Academic Programs: General Education Program

Comprehensive and Area Criteria and Content: Program Outcomes

 

The General Education Program as a whole aims to develop in every student enduring qualities that mark a liberally educated person:

  • Open-mindedness, tolerance, and the ability to question and evaluate one’s own attitudes and beliefs.
  • Sufficient general knowledge and proficiencies to adapt to new opportunities and vocations.
  • The ability to understand and to cope with the complexity and diversity of contemporary life.
  • A lifetime pursuit of personal intellectual growth and a lifetime practice of social responsibility.
Comprehensive Criteria

The General Education Program is designed to develop a student's critical thinking, analysis, and communication abilities by the effective use of oral, written, visual, and research skills appropriate to the liberal arts and sciences. Formal and informal opportunities for improving understanding, interpretation, and use of the various languages of the liberal arts and sciences, including mathematics, natural and social science methods, music and fine arts techniques, and new technologies of communication, are possibilities for satisfying the criteria for critical thinking, analysis, and communication. General Education courses typically teach research and inquiry skills appropriate to the discipline of the course as an integral part of the course content.

Every General Education course should include activities appropriate to the content and level of that course. Assignments and activities in large lecture courses will differ from those in small seminars, just as assignments and activities in upper-level courses will differ from those in lower-level and introductory courses.

In spite of these differences, instructors must offer assignments that contribute to these comprehensive educational objectives as well as to those in the GE area, below, in which the course is approved. The syllabus should clearly show how the required assignments fulfill all General Education objectives of the course.

Descriptions and Criteria of GE Areas

Cultural Diversity

Courses in this area foster greater understanding of the diversity of cultures in the United States, and provide knowledge and critical understanding of these cultures. Courses in this area focus on one or more non-dominant cultures or peoples of the United States. Some courses include comparative study with cultures outside the United States, but the primary focus is on United States experience.

Content: Courses approved in this area should focus on one or more non-dominant US groups defined by markers and boundaries that may include race, ethnicity, gender, religion, social class, sexual orientation, or any other significant manifestation of human diversity. Courses may focus on markers or boundaries themselves. Examples of such courses might include a course that examines gender in various religious cultures, or a course that traces social status across ethnic groups. Courses may study cultures or peoples defined by a combination of markers or boundaries, for example, a course tracing sexuality across racial, ethnic, and religious cultures. Courses may compare a group perceived to be dominant to one or more non-dominant groups. Examples might include a comparative study where some attention is given to behavior or values in male cultures or upper-class suburban culture.

Outcomes:
    • Students should develop a critical understanding of the culture of a group or groups in the United States.
    • Students will become familiar with one or more methods of research and critical inquiry into culture.
    • In the courses that examine the artistic production of a group, students should develop an understanding of the relationship between the artistic production and the culture of the group.
    • Some courses will provide a comparative perspective on specific groups.
    • In some courses students will develop a greater understanding of the dominant culture, in the context of the dominant culture’s interactions with the focus culture(s) that form the primary content of the course.

Fine Arts

Courses in this area provide students with knowledge of the history, theory, and appreciation of various disciplines in the creative arts. Courses in this area may also provide students with studio, performance, and production experiences.

Content: Courses approved in this area should focus on the products and/or performance of art, whether created by professionals or by the students themselves.

Outcomes:
    • Students should develop the ability to recognize the constituent parts of an artwork and of the processes of producing that art.
    • Students should have ample opportunity to observe the performance of an art, or when feasible, be actively engaged in the making of that art.
    • Students should be able to recognize how aesthetic and critical meanings are attached to artworks and be introduced to some of the ways in which quality can be recognized and assessed.
    • Students should be able to recognize aspects of the context (e.g. historical, social, ethnic, economic, geographic) in which artworks are made, particularly how an artwork is linked to the identity of both the artist and the artist’s culture.

Foreign Civilization and Culture

Courses in this area seek to provide students with knowledge about one or more foreign civilizations, cultures, or societies; stimulate their desire for further study of foreign civilizations, cultures, and societies; and foster international and intercultural understanding.

Content: Courses in this area focus on one or more civilizations, cultures, or societies outside the United States. Courses may focus on the contemporary situation or may focus on a civilization or culture from any period in human history, ancient or modern, that exists or existed on any continent. The name "foreign civilization and culture" is intended to emphasize the broad scope of courses that may be approved in this area. Courses approved for General Education in the Foreign Languages area and those that deal with a narrow aspect of a foreign civilization or culture are not approved in this area.

