UNDERSTANDING/CONTENT ("Know") Understand alternative ways of knowing, including what the discipline is and does, discipline methods, discipline limits.

The General Education Program provides students opportunities to grow in their understanding of the following content areas, which may be expressed in the following ways:

Humanities – Group I

 Courses approved for Humanities General Education credit develop a student’s abilities to: 

• recognize the humanities as ways of knowing that critically and analytically examine, interpret, and reflect on the human condition and experience
• understand the diverse methods of inquiry, including reason, scholarly use of evidence, historical analysis, reflection, faith experience, and aesthetic sense, that characterize the humanities
• understand and use the materials of the humanities, and recognize how these materials shape, and are shaped by their cultural contexts
• explore aesthetic experience, and issues of values and goodness
• become a thoughtful and reflective participant in disciplinary conversations, oral and written, while recognizing the implications of those discussions for addressing personally significant problems of human choice and self-determination

Creative Arts – Group II

Courses approved for Creative Arts General Education credit develop a student’s abilities to:

• understand the tools of expression used in an artistic medium, and the use of those tools in design/structural form
• demonstrate creative use of the tools of expression in writing, visual, or performing art
• achieve personal expression through an artistic medium

Social Sciences - Group III

Courses approved for Social Science General Education credit develop a student’s abilities to:

• recognize that the basis for knowledge in the social sciences is grounded in the application of the scientific method to behavior
• apply moral and ethical standards to human relationships and develop personal standards of behavior
• identify and compare various theories of human behavior and the application of these theories to society
• analyze problems of human behavior and offer potential solutions
• identify current and past ways in which humans deal with social problems and discover and evaluate strengths and weaknesses

Natural And Mathematical Sciences - Group IV

Courses approved for Natural and Mathematical Sciences General Education credit develop a student’s abilities to:

• explain the goals of science, and both describe and apply the methodology scientists use in their work
• describe the range of questions that may be addressed by scientific inquiry and identify questions that fall outside the purview of science
• communicate scientific concepts and facts that explain the functioning of the natural world
• apply scientific principles that underlie contemporary issues drawn from distinct disciplines within the natural and physical sciences