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Scenes from Faculty Senate

Revised General Education Program

2001

Appendix A

General Education Core Areas


English Communication Core Area (EC) (ECw)

Definition

English Communication: courses that improve written and oral communication skills

Guidelines

  • "EC" courses and "ECw" courses present knowledge and content that develop and extend an understanding of effective written or oral interactions between a writer or speaker and a listening or reading audience, and they provide extensive guided practice in these interactions. ECw courses focus specifically on written communication.
  • Supplementary guidelines for "EC" courses:

    a. "EC" courses and "ECw" courses examine the elements and conditions of effective writing or speaking through the use of a variety of basic disciplinary sources and critical explorations.

    b. "EC" courses enhance students' ability to critically receive, analyze and interpret texts, information, and persuasive messages for interaction with multiple audiences, in specified contexts, for specific purposes. "ECw" courses focus particularly on the analysis and production of written texts for a variety of purposes and contexts.

    c. "EC" courses and "ECw" courses promote progressive skill acquisition in critical analysis and production that results from ample opportunities for guided practice as well as feedback from peers, the instructor, the public or other audiences.

    d. "EC" and "ECw" courses provide multiple opportunities for writing and/or speaking and listening in different modes or genres and for varying audiences, purposes and contexts.

    It has been the committee's position that the guidelines do not require Faculty Senate approval because they are consistent with the approved definitions for the core area.

Examples


Fine Arts and Literature Core Area (A)

Definition

Fine Arts and Literature: courses that promote aesthetic interpretation and an appreciation of its role in human experience; courses related to historical and critical study of the arts and literature as well as creative activity.- "

Guidelines

Courses in Fine Arts and Literature will:

1. provide a foundation for life-long engagement with fine art and literature through direct (reading, attending films, plays, concerts, museums) and indirect (classroom viewing, listening, demonstration) exposure to works of art and literature or creative activity (drawing, performing, staging, filmmaking).

2. equip students with skills necessary for textual or formal analysis within or across artistic periods and media and provide opportunities for practice.

3. discuss the arts as expressions of cultural, social, and individual values.

4. develop students' self-awareness as independent viewers/readers/listeners through discussions and writing assignments.

5. create assignments that explore the diversity of artistic and aesthetic standards and enable students to understand their own judgements in relation to others.

Examples (not available at this time)

List of kinds of assignments that incorporate particular skills (not intended to preclude other assignments the meet the criteria):

Courses in the Fine Arts and Literature core area that offer introductions to art in the form of creative practice in various arts are necessarily "skills-oriented" or "experiential" in approach. Such courses would qualify for "A" credit in General Education by 1.) engaging in artistic activity, 2.) reading complex texts--their own, those of other students, and others shown, played and discussed by instructors, and 3.) using qualitative data in the form of experimenting, drafting, sketching, revising, and rehearsing in the process of creating their own "complex texts." It is also common for studio instructors to require students to write effectively in describing their accomplishments and intentions and speak effectively in class critiques. Although any of the integrated skills may be incorporated into studio classes, in order to avoid descriptions particular to each art form or medium, most of the examples listed below apply to "courses that involve historical and critical study. "

Require students to analyze, compare, contrast, and interpret literary, visual, aural, plastic, and cinematic texts.

Require students to apply their knowledge (of composition, media, style, or probable origin) to examples not previously discussed in class.

Require students to assess varying interpretations and evaluations of artistic texts.

Have students write brief descriptions to promote careful observation and prompt students to articulate individual responses to artworks.

Assign homework essays on readings which may be reworked and regraded after class discussion and the instructor's written evaluation.

Make sequential writing assignments that develop organizational and critical writing skills.

Ask students to read and critique other students' drafts of papers.

Assign "opinion pieces" that require students to take a critical position on controversial works and/or commentaries.

Assign research papers, which require preliminary submissions of sources and draft versions.

Employ student mentors, trained by the writing program, to provide individual help and feedback on writing assignments.

Require participation in on-line discussions, for which are evaluated on writing as well as content(.

Assign written reviews of exhibitions, performances, or presentations on the URI campus and the local area.

Require students to present their own work and analyze/evaluate the work of other students in periodic oral critiques.

Encourage attentive listening by asking students (as individuals or in small groups) to identify the main points of oral presentations.

Encourage participation in class discussions.

Set up small groups to discuss and report back on assigned topics.

Assign oral presentation of research by groups or individuals. Encourage attentive listening by distributing a question or response sheet to other students.

Consider works of art and literature in the contexts of their production and reception, emphasizing differences in culture, race, religion, and sexual orientation.

Develop new courses or content focus on world art, literature, drama, film, or music not presently covered by URI departments.

