At CWRU, the seminar approach isn’t confined to a separate, first-year program. Interactive, inquiry-based, individualized education permeates the entire University community. After the completion of the First Seminar and two University Seminars, SAGES students take a discipline-specific Departmental Seminar, usually in their major field. (Students can take a Departmental Seminar in another department, as long as they have the appropriate prerequisites for that course.) Some majors include a specific Departmental Seminar as part of their requirements. Once again, courses are capped at 17 students.
Topics typically revolve around principles of specific fields, primary literature, or experiences that students engage in at other times in their course. For example, a science Departmental Seminar could involve some hands-on experiments that provide the basis for ongoing seminar discussions.
The Departmental Seminars include a writing component in the form that is typical in the department of choice (rather than the interdisciplinary approaches of the early Seminars).
The Learning Outcomes for Departmental Seminars are that students should be able to: (1) Participate in disciplinary conversations by contributing insightful, relevant ideas (2) Consider differences in values and assumptions to think critically, deliberate ethically, and respond logically to discipline-specific questions/problems (3) Independently research and apply discipline-specific scholarly concepts and information (4) Write a clear and persuasive argument that integrates appropriate documented research and uses a discipline-appropriate form (5) effectively communicate information and ideas through discipline-appropriate oral presentation that uses a mixture of modes