GH 1030, Section 3

Honors Discussion Group:  Religion, the Professions

TR, 3:30-4:45 August 22-October 26, 2006

GCB 314  Ten Weeks, 2 Units 

Jill Raitt

Office hours—by appointment.

This is a modified Problem-Based Learning course in which students, assisted by the professor, take major responsibility for their own and their group's learning.  We discuss the relation of religion to culture and of both to the internal cultures of eight professions: Law, Engineering, Business, Social Work, Journalism, Nursing, Medicine, and Health Professions.  Our "case" book is Anne Fadiman's The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, an illustration of tragic cultural/religious non-communication in the case of a Hmong child in California. Six of the professions relate to this book; Business and Engineering each provide a different, but challenging text.

Readings

Bookstore packett of readings.

Borgmann, Albert.  Power Failure: Christianity in the Culture of Technology.

 Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2003.

Fadiman, Anne.  The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: A Hmong Child, Her American

Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures.  NY:  Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1997.

Zinbarg, Edward.  Faith, Morals, and Money.  NY: Continuum, 2001.  To be read by October 5.

How to read Fadiman

Right through!  It’s fascinating.  You will then use the book as a means of solving problems in your groups throughout the course.  Look for issues that relate to the professions that are part of this course.  The syllabus tells you what professor from which professional school will be coming to discuss your research with you.

Some helpful websites:

See http://rpp.missouri.edu 

See http://pluralism.org

See http://www.llrx.com/features/islamiclaw.htm

See http://www.religionlink.org

On Sharia and banking in UAE see http://gulf-law.com/islamic_law.html

On Sharia and investments see http://www.miraj.com/sharia.html

Look up “Sharia” on Google or other net explorer

Islamic World http://islamic-world.net/links/hadith_sites.htm   (sometimes works, sometimes not)

Do a Google Advanced Search requiring the exact phrase, “Religion and Business”.

Do the same for Nursing, Medicine, Social Work, Law, Business, Journalism, Health Professions, and Engineering.

What are PBL and RPP?

What do you understand from the website?

From the PBL presentation?

Development:

Understanding what globalization means to the USA: immigration, being citizens, and “doing business” in the US and the world.

Focus: 

The immigrant Hmong Community of Fremont, California

Method: 

This course will use primarily Problem-Based Learning.

Grades: 

Groups will grade their own members and their over-all effort.  Professor Raitt will also grade each student and group.  Groups will also grade other groups.  We will do a test-run of this method at mid-term time, although there will be no mid-term and no final exam since this is a seminar.

Written work: 

Each class member will keep a portfolio of:

Reading notes that are handed in each Thursday after their use in class the preceding Tuesday and returned the following Tuesday with Raitt’s remarks.

Group reports that each one contributes to his/her group.

A copy of your group’s final report due the last day of class, Nov. 18.

Expectations:

Written work:  No grammar or spelling errors.  Typed with 1” borders in Times or New Times Roman 12.  Good, clear exposition.  Through the weekly short essays and the professor’s help, students often find that their writing skills improve.

Oral work:  Clear pronunciation and enunciation.  Organized, well-argued presentations without “you knows” and other “spacers.”

Research:  Your research will arise out of your group’s discussions and needs and will be presented at the Thursday class.  A designated member of your group will be responsible to see that assignments are clear and will keep a record of presentations and grades.

Objectives for GH 1030: Religion and the Professions

Knowledge goals:

• In what does a culture consist?  Place of world-view.
• What is the role of religion in forming a culture and a world-view?
• Relation of culture, religion, values
• What is a profession?
• Relation of professional values and practices to their own culture
• Relation of professional values and practices to their country’s religion or religions

Skills goals

• Finding information efficiently whether on the net, through interviews, books, articles, media.
• Analysis and evaluation of materials
• Organization of problems and solutions
• Presenting findings
• orally:  speaking clearly, enunciating well, avoiding spacers
• written report: organization, argument, grammar, spelling, no padding.

SCHEDULE

August

22     Course overview.  Visiting Lecturer: Richard Oliver, Dean, School of Health Professions:  problem-based learning
Assignments: PBL working groups receive Case #1. Begin reading The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down through page 92.

24     Due: PBL research reports and group discussion
Professor Raitt: Mini-lecture
Assignment: Continue reading The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down.

29     Professor Raitt: Mini-lecture and Discussion
Assignments: PBL groups receive Case #2. Read social work articles in the packet from MU Custom Publishing.

31     Professor Raitt: Mini-lecture
Assignment: Finish reading The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down.

SEPTEMBER

5     Visiting Lecturer: Erma Ballenger, Assistant Director, Director of Undergraduate Studies, and Assistant Professor, School of Social Work
Due: PBL research reports and group discussion
Assignment: Begin reading Faith, Morals, and Money: What the World’s Religions Tell Us About Ethics in the Marketplace.

7     Professor Raitt: Mini-lecture
Due: Reflection paper
Assignment: Finish reading Faith, Morals, and Money: What the World’s Religions Tell Us About Ethics in the Marketplace.

12     Professor Raitt: Mini-lecture
Assignments: PBL groups receive Case #3.

14     Visiting Lecturer: Kenneth Evans, Pinkney C. Walker Professor of Teaching Excellence and Associate Dean, College of Business
Due: PBL research reports and group discussion

19     Professor Raitt: Mini-lecture
Due: Reflection paper
Assignments: PBL groups receive Case #4. Read nursing articles in the packet from MU Custom Publishing.

21     Visiting Lecturer: Glenda Nickell, Clinical Instructor, Sinclair School of Nursing
Due: PBL research reports and group discussion

26     Professor Raitt: Mini-lecture
Due: Reflection paper
Assignments: PBL groups receive Case #5. Read Power Failure: Christianity in the Culture of Technology.

28     Visiting Lecturer: Satish Nair, Professor of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Due: PBL research reports and group discussion

OCTOBER

3     Professor Raitt: Mini-lecture
Due: Reflection paper
Assignments: PBL groups receive Case #6. Read journalism articles.

5     Visiting Lecturer: Michael Grinfeld, Associate Professor of Journalism
Due: PBL research reports and group discussion

10     Professor Raitt: Mini-lecture
Due: Reflection paper
Assignment: PBL groups receive Case #7. Read medicine articles in the packet from MU Custom Publishing.

12     Visiting Lecturer: James Campbell, Associate Professor of Family and Community Medicine
Due: PBL research reports and group discussion

17     Professor Raitt: Mini-lecture
Due: Reflection paper
Assignment: PBL groups receive Case #8. Review The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down.

19     Visiting Lecturer: Frank Bowman, Professor of Law
Due: Reflection paper on medical articles.

24     Professor Raitt: Review of Religion and the Professions
 Due: PBL research reports and group discussion.

26     Wrap-up discussion
Due: Portfolio containing papers, notes, and research from PBL cases