Page 80 - FSTE A5 Handbook

Chapter Five
Articulation Experiences of
Senior Year Students

(3) Practicality
Practicality is particularly stressed as one of the expected features of GE. Students realised
the existence of GE could, actually, help with their university study, though they doubted the
practical implications for the workplace:

“I was quite happy when I was in associate degree, taking GE courses because some of them can
really be helpful for my university study. Of course whether they can be useful for work is
another story.”
“I was more impressed with the course called critical thinking. It taught me how to think. In
secondary school, all courses required us to memorize everything. We ought to keep working
on practice paper. But when we studied in the associate degree programme, we enrolled in a
course called critical thinking. It claimed the skills learned would be useful for our university
study. I found it an interesting course.”

“GE can actually be practical. I can still remember what I have learnt. It is unlike those Math class
in the secondary school where I learnt the concepts of log, sin, cos, tan etc., I can hardly
remember. GE is more down to earth. I am not a science person, I want to learn something more
practical like GE.”

As can be seen, GE was perceived by some students as a more practical curriculum compared
to other discipline-based courses.

Students’ Evaluation of the Benefits of GE Courses Enrolled in Senior Years
As described earlier, during the study of a sub-degree programme most students have a high
preference for choosing GE courses based on whether they can get a good grade. The results
would help them gain a higher chance to be considered for university admission. This attitude
appeared to change once these students were admitted into university. Some of them would
then not weigh the GPA as importantly as before:

“I knew it before I was admitted. People would tell me which courses would give me
better grade. After I started in the university, many classmates said XXX would have a
better chance to get a good grade, but I did not follow. I reckon I would take courses that
interest me because I am now in university. I will not be very concerned about GPA anymore.”

“The most impressive GE course for me is the one taken in other university, not mine. It is
called solar waste management. Besides lecture, there were some workshops which let us
produce recycled paper, ECO enzymes, etc. It made the class more interesting.”

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