Develop courses or content focus on the arts and literature of women, gays, Afro-Americans and/or other groups outside the mainstream of European and American art during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Include significant content on non-Western arts and cross-cultural comparisons.

Study works of art or literature selected for their treatment of diversity issues.

Use webct or other means to establish a class site that includes interactive components such as a "Bulletin Board" where students may initiate or contribute to on-line discussions.

Make assignment which can only be answered by using posted materials.

Assign students to compile and evaluate a list of sites on particular art works, issues, or artists.

Encourage on-line participation by posting (with students' permission) particularly good essays or projects, study-guides, and sample tests.

Assign students or groups of students to design a web site on a particular artist or issue.

Assign students to compose a story, poem, song, skit or painting relating to a given subject or issue.

Assign students to compose a story, poem, song, skit, or painting in the style of an artist under study.


Foreign Language/Cross-cultural Competence core area (FC)

Definition

Foreign Language/Cross-cultural Competence: courses that promote understanding of one's own cultural perspective in a multicultural world and develop the skills necessary to work, live, and interact with persons from different backgrounds, including developing bilingual skills, the comparative study of cultures, the study of cross-cultural communication, and/or study/internships abroad

The Foreign Language / Cross-cultural Competence requirement helps prepare students for life in an increasingly internationalized environment.

Courses satisfying the Cross Cultural Competence requirement will introduce students to significant comparisons between U.S. cultures and foreign cultures.

For the purposes of this requirement, the following definitions apply:

Culture: the integrated patterns of thoughts, communications, actions, customs, beliefs, values, and institutions of groups.

Foreign: generally outside the United States, but inclusive of approved in-country learning experiences in the context of a language other than English.

Competence: a set of congruent insights, understandings, behaviors, and attitudes that permit a person to function effectively.

The Foreign Language / Cross-cultural Competence requirement helps prepare students for life in an increasingly multicultural world.

Courses satisfying the Cross-cultural Competence requirement will introduce students to significant comparisons between and among cultures.

Guidelines

To qualify, a course will:

  • address questions of international cultural differences on a theoretical level,
  • exemplify those differences with significant examples, and
  • provide opportunities for demonstrating competence by putting those insights and knowledge into practice.

Examples


Letters core area (L)

Definition

Letters - courses that examine human values, thought and culture in social, historical, and philosophical contexts through the use of primary sources and critical expositions.

Guidelines

To qualify, a course will:

1. enhance students' self-awareness as independent readers and thinkers and encourage consultation with their peers in intellectual work.

2. present knowledge that describes the human condition, past and present.

3. equip students with analytical skills necessary for humanistic inquiry within or across individual disciplines.

4. create assignments that foster critical reflective inquiry and its application to scholarly work and personal values.

Examples

List of kinds of assignments that incorporate particular skills (not intended to preclude other assignments the meet the criteria):

Sequential writing assignments, short or long, that develop organizational and critical writing skills and/or the use of primary sources.

Analysis of historical data (e.g., vital statistics, census records, immigration records) using statistical formulas or software.

Students reading and critiquing other students' drafts of papers.

Think pieces (oral or written) that encourage critical examination of primary sources and/or theoretical works, essays.

Small group work by students who examine primary or secondary texts Extracting the main idea or hypotheses in written or oral presentation.

Searching primary newspapers or documents for past or current perspectives on the human condition.

Use websites critically and with proper attribution.

Short in-class essay responses.

Biographical inquiry and writing.

Keep journals that integrate ideas from the course and personal values.

Short story, play writing, or artistic endeavors that illuminate issues in the humanities.

Critical film/museum/book reviews.

Interviewing/oral history regarding issues/personal history/ethical values.

Use the URI campus and/or surrounding community as texts to illuminate issues in courses.

Draw upon local/regional museums for class assignments.

Assemble panels of students to discuss/debate issues or points of view.

Formal oral class reports.

Practice speaking skills in short presentations.


Mathematical and Quantitative Reasoning core area (MQ)

Definition

Mathematical & Quantitative Reasoning: courses that advance skills in, understanding of, and appreciation for mathematics and the disciplines that have grown from mathematics.

Guidelines

Courses in Mathematics and Quantitative Reasoning will:

1. Extend and expand each student's knowledge of the mathematical, statistical and computational sciences, and the role of these sciences in the natural and social sciences, technology, and elsewhere.

2. Further develop skills in the techniques of computation, mathematical reasoning, and statistical analysis appropriate to the student's academic and vocational interests.

3. Develop an appreciation of the computational, mathematical, and statistical sciences as part of our intellectual heritage and as among our greatest collective human achievements.