Outcomes:
    • Students will develop an understanding of an aspect of a culture or civilization not their own.
    • Students will be introduced to concepts and artifacts important to or created in the culture or cultures being studied.
    • Students will become familiar with one or more methods of research and critical inquiry into civilization and culture.
    • Students will be given practice in articulating their understanding and interpretations of another culture.

(revised March, 2004)

Foreign Language

Courses in this area provide students with speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills in a second language. These courses also provide some knowledge of the culture(s) in which the language is spoken.

Content: Any language other than English (including American Sign Language), including languages not now spoken (for example, Ancient Greek) may be approved in this area. Only languages for which the College can guarantee regular offerings of a complete course sequence that are taught on regular and recurring basis are approved in this area.

Outcomes: Students will be able to read, speak, and understand the language as described in the course descriptions, and will develop enhanced understanding of the culture(s) in which the language is(was) used.

Health and Physical Activity

Courses in this area help students acquire knowledge and skills that are conducive to good health and well-being.

Content: Courses approved in this area will meet at least one of the following criteria:

    • Students will be introduced to and explore current health issues, including health risks such as stress, obesity, sedentary lifestyles, and substance abuse. Strategies for minimizing these risks through, for example, physical activity and exercise, healthy food choices, responsible drinking behavior, and stress management, will be taught and practiced.
    • Students will develop critical skills enabling them to assess the impact of cultural, psychological, economic, and environmental factors on health practices, and enable them to make good choices about health behaviors.
    • Students will develop practical skills and knowledge for life-long participation in sports and physical activities.
Outcomes:
    • Students will understand the theoretical groundings of good health practices, become cognizant of major health risks, and learn strategies for overcoming those risks.
    • Students will develop critical skills for assessing various structural factors that constrain good health practices and for making informed choices about health behaviors.
    • Students will learn and practice the physical and mental skills associated with a specific activity or activities.

(Spring 2005)

Historical Perspectives

Courses in this area help students understand a period of the past in its own terms, comprehend the historical processes of change and continuity, sharpen their analytical skills in the evaluation of evidence and develop their ability to generalize, explain, and interpret historical change.

Content: Courses from any discipline or interdisciplinary unit that examine the broad history of any subject matter, people, or idea may be approved in this area. Courses may survey a single topic across time, or intensively cover a specific period, or study one or several issues in comparative perspective within or across time, or cover a topical problem from the perspectives of historical investigation.

Outcomes:
    • Students will understand one or more periods of the past in its/their own terms.
    • Students will comprehend change and continuity in history.
    • Students will improve their ability to evaluate evidence using the tools of historical investigation.
    • Students will gain experience and improve their skills in generalizing, explaining, and interpreting historical change.

(revised March, 2004)

Humanities

Courses in this area focus on the ways individuals and cultures have interpreted and understood themselves, others, and the world. Courses exploring the nature and meaning of artistic forms (across the spectrum of the fine arts and literature of the past and present), human values and value systems (including current and historical ideas in philosophy and religion), and other expressions of human aspiration, belief, and creation may be approved in this area. Interdisciplinary courses that explore these topics may also be approved. Courses approved in this area teach verbal, analytic, perceptual, and imaginative skills needed to interpret and examine culture, community, identity formation, and the human experience.

Content: Courses from many disciplines and interdisciplinary units may be approved in this area. Approved courses may focus on a particular topic or idea, or may compare and contrast artifacts and ideas.

Outcomes:
    • Students will learn about one or more specific cultural topics, problems, artistic forms, value systems, philosophical concepts, or religious ideas in relation to the larger human context in which they become meaningful.
    • Students will become familiar with one or more methods of humanistic research, critical inquiry, and analysis and have an opportunity to practice these methods.

(revised March, 2004)

Interpretation of Literature

Building on previously acquired skills of reading and writing, courses approved for the Interpretation of Literature area seek to reinforce in every student a lifetime habit of frequent, intelligent, and satisfying reading. These courses, taught in English in small sections, focus primarily on "ways of reading," asking students to become aware of themselves as readers, to learn how to deal with different kinds of texts, and to understand how texts exist within larger historical, social, political, and/or cultural contexts. These "ways of reading," while growing out of various critical approaches to literature, are also transferable to other fields of study.

