Teaching J-Term

J-Term — A Distinctive Learning Experience

The J-Term course is an academically rigorous, full-time teaching and learning experience that combines in-class learning with carefully curated co-curricular fieldwork outside of class.

As with the Core Colloquia offered during the academic year in semesters, J-Term Core Field Colloquia are designed to explore timeless and timely questions about human experience and the world around us in relation to some of the most pressing challenges global society faces today, that the faculty and students explore together through multiple disciplinary and cultural lenses and through a deep dive into how that question plays out in the sociocultural context of the location in which the course is held. The "text of the real world," the location that hosts each course, complements the traditional texts of the classroom.

Students must take two J-Term Core Field Colloquia over four years. J-Term courses have no prerequisites. The content must be accessible to students from first year to senior year and from various majors. 

Pedagogy

J-Term courses feature 10 teaching days of 3 hours each in class over 5-6 days a week and include 12 additional hours of faculty-guided fieldwork (community-based learning) outside of class for a total of 42 instructional hours. The syllabus must account for both the in-class and out-of-class activities and corresponding assignments, with the fieldwork activities and related assignments cohesive within the course structure and indispensable for exploring a variety of answers to the colloquium’s core question.