It is required that courses in the Mathematical and Quantitative Reasoning category include assignments that involve at least three of the skill areas. Most likely, they will include Read Complex Texts and Use of Quantitative Data and either Write Effectively or Use of Information Technology.

The study of all mathematical sciences requires the close reading of complex texts. In fact, written accounts of ideas, processes, and methods in the mathematical and computational sciences are generally acknowledged to be among the most difficult of all texts. Mathematical textbooks are the distillation of the works of the great mathematical thinkers from antiquity to the present. Even a single equation is a concise notation of a mathematical sentence, and the careful statement or specification of a mathematical theorem, computational algorithm, computer program, or statistical procedure often requires the most careful attention to language.

That being said, it is expected that a course intended to satisfy the spirit of this requirement will require some reading, in the conventional sense, of textual material in the computational, statistical or mathematical sciences. These readings may be contained in a standard textbook. A course devoted to the review or further development of mechanical skills in algebra, say, may not require much reading of this sort, but would thereby be unlikely to fulfill the principal aims of this General Education category. It is anticipated, therefore, that all courses in this category will involve skill reading complex texts.

It is expected that most courses in this category will include quantitative reasoning. While subjects like synthetic geometry or logic are minimally quantitative in nature, courses that treat statistical ideas, ideas related to calculus, and introductory computer programming entail analysis and manipulation of quantitative data.

It is expected that most courses proposed for this category will, additionally, involve information technology and/or writing effectively.

List of kinds of assignments that incorporate particular skills (not intended to preclude other assignments the meet the criteria):

Assignments involving information technology:

1. Writing computer programs

2. Use of computer algebra systems, e.g., Maple, and graphing calculators

3. Use of spreadsheets

4. Use of special-purpose on-line software for statistical analyses, visualization of mathematical concepts, and implementing or exemplifying mathematical ideas.

5. Use of special-purpose on-line systems for practice in computation and problem solving.

Assignments involving writing effectively. Each of the following is assumed to include a cycle of feedback and revision:

1. Writing, debugging, and commenting a computer program.

2. Writing mathematical proofs

3. Writing a complete project-size solution, with careful explanations of a substantial mathematical problem.

4. Writing a report of a statistical analysis with explanations.

Examples (Not available at this time)


Natural Sciences core area (N)

Definition

Natural Sciences - Courses that employ scientific methods to examine the physical nature of the world, the biological dimension of human life, and the nature of the environment and its various life forms.

Guidelines

Courses in Natural Sciences will:

1. Develop student understanding of how scientists collect and interpret data in one or more disciplines within the natural sciences

2. Provide a foundation of knowledge in one or more areas of a natural science

3. Create assignments designed to develop critical thinking skills necessary to understand and interpret scientific information

4. Develop student understanding of the importance of the natural sciences in resolving real life problems

Examples

List of kinds of assignments that incorporate particular skills (not intended to preclude other assignments the meet the criteria):

Read complex texts

  • Students read and interpret research papers or comprehensive review articles. Examples of review articles might be those found in Scientific American or American Scientist.
  • Students read and evaluate papers related to an area of current controversy within their disciple and then take and defend a position relative to that controversy

Write Effectively:

  • Students submit a series of lab reports or short papers; instructor or TA feedback allows students to improve subsequent submissions
  • Course requires a term paper that may be reworked and resubmitted after instructors' evaluation.

Speak Effectively

Students make regular oral presentations before the class with instructor and/or group feedback designed to improve speaking skills.

Examine Human Differences

  • Assignments that examine the scientific bases and interpretations for similarities and differences between human groupings.
  • Assignments should include readings from sources other than the standard texts. It should be noted that courses approved on the basis of this skill will be designated as "Diversity" courses.

Use of Quantitative Data:

  • Assignments require students to collect, analyze, and interpret data.
  • Assignments require the use of statistics, formulae and/or graphs and charts

Use of Qualitative Data:

Assignments require analysis and interpretation of historical, descriptive, or comparative information.

Use of Information Technology:

  • Assignments involve the use of information technology
  • Assignments require students to access and interpret web-based information
  • Assignments require use of information technology such as simulations, statistical packages, data loggers and data links, presentation software, data bases, image analysis, web-based information search and conferencing.

Engage in Artistic Activity

Assignments might include biological illustration, biological imaging, cartography, and use of technology to produce works of art.


Social Sciences core area (S)

Definition

Social Sciences: courses related to the study of human development and behavior and varying social, economic, cultural, and political solutions to societal and global problems

Guidelines

To qualify, a course will:

1. advance the understanding of human behavior and/or human development

2. apply social science theoretical perspectives and/or social science concepts to contemporary societal issues in order to expand the knowledge base in the social sciences

3. provide assignments or opportunities which involve the interpretation of data and/or the evaluation of evidence

Examples