Aesthetic Perspective
Aesthetic Perspective (AP) courses focus on the relationship between form and content through the study of aesthetic form— whether through hands-on artistic practice or analysis—with the goal of enhancing students’ critical appreciation and understanding of the arts.
Learning goals:
- Analyze and explain the relationship between form and content.
- Analyze and describe how an art piece’s parts contribute to the whole.
- Evaluate creative works using appropriate historical, artistic, and cultural contexts and appropriate conventions of the genre.
- Demonstrate proficiency with the equipment, tools, materials, and techniques used to create original compositions.
- Create images, compositions, objects, or other artistic works that demonstrate conceptual and technical proficiency in discipline.
Scientific Perspective
Scientific Perspective (SP) courses focus on exploring the world around us, emphasizing the experimental, analytical, theoretical, and computational techniques used to develop understanding in and across scientific disciplines. Courses introduce you to the experimental and problem-solving nature of scientific study.
Learning goals:
- Accurately describe scientific phenomena from the natural or technological world around us.
- Propose or describe a rigorous scientific experiment or solution to a scientific problem and explain the importance of methods of data acquisition and/or analysis.
- Create products that demonstrate the ability to communicate within and/or between different scientific disciplines, with the emphasis on developing the ability to communicate results effectively and evaluate information relevant to science in society.
Global Comparative Perspective
Global Comparative Perspective (GP) courses focus on comparative analysis through the examination of diverse cultures, societies, political systems, and/or economic structures of different parts of the world. In examining their similarities and differences, these courses will help students develop a global context for understanding elements of human experience.
Learning goals:
- Evaluate and analyze how diverse cultures, political systems, societies, and economic structures of different parts of the world compare to each other.
- Analyze and explain what informs those differences.
- Compare diverse cultures, political systems, societies, and economic structures through a specific disciplinary lens.
History Perspective
History Perspective (HP) courses focus on exploring aspects of culture, society, and environment, as well as intellectual, economic, and political arrangements in the past. Through this exploration, students will better understand how the past informs, shapes, and diverges from the present.
Learning goals:
- Analyze and explain continuity and change in the past.
- Explain how the past informs, shapes, and diverges from the present.
- Use primary sources to support an argument about the past or explain and analyze how scholars have studied the past.
Language and Culture Perspective
Language and Culture Perspective (LP) courses foster the study of a language or literature other
than English to help students develop their understanding of the relationship of language to culture, to help them appreciate different cultures, and to prepare them to be global citizens.
Learning goals:
- Demonstrate speaking, listening, reading, and writing skills in a language other than English.
- Analyze the relationships between language and culture.
- Analyze and interpret texts in a language other than English to demonstrate.
Values Perspective
Values Perspective (VP) courses focus on the moral, ethical and prescriptive frameworks that individuals and organizations use to view the world and make decisions. They explore the application of moral and prescriptive frameworks for critically assessing claims about value in a variety of contexts, including personal, professional, and social contexts.
Learning goals:
- Analyze and explain different systems of moral theorizing.
- Apply prescriptive conceptual frameworks and moral theories to practical concerns and situations, and consider the full implications of the application.
Diversity and Inclusion
Diversity and Inclusion (D and I) courses focus on marginalization, privilege, disadvantage, and oppression in multiple domains (e.g., race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, social class). Students will learn how to critically analyze concepts such as power, intersectionality, marginality, and identity.
Learning goals:
- Analyze and explain an understanding of personal social identity in relationship to other identities discussed in the course.
- Discuss and explain the causes and processes by which some people/groups are marginalized, disadvantaged, privileged, or oppressed, considering various social identity markers (e.g., race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, social class, etc.).
- Engage in critical analyses of concepts of power, intersectionality, marginality, and identity.
Written Expression
Written Expression (WE) courses focus on writing clearly and persuasively, making a cogent
argument, using textual evidence to support that argument, and thinking critically about texts, with the goal of enhancing students’ written communication skills.
Learning goals:
Write college-level essays that:
- Develop a cogent and persuasive argument directed at specific audiences;
- Use credible, relevant sources to support ideas;
- Analyze texts and develop critical thinking skills in discussion and writing;
- Utilize conventions particular to a specific discipline and/or writing task(s).
Formal Analysis
Formal Analysis (FA) courses focus on formal symbolic systems for precisely representing quantitative aspects of the world and the applications of these systems in problem-solving contexts.
Learning Goals:
- Utilize the language of a formal symbolic system to precisely represent quantitative aspects of the world.
- Describe the mechanics and key concepts of at least one formal symbolic system.
- Demonstrate an ability to apply the formal symbol system in problem-solving contexts, where this may include application of the formal system to non-mathematical contexts.