GIS - General Integration & Synthesis

 

A woman in a red shirt holds the end of a string while a man in a blue, plaid shirt helps spool thread through a wooden machine.

GIS courses are designed to assist students already acquainted with the various modes of knowledge to understand the connectedness of things.

GIS courses seek to help the student transcend specialization and gain perspective on self, areas of knowledge, and the human condition. GIS courses are not just interdisciplinary but transcend the limits of any one of the existing academic divisions at Stockton either in subject matter or content or by directly addressing those human experiences – individual and social – that themselves transcend the boundaries with academic life. 

Types of Courses

GIS requires extraordinary effort on the part of professor and students to bring together diverse areas and points of view.  GIS requires serious reading, writing, and discussion, and sustained interaction with people from different disciplines.  GIS courses may be taught in two modes: 

Lecture or Discussion Mode

The lecture/discussion mode where the professor attempts to communicates his or her own integrated view of a particular area or problem, e.g. in courses about the city, energy, the role of science in human life, ecological consciousness.

Seminar Mode

The seminar mode where faculty participate as intellectuals, not specialists, mutually engaged with each other and with students in an investigation of the material studied, with an emphasis on the process of seeking integration around the topic selected.