Teaching option students are required to take the entire foundation course sequence in Western Civilization, United States, Asian, and Latin American history. Students not in the teaching option take one course in Western Civilization, one in United States history, and both Asian and Latin American courses. The move to advanced courses at the intermediate level is in two parts, i.e., United States and non-United States, and is the same for all students. Teaching option students take two topical courses, one each from two prescribed lists, while non-teaching option students take two topical courses from each list. With recitation sections now available for all foundation courses, student skills in oral presentation can be more readily evaluated.
Recitations allow more opportunity for students in large classes to develop oral skills.
The emphasis in recitations is oral discussion, although more use is made of short written exercises than previously possible. Student discussions and oral presentations have always been major components of advanced courses and continue to be so. In history, problem solving consists primarily in accumulating and evaluating evidence. Synthesis consists of drawing generalizations or conclusions as a result of the evaluation of evidence. In all courses, students are exposed to the variety of evidence that historians use to reconstruct the past.