Students starting at Redeemer University this fall have experienced a decrease in class sizes for some first-year Core courses. As part of revisions to Redeemer’s liberal arts core program that took place over the summer, class sizes for the Western Culture and Tradition courses (also known as HUM-110 and HUM-120) are being limited to 35 students per class. In recent years, class sizes have exceeded the ideal limit due to rising enrolment, but now new sections are being added to achieve the learning outcomes of the Core program.

“We’ve been thinking about our strategies,” says Dr. Jantina Ellens, assistant professor of Core studies and English and director of Core. “What are we trying to emphasize, and how do we build the skills our students need?”

The Core Curriculum is a set of 10 interdisciplinary classes that all students take during their four-year degree, providing a foundation for a well-rounded Reformed Christian life and worldview. In the first-year Western Culture and Tradition courses, students dive into the texts that have shaped the Western tradition, reading excerpts from Homer and Virgil all the way to Karl Marx and Martin Luther King Jr.

The key skills that faculty want to help students develop through the 100-level HUM courses are reading and writing. “We’re investing in smaller classes,” says Ellens, “and we’re hoping that that also helps our students feel more strongly anchored here at the university, and that they’re being enfolded into the learning [experience] in a deeper way.”

Dr. Jonathan Juilfs, associate professor of English, has been involved with the Core program since its establishment and has always been an advocate of smaller classes. “People often think that a classroom is simply about a dissemination of information. But there’s more to it than that.” 

We’re investing in smaller classes, and we’re hoping that that also helps our students feel more strongly anchored here at the university, and that they’re being enfolded into the learning [experience] in a deeper way.

In a much deeper sense, believes Juilfs, a liberal arts education is about the relationships that professors build with students and that students build with each other. As a professor, Juilfs says he wants to be able to learn students’ names. And that is just not feasible in a classroom of 50 or more students.

Smaller class sizes naturally foster closer relationships, as it’s a more intimate setting, adds Ellens. “It’s easier to engage the class and facilitate discussion.”

Addressing the value that these Core courses bring to students, associate professor of English and Core studies Dr. Doug Sikkema says, “This course is so awesome, because you get to just sit back and ask big questions about being human. That’s the magic of it. In none of your other classes will you have the luxury of just looking at thousand-year-old wisdom about the human condition. And when you can start to value it like that, it really helps you to see, okay, even though I’m in accounting or kinesiology or whatever, these texts give me a sort of guidance for how to think about my own life, my society, my place in it. That, for me, is the investment.”

Sessional assistant professor of history Daniel Gilman is one of the new lecturers in the Core program who has joined Redeemer University this fall. Gilman says he used to pastor young people in Ottawa, where he would see many of them drifting and looking for direction in life. “I would see them go to Redeemer and graduate with confidence and clarity and a vibrant love for Christ and a passion for his mission.” That is what brought Gilman to work at Redeemer. “I wanted to be a part of that.” 

Gilman believes that a liberal arts core is the key to graduating not just with a degree, but with an education. “It’s in Core classes where students gain so much insight into how to recognize the person they should marry, how to discern the career they’re called to, and how to catch glimpses of the glory of God.”

Although the Core has been established for over a decade, faculty make adjustments to the program regularly. “We’re always in this continuous improvement model, always wanting to say, ‘Can we do something better?’” says Juilfs.

It’s in Core classes where students gain so much insight into how to recognize the person they should marry, how to discern the career they’re called to, and how to catch glimpses of the glory of God.

In addition to reducing class sizes this year, faculty have also adopted a tech-wise approach, encouraging students to swap laptops and tablets for pen and paper. Juilfs says many studies have shown that students retain more information and learn better with traditional note-taking methods.

So far, the changes have been positive, says Ellens. “Our first-years seem really engaged, and we’re really excited about this.”