What should a student who has completed the general
education program be able to do in the way of writing, critical thinking,
speaking, using information technology, quantitative analyzing, and researching?
Below are general goal statements and lists of behavioral objectives for each skill the general education program addresses. The general education council, working with selected faculty, and then receiving wide input from faculty, formulated these objectives. The council believes that these intellectual and practical skills are integral to the mission and goals of the general education program. The council welcomes your input on the formulation of these objectives.
NOTE WELL: As of September 2001, the Council voted to eliminate the skill of information technology and to include a reference to "computer literacy" in the set of skills now labeled information and computer literacy. This set of skills integrates three basic skills, research, information technology and critical thinking.
The general education program has six skills areas with the
following purposes and student objectives/outcomes:
1) Written Communication
The overall objective is to develop students’ written
expression of thought and provide learners opportunities to explore ideas and to
build connections between content areas. Written
communication objectives for students completing the general education program
are:
1. Demonstrate the capacity to use various writing forms, (for example, in-class responses, journals, notebooks,
reports, argumentative essays, research papers, and others) to achieve the
specific purposes of the course.
2. Exemplify ethical writing
practices (i.e., avoid plagiarism, use of an appropriate citation style) in all
forms of written communication.
3. Demonstrate the capacity to effectively integrate multiple sources (primary
and secondary, electronic and print) into the writing assignments of the course.
4. Demonstrate improvements in written expression of thought by utilizing
various techniques (such as peer review, multiple drafts or revisions of
assignments after receiving feedback).
2) Oral Communication
The overall objective is to develop students’ oral
communication skills by a variety of communication activities, from informal
discussion to formal presentation. Oral
communication objectives for students completing the general education program
are:
1. Clearly state questions,
concerns, and ideas so that both the instructor and other students can
understand the intent.
2. Verbally condense larger
amounts of information into concise, condensed analysis.
3. Discuss among various size
groups of students so as to be able to contribute without over powering others.
4. Give a clear, organized and accurate oral presentation of
course material (for example, summaries of readings, research projects, analyses
of arguments, persuasive speeches and others).
3) Critical Thinking
The overall objective is to develop students’ reasoning
abilities by incorporating reasoning tasks and practices into general education
courses. Critical thinking
objectives for students completing the general education program are:
1. Identify and state arguments.
2. Identify the main point in a
passage or essay and state the reasons that support a given choice.
3. Identify assumptions and state
the implications of an argument, passage, or theory.
4. Critically evaluate arguments
in terms of the strength of evidence and reasoning.
5. Write an essay that comes to well-reasoned conclusions and solutions,
supported by relevant evidence, and tested against relevant criteria and
standards.
4) Quantitative Analysis
The overall objective of quantitative analysis is to provide
students with an approach to problem solving through logic and reasoning.
It is used to identify, analyze, generalize and communicate quantitative
relationships. Quantitative
analysis objectives for students completing the general education program are:
1.
Translate problems into mathematical form.
2.
Construct and interpret visual representations of mathematical relationships.
3.
Determine quantitative relationships and solutions to problems.
4.
Clearly communicate quantitative relationships and solutions.
5.
Apply mathematical concepts to real world situations.
6.
Draw inferences from data that could be incomplete under conditions that are
uncertain.
5) Research
The overall objective is to ensure that students are able
to formulate a researchable question and can identify and utilize resources in
order to document findings and draw conclusions. Research objectives for students completing the general
education program are:
1. Identify
types of resources necessary to formulate a researchable question.
2. Utilize
credible resources as a tool for academic research.
3. Draw conclusions based on the results of the research.
4. Document
research findings, using accepted forms of scholarly citation.
5. Communicate
the outcome of the research findings.
6) Information and Computer Literacy
The overall objective is to ensure that students acquire a
basic core of skills that are needed to research information with the use of
information technology and critically evaluate that information.
Information and computer literacy objectives for students completing the general
education program are:
1. Determine
the extent of information needed.
2. Utilize computers to create documents, and to retrieve and communicate needed
information effectively and efficiently.
3. Evaluate
information and its sources critically.
4. Incorporate
selected information into one’s knowledge base.
5. Use
information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose.
6. Understand many of the ethical, legal,
and social issues surrounding the use of information sources.
For a listing of web sites for evaluating web sites, go to: http://www.uca.edu/divisions/academic/gened/evaluatingwebsites.htm