Gen 301: Preparing adults for college success.
tudents at Siena’s off-campus centers
shape their education through another General Education seminar:
GEN 301, The Adult Learner.
“I see the two seminars as bookends,”
says General Education coordinator Susan
Conley Weeks. “301 prepares returning
students for success in a liberal arts
environment. GEN 301 lays out our values
and lets students know what to expect,
while 401 is an opportunity to reflect on
what’s been learned and what it all means.”
Bernie Pelland has taught both courses.
She taught 401 for the last 8 of her 30 years
on the Adrian campus. Since retiring four
years ago, she’s taught GEN 301 as a parttime professor at our Lansing and
Southfield centers.
Both courses provide a theoretical
framework and emphasize the value of
lifelong learning, she said; but 401 deals
with integration and 301 with
transition, especially the
transition from technical
training to degree education.
401 students develop a
philosophy of life; 301
students develop a
degree completion
plan.
GEN 301 helps
returning students
polish their writing, speaking, research and
presentation skills—and learn how to use
these tools to be successful, in school and
on the job. “They also learn to think
reflectively, not just technically,” Pelland
said. “Liberal arts learning is about
questions, not answers; whereas technical
modalities usually deal with the here-andnow, and with hard-and-fast answers.”
As working adults, the students in GEN
301 focus attention on such themes as
managing change, understanding paradigm
shifts, and adapting to the multiple
demands of jobs, families and academic
schedules. Sometimes, Pelland says,
students need to learn how to unlearn old
ideas so they can consider new ways of
thinking. “We also
focus on the
13
collaborative modes that are so essential
to the workplace.”
In addition to reading, discussion, and
lots of writing, GEN 301 students complete
a Learning Project in which they apply
objective research and learning skills to
expand their knowledge on a subject of
personal interest. Among the topics chosen
by Pelland’s recent students are sailing,
diabetes, updating a home computer,
planning for a 3-year-old’s college
education, and managing sexual issues with
a pre-adolescent daughter.
A few students resist the class but for
most GEN 301 is a very positive experience,
Pelland says, “and I really value the
experience of teaching it. It’s very exciting
to help students gain the tools to make their
own growth a conscious process.”
n
The Other Bookend
Ethics and
Values