Draft General Education Goals—5-5-2006
PLEASE DO NOT COPY OR DISSEMINATE
The General Education Committee offers these DRAFT goals for the SCSU General
Education Program for campus use in formulating assessable student learning
outcomes. These goals were crafted with the following considerations in mind:
1. Goals should be supported by the SCSU university community.
2. Goals should reflect the General Education Program Mission.
MISSION: The General Education Program at SCSU is committed to the ideal of liberal
education that provides knowledge, skills and experience and promotes critical thinking
and ethical values for a lifetime of integrative learning in a diverse and changing society.
(Approved by Faculty Senate on 1/24/2006)
3. Goals should describe a quality general education experience.
4. Goals should emerge from careful reading and research along with investigation
of other quality general education programs.
5. Goals should provide a general education experience suitable to our students at
SCSU.
[Statement above drafted at GEC meeting on 4/22/06.]
The following list of goals was developed by consulting numerous documents
including:
 Higher Learning Commission’s Statement on General Education (2/21/2003)
available at http://www.hpcnet.org/assessmentgep
 Various resources and monographs available through the American
Association of Colleges and Universities available at
http://www.aacu.org/issues/generaleducation/index.cfm
 Minnesota Transfer Curriculum Goals
 SCSU Mission and Goals
 General education goals at other universities nationwide
In addition, feedback has been gathered from faculty at three forum sessions held
during the last 12 months.
The draft document of 3/31/06 includes the general goal areas. These are NOT
associated with specific courses or program design. The General Education
Committee intent is to move from MISSION to GOALS to STUDENT LEARNING
OUTCOMES to STRUCTURE.
The draft document of 4/22/06 is very preliminary at this point. This is really only a
“working draft” for the GEC as we attempt to provide a description of each goal
area that groups of faculty can use as a starting point for crafting student learning
outcomes. This is presented in draft form and should NOT be copied or
disseminated.
General Education Goals (Draft 5/5/06)
o Integrative learning
o Collaborate with others
o Communicate orally and in writing
o Understand mathematical techniques and reason quantitatively
o Identify, analyze and critically evaluate reasoning
o Use information literacy to gain understanding
o Understand and appreciate modes of human expression, systems of
thought, and production and performance of meaning (Humanities)
o Reason scientifically and understand the natural world
o Understand the inter-relatedness of humans and the natural
environment
o Discover and understand social and historical structures of human
society
o Civic engagement
o Understand and respect values of a diverse society and a multicultural
world
o Approach issues from a global perspective
o Demonstrate concern for individual worth and human rights
The General Education Committee offers these draft goals for your consideration and
input. We invite you into the conversation with us as we refine proposed general
education programmatic goals. In this way, we hope to move thoughtfully in this
direction:
SCSU GENERAL EDUCATION PROGRAM MISSION
SCSU GENERAL EDUCATION PROGRAM GOALS
SCSU GENERAL EDUCATION PROGRAM STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES
SCSU GENERAL EDUCATION PROGRAM STRUCTURE
General Education Goals with Brief Descriptions (Draft 5/5/06)
MISSION: The General Education Program at SCSU is committed to the ideal of
liberal education that provides knowledge, skills and experience and promotes
critical thinking and ethical values for a lifetime of integrative learning in a diverse
and changing society.
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Integrative learning
To connect skills and knowledge from multiple sources and experiences; to apply theory
to practice in various settings; to utilize diverse and even contradictory points of view;
and, to understand issues and positions contextually. [American Association of Colleges
and Universities Statement on Integrative Learning]
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Collaborate with others
To interdependently bring together diverse skills, knowledge and appreciative inquiry in
order to achieve collective results and shared visions in complex environments and
systems.
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Communicate orally and in writing
To develop, convey, and critique effective oral and written messages for various
academic, professional and personal contexts. To evaluate received messages through
active listening and critical skills. To use oral and written communication characterized
by clarity, critical analysis, logic, coherence, precision, and rhetorical awareness.
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Understand mathematical techniques and reason quantitatively
To develop an understanding of mathematical techniques and to reason quantitatively.
The discipline of mathematics focuses on the study of number and numerical
relationships, and analyzes the underlying quantitative order and patterns of the natural
and cultural worlds.
