Content

Courses develop students’ recognition of their positions in an increasingly pluralistic world while fostering an understanding of social and cultural differences. Courses in this area are generally discussion based.

Outcomes

• Students explore the historical and structural bases of inequality.
• Students learn about the benefits and challenges of diversity.
• Students reflect critically on their own social and cultural perspectives.
• Students increase their ability to engage with people who have backgrounds or ideas different from their own.

Content

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.Texts must be chosen from several genres (fiction, drama, poetry, essay, etc.) and must 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.

Outcomes

• Students refine their reading skills by the exposure to a wide variety of genres from multiple centuries.
• Students improve their reading comprehension and analysis by using a range of strategies or “ways of reading” appropriate for the assigned texts.
• Students strengthen their analytical and critical responses to texts through the intensive use of oral and written responses.
• Through assigned readings, class discussion, and writing assignments, students begin to recognize the influence of a reader’s individual differences and experiences on interpretation and analysis.
• In discussion and in writing, students consider and begin to understand the crucial connections between individual texts and cultural, historical, political, social, and other contexts.
• Finally, students deepen their vision of themselves as readers, particularly as contrasted to beginning of the course.

Content

Rhetoric helps students 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. Rhetoric courses approved for the GE CLAS Core 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.

Outcomes

• Students use writing and speaking to discover and explain, question and justify positions in a controversy;
• Students use reading and listening to comprehend and consider arguments, both as separate constructs and in conversation with one another;
• Students understand and use 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.

The World Languages requirement has recently been updated to provide students with three distinct pathways.

World languages

Content

Courses in this area help students to develop their communication skills in a language other than English and to explore the culture(s) and communities that use that language. Any language other than English (including American Sign Language) as well as languages not now spoken (for example, Ancient Greek) may be approved in this area. However, only languages for which the College can guarantee regular offerings of a complete course sequence which are taught on regular and recurring basis are approved in this area.

Outcomes

• Students practice interpersonal, interpretative, and presentational communication skills at levels of increasing complexity as indicated by each course number and description.
• Students engage with multiple perspectives while practicing linguistic skills and analyzing cultural items, such texts, art and other images, or film and music, for example.
• Students develop intercultural competence, helping them to engage with those whose first language is other than English.

World language and cultural exploration

Content

For the World Language and Cultural Exploration course, students explore topics and issues through the lens of a world language (other than English) and/or culture or multiple world languages and/or cultures. Courses help students expand their knowledge of language systems and structure and/or the role of language in social interactions, cultural environments, and identity formation. Suitable work may align with prior world language experience or engage with a different language, and may include a study abroad or experiential learning course.

Outcomes

• Students build understanding of one or more world language(s) and/or culture(s).
• Students make connections among language, culture, and identity and/or increase their understanding of the structure of a language or languages other than English.
• Students develop and enhance intercultural competencies, helping them to engage with people and/or cultures whose dominant language is not English.

Content

Students achieve scientific literary, with each of these learning outcomes below contributing to this goal; the outcomes should be read in the content of the area of science studied, with various disciplines taking different approaches.

Outcomes

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

• Explain foundational concepts, theories, processes, and the strategic questions important to a scientific area using the related scientific vocabulary.
• Engage with the methodologies of scientific inquiry, such as identifying problems, making observations, gathering and analyzing data, proposing and testing/understanding hypotheses, and drawing conclusions.
• Discuss how and why specific concepts, theories, processes, as well as scientific discoveries and innovations are important to society.
• Analyze and synthesize information presented in introductory scientific literature.

If a course includes a lab, students also will be able apply methodologies of scientific inquiry, such as identifying problems, making observations, gathering and analyzing data, proposing and testing/understanding hypotheses, and drawing conclusions.

Content

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. 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 practice a method or methods of analytical or formal symbolic reasoning, such as a specific set of mathematical, statistical, computer programming, or logic skills.
• Students evaluate arguments made in the symbolic system embodied in the course.
• Students know the symbolic system's major concepts and ways of formulating questions.

Content

Courses in this area focus on human behavior and the institutions and social systems that shape and are shaped by that behavior, providing an overview of one or more social science disciplines, their theories, and methods, helping students to understand 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 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 evaluate data, generalizations, and hypotheses in the discipline. Students will have the opportunity to practice the methods of the discipline.
• Students practice developing positions and supporting their ideas with evidence and reason.