General Education Program Mission & Policy Statement

General Education Program Mission

The General Education Program contributes to the St. Ambrose University mission of enabling all students to "develop intellectually, spiritually, ethically, socially, artistically, and physically to enrich their own lives and the lives of others," by providing a program of study, grounded in the Liberal Arts, which develops students’ academic skills, knowledge, and values related to the mission, and stimulates a passion for lifelong learning for the sake of learning.

General Education Program Policy Statement

Students at St. Ambrose University are exposed to the “Liberal Arts” through completion of the General Education Program, which builds student recognition of the relationships among general education areas as well as the connection and application of this learning to the present and future contexts of their own lives. Thus, the General Education Program serves as a basis for the search for knowledge in, and across, all disciplines and serves as the core of each student's education at St. Ambrose University. All students must complete the entire General Education Program as described in the catalog. All curricular changes and new major programs at the Undergraduate level must be designed to accommodate the General Education Program. 

KEY TERMS DEFINED

Goal:  broad statements of long-term intentions (intended long-term impacts)

Learning Objective:  clear, meaningful, and measurable statements of student performance; statements of what we want students to be able to do/know/feel (intended outcomes)

Strategy: the actions taken to achieve an objective

Outcome:  the actual results we get from student after instruction (actual behaviors)

Standards: criteria for determining if a goal or learning objective has been met

NB: White there are other definitions, for the sake of common understanding these are standard at SAU.  These are agreed upon by Dr. Paul Koch and Brad Thiessen in their work on assessment.

GENERAL EDUCATION OUTCOMES

a collation from different documents

In General

Successful students will demonstrate

• recognition of the relationships among general education areas
• recognition of the connection of this learning to the present and future contexts of their own lives
• application of this learning to the present and future contexts of their own lives
• the necessary skills, values, and knowledge needed to examine topics/issues/problems from more than one disciplinary group
• the necessary skills, values, and knowledge needed to solve problems
• the necessary skills, values, and knowledge needed to appreciate how values help shape knowledge
• the necessary skills, values, and knowledge needed to recognize the inherent relationships among content areas.

Skills

Successful students will demonstrate the following skills:

• Written Communication
• Oral Communication
• Interpersonal and collaborative skills
• Mathematical reasoning skills
• Critical thinking skills
• Health and recreation skills
• Computer literacy
• Information literacy
• Foreign language skills

Values

Successful students will demonstrate the following values:

• Respect for difference
• Freedom of inquiry and dissent
• Justice and equality
• Self-responsibility and autonomy
• Caring, service
• Community responsibility
• Aesthetic sense

Knowledge

Successful students will demonstrate knowledge in the following areas

• Humanities
• Creative Arts
• Social Sciences
• Natural Sciences

Knowledge objectives:

evidenced by cognitive domain measures including recognition, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation of what a given discipline is, what it does, what are its methods and its limits.

Students who are successful in the General Education Program will demonstrate their knowledge in the following four content areas, and in the following ways:

The Humanities are concerned with people, values, and the human experience.  Students successful in courses approved for Humanities General Education credit can:

• 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 are concerned with the creation of artistic responses to the human experience.  Students successful in courses approved for Creative Arts General Education credit can:

• 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: are concerned with the use of quantitative and qualitative methods in studying social and cultural aspects of human experience. Students successful in courses approved for Social Science General Education credit can:

• 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 Sciences: are concerned with the use of quantitative methods for studying the natural world.  Students who are successful in courses approved for Natural and Mathematical Sciences General Education credit can:

• 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

SKILLS Objectives:

evidenced by using tools, practicing, implementing, students who are successful in the General Education Program will demonstrate the following skills in the following ways:

Written communication

• use writing as a tool for learning
• express themselves, explore issues, communicate with others, and persuade others using written communication
• respond to the requirements of a given audience, profession, and/or rhetorical situation
• demonstrate fluency in a writing process that involves drafting, collaborating, revising, and editing; resulting in an appropriate final product
• achieve personal, academic, and professional goals using written communication

Oral communication

• demonstrate the characteristics of effective human communication
• evaluate the effectiveness of messages and presentations
• research, organize, and deliver a message to a specific audience
• express the ethical implications of human communication