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Identify, analyze and critically evaluate reasoning
To improve the ability of students to reason well. Critical reasoning includes identifying
reasoning, analyzing reasoning and learning how it works, and distinguishing good
reasoning from bad. It is thus essentially evaluative.
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Use information literacy to gain understanding
To develop student’s abilities to recognize when information is needed and have the
ability to locate, evaluate, and use effectively the needed information. Information
literacy includes determining the extent of information needed, accessing the needed
information effectively and efficiently, evaluating information and its sources critically,
incorporating selected information into one’s knowledge base , using information
effectively to accomplish a specific purpose and understanding the economic, legal, and
social issues surrounding the use of information, and accessing and using information
ethically and legally.
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Understand and appreciate modes of human expression, systems of thought, and
production and performance of meaning (Humanities)
To expand students’ understanding and appreciation of modes of human expression and
systems of thought, and to foster their abilities in the production and performance of
meaning. Study of the humanities includes developing creativity and symbolic
understanding, and contributing to the construction of the cultural life of our
communities.
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Reason scientifically & understand the natural world
To foster an understanding of physical and/or life sciences. To explore scientific
principles, processes, limitations, and methods of inquiry. To discover knowledge by
formulating hypotheses and testing them with observations and experimentation.
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Understand the inter-relatedness of humans and the natural environment
To foster critical thinking about this relationship integrating bio-physical and sociocultural perspectives.
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Discover and understand social and historical structures of human societies
To examine theoretical frameworks, analytical tools, and factual resources for
understanding the social and historical structures of human societies.
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Civic Engagement
To provide the knowledge and skills required to understand the multiple facets of
effective citizenship. And, to provide opportunities to practice skills of active citizenship
that foster competence and efficacy as students learn to monitor and influence public
policy decisions.
Note: Based on committee discussion on 5/5/06, the three goals below still need some
thought and refinement. The original goal is listed with the proposal to change
following. We will address these at our first meeting in the Fall of 2006.
Understand and respect values of a diverse society and a multicultural world
Understand and respect values of a diverse society (alternative title?)
Understanding the patterns of racial and ethnic inequality in the United States and fostering
awareness about the heritage, culture, and contributions of racially subordinated groups, while
engaging in self-reflection about how race and ethnic relations are embedded in the
institutions that structure our lives.
(Proposed wording is below. It was suggested that we might want to identify specifically
racial and ethnic diversity. We will look at this goal vis-à-vis the goal of Demonstrate
concern for individual worth and human rights below.)
Understand and respect values of our diverse U.S. society
To examine patterns of racial and ethnic inequality in the United States and foster
awareness about the heritage, culture, and contributions of racially subordinated groups,
while engaging in self-reflection about how race and ethnic relations are embedded in the
institutions that structure our lives.
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Approach issues from a global perspective
Employing comparative knowledge to understand globalization, local and global connections,
and to promote cultural exchanges, as well as to address global problems in such arenas as
environmental change, economic development, world health, democracy, peace and security.
Incorporating an examination of non-Western cultures of the world into global studies, such as
Asia, Africa, Oceania, the Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean.
(Proposed wording is below. We did not get a chance to discuss this change.)
Approach issues from a global perspective
To employ comparative and interdisciplinary knowledge to gain an understanding about
globalization, as well as local and global connections. To promote cultural exchanges, as
well as to address global problems in such arenas as environmental change, economic
development, world health, democracy, peace and security. Global perspectives would
include the study of non-Western cultures of the world, such as Asia, Africa, Oceania, the
Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean.
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Demonstrate concern for individual worth and human rights
Promoting respect for human dignity and differences on local, national and global levels,
through strengthening the cognitive, affective, and critical abilities of students by way of
study, dialogue, and critical examinations of facts and beliefs. Fostering a sense of social
responsibility and respect for persons across differences of nationality, religion, physical
abilities, gender, sexual orientation, race and ethnicity.
(Proposed wording is below. We discussed the possibility of either including a goal of
ethics here or formulating a separate ethics goal.)
Demonstrate concern for individual worth and human rights
To promote respect for human dignity and differences on local, national and global
levels, through strengthening the cognitive, affective, and critical abilities of students by
way of study, dialogue, and critical examinations of facts and beliefs. To foster a sense
of social responsibility and respect for persons across differences of nationality, religion,
physical abilities, gender, sexual orientation, race and ethnicity.