Intellectual and Academic Skills
Goal 1: Reading and Writing Skills
Students will be able to read critically and express ideas clearly in standard written English.
Objectives:
- Compose a variety of types of effective essays complete with clearly articulated theses, convincing evidence, effective organization appropriate paragraphing and acceptable grammatical skills.
- Demonstrate library and Internet research skills and documentation strategy in researching at least one paper.
- Engage in writing as a process of critiquing, revising and editing.
- Comprehend and critically evaluate a variety of written discourse.
Goal 2: Speaking and Listening Skills
Students will be able to speak and listen in a variety of contexts
Objectives:
- Analyze and evaluate the principles, processes and functions and modes or oral communication in a variety of contexts.
- Demonstrate the ability to formulate speech purpose, utilize evidence and assemble and effective present an oral message.
- Describe, analyze and develop critical listening skills.
- Develop strategies for communication in interpersonal, small group and public communication settings.
Goal 3: Quantitative Reasoning
Students will demonstrate the capacity for using quantitative skills, thinking logically and evaluating quantitative information critically.
Objectives:
- Solve problems arising in everyday life and in a range of fields of enquiry by the application of mathematical tools.
- Evaluate quantitative description and inference by the application of analytical methods.
Goal 4: Global Awareness
Students will demonstrate knowledge of the interdependence of geographic, economic, political, social and cultural realities in the contemporary world.
Objectives:
- Analyze geographic, economic, political, social and cultural realities in at least two regions of the contemporary world.
- Identify global interrelationships among those regions and explain some major current world issues and problems.
- Critically evaluate current media presentations of global issues and problems.
Goal 5: Lifetime Health
Students will demonstrate an understanding of the dimensions of health and the ability to make responsible decisions about personal health and lifestyles.
Objectives:
- Articulate a concept of well-being based on multiple dimensions of health: physical, emotional, social, mental and spiritual.
- Demonstrate skills applicable to continuing lifestyle management including self-assessment, self-care, self-responsibility and decision-making with the dimensions of health.
- Explain theories and principles of behavior change.
- Analytically examine current health and wellness topics.
Goal 6: Cultural Diversity
Students will demonstrate and understanding of cultural diversity and social responsibility, and explore the historical and contemporary sources of prejudice and discrimination, with primary emphasis on the United States.
Objectives:
- Explain the historical and contemporary sources of prejudice and discrimination in the United States.
- Identify the patterns of diversity and issues and problems that emerge in our pluralistic society.
- Critique ones own ability to assess personal behaviors, beliefs and attitudes in the development of commitments to social responsibility in our changing society.
Modes of Inquiry
Goal 7: Fine Arts
Students will integrate experience, theory and context through an exploration of at least one of the arts.
Objectives:
- Demonstrate knowledge of a variety of works in at least one of the arts.
- Demonstrate the interrelationship of concepts, theory (in the general sense), practice and media in at least one of the arts.
- Examine the significance of at least one of the arts and its influence in culture and in ones life.
Goal 8: Religion
Students will demonstrate an understanding of the dimensions of religion in life; including the basic tenets of Christianity or historical-critical approaches to biblical studies.
Objectives:
- Examine the nature of religion and its role in culture and in ones life.
- Articulate the basic tenets of Christianity or a knowledge of the historical approaches to the Bible.
Goal 9: Social Science
Students will demonstrate an understanding of the ways social scientists analyze society, through the study of at least one of the social sciences.
Objectives:
- Demonstrate a knowledge of the methods of inquiry used in at least one social science.
- Identify scholars hypotheses, assumptions and generalizations, as well as how their research findings are limited.
- Apply knowledge of a social science to the critical understanding of some contemporary societal issues.
Goal 10: Natural Science
Students will demonstrate an understanding of the nature of knowing and inquiry in science, including an awareness of the interaction of science, technology and society.
Objectives:
- Demonstrate the method of inquiry in the natural sciences.
- Explain natural sciences as a mode of knowing, articulating their assumptions, accomplishments and limitations.
- Examine the applications and interconnections of science and technology in society and in ones personal life.
- Explain at least two contemporary theories or paradigms of modern science (e.g. atomic theory, genetics, evolution) that address the interconnections of science, technology and society.
Interpreting Texts and Images
Goal 11: Humanities
Students will demonstrate an understanding of the human experience through studies that integrate history, literature, philosophy, religion and the arts.
Objectives:
- Examine representative intellectual and artistic works that express the dimensions of human experience.
- Articulate the relatedness of history, literature, philosophy and the arts.
- Interpret contemporary cultural activities in light of these integrative studies.
Ethical Thought
Goal 12: Ethical Thought
Students will demonstrate an understanding of the ethical dimensions of personal, societal and professional life, including Judeo-Christian perspectives.
Objectives:
- Critically examine moral issues students will be likely to face personally, professionally and as responsible citizens, articulating the grounding and implications of the positions.
- Interpret the ethical issues raised by contemporary events, examining their sources and inter-relatedness.
- Articulate some of the basic positions and principles embodied in the development of ethical thought, including sources in the Judeo-Christian tradition.