GENERAL EDUCATION CURRICULUM

Catawba students receive a liberal education defined by a broad range of knowledge, intellectual and practical skills, individual and social responsibility, and integration of learning. These qualities are developed and fostered in all academic programs, from the freshman through the senior years, and are designed to prepare graduates for the demands and challenges of personal and professional life. Each student will successfully complete at least one course from the social/behavioral sciences, one course from the humanities/fine arts and one course from the natural sciences/mathematics. (Please note: COMM 1101 does not count in humanities/fine arts area.) These courses will be drawn from Foundations and Skills and/or Perspectives. Each student will also successfully complete at least 3 hours in a non-western course. A course may not be applied to meet more than one general education requirement. (Please note: no more than 8 hours in Perspectives may be counted toward the first major or concentration.)

LEARNING OUTCOMES FOR FOUNDATIONS AND SKILLS

FIRST YEAR SEMINAR: Students will develop an intellectual foundation for their college studies by engaging in rigorous, in-depth study of a topic from more than one academic perspective. This seminar also introduces students to essential learning and thinking skills. 1. Students will use more than one academic perspective to demonstrate content knowledge. 2. Students will demonstrate effective use of active reading strategies. 3. Students will demonstrate effective use of active listening strategies. 4. Students will be able to summarize course content in writing. 5. Students will be able to analyze and interpret course content in writing. 6. Students will be able to engage in critical dialogue about the course content.

FIRST-YEAR WRITING: The First-Year Writing course will help students communicate effectively at a college level. 1. Students will apply rhetorical concepts - audience, purpose, genre, style, occasion or exigency - to both reading and writing tools. 2. Students will analyze and synthesize texts. 3. Students will evaluate information found using bibliographic tools. 4. Students will use drafting and revision as effective and appropriate writing practices.

QUANTITATIVE LITERACY (four to six hours): Courses in this area will help students to think and communicate quantitatively and mathematically at a college level. 1. Students will apply mathematical methods to draw inferences from a mathematical model of real-world phenomena. 2. Students will create a mathematical model from an informal description of real-world phenomena. 3. Students will communicate mathematical ideas clearly and concisely.

SECOND-YEAR WRITING (ENGL 2111 or other writing-focused 2000-level course): Courses in this area will study argumentation in both civic and academic contexts, and students will improve their writing by analyzing published texts and producing their own arguments. 1. Students will use rhetorical concepts to analyze and evaluate arguments. 2. Students will compose effective arguments. 3. Students will integrate reasons and evidence derived from various sources. 4. Students will use drafting and revision as effective and appropriate writing practices.

FOREIGN LANGUAGE LITERACY (zero to nine hours): Courses in this area will help students to gain college-level advanced elementary proficiency in speaking, understanding, reading, and writing a foreign language. 1. Students will acquire a core vocabulary sufficient to permit basic interactions with native speakers of the target language. 2. Students will acquire grammatical mastery sufficient to permit basic interactions with native speakers of the target language.

WELLNESS ACTIVITY & LITERACY: Courses in this area will help students to obtain, process, and understand basic health information and develop an understanding for and ability in a lifetime sport. 1. Students will participate in physical activities that promote health-related components of physical fitness and well-being and provide for long-term participation potential. 2. Students will be able to explain the need for a lifetime commitment to physical well-being.

LEARNING OUTCOMES FOR PERSPECTIVES

Historical and Social (at least two courses, totaling six to nine hours, in two disciplines): Courses in this area will require students to explore and analyze historical, social, cultural, interpersonal, economic, and political processes to understand and explain human behavior. 1. Students will explain or apply various approaches used in the study of history and society. 2. Students will use appropriate analytical tools to interpret or evaluate human behavior at the individual, group, or societal level.

Interpretive (at least two courses, totaling six to nine hours, in two disciplines): Courses in this area will require students to study the ways people (as individuals and as cultures) use language and symbolic forms. 1. Students will read and understand primary works in literature, religion, philosophy, or the fine arts. 2. Students will analyze how these works reflect, respond to, and shape social, political, religious and/or intellectual contexts. 3. Students will write about these works from rhetorical, aesthetic, analytical, or ethical perspectives.

Creative (three to six hours): Courses in this area will require students to engage actively in the creative process of generating innovative ideas or products. 1. Students will demonstrate substantial knowledge of at least one creative process. 2. Students will demonstrate imaginative and generative thinking through the production of original creative artifacts. 3. Students will reflect on the process of creation and the aesthetic success or failure of the original artifacts they have created.

Scientific (seven hours, at least one lab): Courses in this area will require students to engage actively in the scientific method. 1. Students will demonstrate an understanding of the scientific method within a disciplinary context. 2. Students will collect, analyze, and interpret data. 3. Students will demonstrate an understanding of the impact of scientific knowledge on the world.

Non-Western (three hours): Courses in this area will require students to think about human experience from a non-western perspective. 1. Students will describe at least one topic beyond western society. 2. Students will interpret at least one text or artifact from beyond western society.