how to compute the assignment grade into students’ course grades. Ideally, the assignment will be given enough weight to encourage thoughtful engagement on the part of the students. At the same time, the assignment is not meant to replace or match assignments and exams that are central to each course’s specific learning outcomes. The weight should also be in line with how the assignment is presented and completed. For example, impromptu in-class writings should be weighted less than assignments that require multiple drafts. A range of 5% to 15% of the total course grade is appropriate.
7. How do I share students’ Big Questions essay with the FYS Program?
Students’ essays are to be collected in electronic form (though instructors may choose also to collect and respond to hard copies). Near the end of the semester, instructors will receive a randomly selected list of five numbers that will correspond to the students’ positions on the course rosters. Each instructor will send these five students’ essays to the FYS Program. There is no program assessment to be done by the instructors.
8. How will the FYS Program assess the Big Questions learning outcome?
The purpose of the essay is to determine the baseline ability of our students to recognize and analyze big questions. The sample essays will be read and assessed by the FYS Committee.
9. How will the FYS assessment data be shared and used?
The FYS Committee will prepare a brief annual report of the average rubric scores from the sample essays and post it on the FYS Assessment page. The report will be used to create future faculty development programs and to provide benchmark data for future assessments of students’ understanding of the concept of big questions.