Interpersonal and collaborative skills

• describe the influence of perception, listening, language, self-concept, and nonverbal behavior in interpersonal relationships
• work cooperatively with others toward achievement of a common goal
• respect others and what they have to say
• distinguish between ethical and unethical communication and relationships
• evaluate and improve communication in interpersonal contexts
• recognize sources of interpersonal conflict and implement conflict resolution techniques

Mathematical reasoning skills

• analyze quantitative information and solve problems in the areas of personal daily experience and professional endeavors
• use higher-order cognitive skills to make sense of quantitative and spatial information enabling graduates to:
  • determine the validity of conclusions based on quantitative and spatial data
  • recognize patterns, trends, and relationships
  • analyze the logic of arguments
  • choose the appropriate technological tools to produce and process quantitative and spatial information

Critical thinking skills

• recognize, analyze, and evaluate another's argued position, and give reasoned accounts of their own positions
• determine when and how problems can be addressed by means of the analytical methods of the arts, sciences, and other fields
• use analytical methods typical of the arts, sciences, and other fields to work toward the solution of problems

Health and recreation skills

• determine ways to assess and improve health-related fitness status
• apply knowledge of wellness concepts and motor skill development to selection of safe, individualized fitness and leisure activities
• demonstrate knowledge of and competence in a variety of motor skills and movement patterns as a means to support and maintain physical activity through the lifespan
• apply knowledge of personal risk for stress-related illness and chronic disease to health-related fitness and behavior choices

Computer literacy

• perform the tasks necessary to begin using a computer for personal use
• write a paper with graphs, tables, and pictures using word-processing skills
• develop and make a presentation using presentation software

Information literacy

• demonstrate a knowledge of the framework of information, including books, journals, and the internet
• decide which sources to use when searching for specific types of information
• use alternative methods of finding information
• successfully evaluate the quality of a source in terms of bias, reliability, timeliness, and authority
• exhibit an understanding of search strategies
• access information remotely

Foreign Language 

• begin to develop some proficiency in the five language skills of reading, writing, listening, speaking, and culture in English and a target language
• develop oral communication skills, including self expression (students' accent and pronunciation) in a target language
• appreciate cultural awareness and develop sensitivity to the country (or countries) where a target language is spoken 

VALUES objectives:

evidenced by appropriate social, civil, religious, & cultural relationships.  Students who are successful in the General Education program will express the following Values in the following ways:

Respect for differences, students can:

• recognize the broad range of differences and develop an understanding and sensitivity for differences
• broaden knowledge, understanding, and personal community by interacting with persons who are different
• encourage maintenance and sharing of differences among persons of different cultures and ethnic backgrounds without expectations for others to assimilate
• recognize a person's weaknesses as well as a person's strengths

Freedom of inquiry and dissent, students can:

• recognize that freedom of inquiry must include the possibility of dissent
• test premises rather than take them at face value
• appreciate the right to take an adversarial stance against bodies of information in order to test them
• develop tolerance

Justice and equality, students can:

• explain from a Judeo-Christian perspective why all persons are considered to be created in the image of God and thus worthy of respect
• describe at least one way in which one's personal actions may have an adverse effect on the life or living conditions of people elsewhere in the world
• recognize how policies or practices embodied in institutions, intentionally or unintentionally, lead to inequities in the treatment of others, especially the poor, marginalized, or powerless

Self-responsibility and autonomy, students can:

• exhibit behaviors that illustrate that they have taken ownership of various dimensions of their lives
• accept the consequences of their own actions and words
• recognize when independent work is necessary and when collaboration is appropriate

Caring, service, community responsibility, students can:

• acknowledge and accept themselves as members of both local and world-wide communities whose interests, concerns, and issues are shared
• demonstrate care for one another by offering challenges and support to peers
• fulfill civic duties and become involved in community issues and activities
• volunteer time to both on- and off-campus groups dedicated to helping underprivileged, minorities, the environment, children, the homeless, and any who are in need
• show concern for the global community by gathering for discussion or prayer about current issues

Aesthetic sense, students can:

• develop a personal set of values and tastes in order to perceive and respond to the arts and the artistic
• appreciate artistic and other events
• recognize the roles that such events have in a historical context and in current society
• assimilate artistic awareness into various aspects of personal, professional, and public life