Content: Texts should be chosen from several genres (fiction, drama, poetry, essay, etc.), and span more than a single century. Diversity of race, gender, and social background among the authors read is encouraged. Courses must be taught in English. Lower-level courses are approved in this area; upper-level course work is not appropriate.

Outcomes:
    • Students use and refine their skills of reading, speaking, and writing to respond critically and sensitively to literary texts.
    • Students learn to see themselves as readers, recognizing the influence of individual differences (such as gender, ethnicity, geography) and past experiences on interpretation.
    • Students consider the connections between individual texts and broader cultural contexts.

(revised March, 2005 and April, 2006)

Natural Sciences

Courses in this area explore the scope and major concepts of a scientific discipline. In these courses students learn the attitudes and practices of scientific investigators: logic, precision, experimentation, tentativeness, and objectivity. In courses with a laboratory component students gain experience in methods of scientific inquiry.

Content: Courses from any natural science, including interdisciplinary courses that combine elements of more than one natural science discipline, are appropriate for approval in this area. All approved courses must include exposure to the methods and theory of the discipline or disciplines on which the course focuses. Histories of science or philosophy of science courses are not appropriate for this area.

Outcomes:
    • Students will come to understand a significant segment of natural science and will become familiar with its major concepts and ways of framing questions. In laboratory courses, students will use laboratory investigations and appropriate procedures to generate accurate and meaningful data and derive reasonable conclusions from them. Students will understand and appreciate (if not adopt) the attitudes of science: logic, precision, experimentation, tentativeness, and objectivity.
    • Students will develop and practice those communication skills that apply to the relevant discipline.

Quantitative or Formal Reasoning

Courses in this area help develop analytical skills through the practice of quantitative or formal symbolic reasoning. Courses focus on the presentation and evaluation of evidence and argument, the understanding of the use and misuse of data, and the organization of information in quantitative or other formal symbolic systems including those used in the disciplines of computer sciences, linguistics, mathematics, philosophy, and statistics.

Content: Courses approved in this area have as their primary purpose the development of the analytical powers of the student as they might be exercised in presentation and evaluation of mathematical or other formal symbolic systems.

Outcomes:
    • Students will learn and practice a method or methods of analytical or formal symbolic reasoning, for example a specific set of mathematical, statistical, computer programming, or logic skills.
    • Students will learn to evaluate arguments made in the symbolic system embodied in the course and will become familiar with its major concepts and ways of formulating questions.

(revised May 2003)

Rhetoric

Rhetoric helps student to develop skills in speaking, writing, listening, and critical reading. It also builds competence in research and inquiry as well as in analysis and persuasion, especially in the area of understanding public controversies in their social contexts.


General Education courses in rhetoric help students to
    • use writing and speaking to discover and explain, question and justify positions in a controversy;
    • use reading and listening to comprehend and consider arguments, both as separate constructs and in conversation with one another;
    • understand basic rhetorical concepts such as purpose and audience and use them in composing effective spoken and written communication;
    • understand and use research as responsible inquiry.

Rhetoric courses approved for General Education are sometimes organized around a special topic, but the primary emphasis is always on rhetorical practice and analysis.

Some sections involve special activities, such as service-learning components, but the workload across all sections is comparable, with a fixed number of major assignments and a departmentally approved set of readings.

Social Sciences

Courses in this area focus on human behavior and the institutions and social systems that shape and are shaped by that behavior. Courses provide an overview of one or more social science disciplines, their theories, and methods.

Content: Courses approved in this area should provide students an understanding of at least one of the social science disciplines. Each course must achieve considerable breadth in presenting concerns of the social sciences, in one of these ways: the course may survey an entire discipline in the social sciences; the course may cover a major part of a discipline in the social sciences; the course may address major aspects of human behavior as studied in several social sciences; the course may provide an understanding of human behavior, institutions, and social systems that endows students with what a citizen should understand about these topics.

Outcomes:
    • Students will examine the strengths and weaknesses of at least one method of inquiry distinctive of the social sciences, and become familiar with its major assumptions, concepts, and ways of formulating questions. Students will learn to evaluate data, generalizations, and hypotheses in the discipline. Students will have the opportunity to practice the methods of the discipline.
    • Students will be given practice in developing positions and supporting their ideas with evidence and reason.

(revised May 2003)