THE GREAT BOOKS PROGRAM AT THE UNIVERSITY OF NAVARRA: REPORT ON THE QUALITATIVE NARRATIVE ASSESSMENT OF THE CORE CURRICULUM Álvaro Sánchez-Ostiz José M. Torralba 1 To Scott Lee, for his inspirational work and his generous friendship. ABSTRACT: This document contains the final report of the University of Navarra’s participation in the second cohort of the “Qualitative Narrative Assessment” project, conducted by the Association for Core Texts and Courses in 2014-2016. The project studies the educational impact of classical texts or of great cultural relevance. We will first present the choices for modelling the new Great Books program at Navarra in the context of the university’s institutional mission and of the restraints imposed by our educational tradition. Second, we will explain the actions taken for the improvement of the new project, from the first meetings of a Committee for the Core Curriculum to the launching of our flagship project: a two-tier program that offers an optional track based on core texts seminars (the “Inter-College Itinerary”). Third, we will describe which procedures of narrative assessment have been implemented, and how those have helped us adjust course; finally some concluding remarks for further improvement will be added. KEYWORDS: Core Curriculum, Narrative Assessment, Great Books 1 Álvaro Sánchez-Ostiz, Associate Professor, Department of Philology (Classics), asostiz@unav.es; José M. Torralba, Associate Professor, Department of Philosophy – Director, Core Curriculum Institute, jmtorralba@unav.es. We thank Rosalía Baena, Juan Chapa, Juan A. Díaz and Rafael D. García, members of the Committee for the Core Curriculum, for their comments and suggestions; special thanks are owed to Reyes Duro, for her valuable help with the project, and of course to the many anonymous students who have helped us sharing their insights and perceptions through the questionnaires and interviews, and to Angela C. Miceli Stout for revising the English text. We owe thank to Kathleen Burk and David DiMattio, coordinators of the second cohort of ACTC’s Qualitative Narrative Assessment project. DOCUMENTOS CORE CURRICULUM