Please direct comments and feedback to Dr. Frank
Veeman, Deans of Arts and Sciences: fveeman@mail.nwmissouri.edu
This document was last revised and posted on: rev. October 1, 2002
Rationale for General Education
The 42 credit hour General
Education Curriculum
Skill Area Goals
·
Valuing
Knowledge Area Goals
This document describes Northwest Missouri State University’s 42 credit
hour general education block. Some
assessment activities are embedded within specific courses and some are
external to courses. Locally developed assessments follow a process
to ensure that they are properly validated.
The nationally normed Educational Testing Service Academic Profile
has been identified as an external assessment device that aligns with many of
our stated competencies.
Northwest Missouri State University
General Education Rationale Statement
General
education is the curricular foundation at Northwest Missouri State
University. It encourages students to
acquire and use the intellectual tools, knowledge, and creative capabilities
necessary to study the world as it is, as it has been understood, and as it
might be imagined. It also furnishes
them with skills that enable them to deepen their understanding and to
communicate it to others. Through
general education, Northwest equips students for success in their specialized
areas of study and for fulfilled lives as educated persons, as active citizens,
and as effective contributors to their own prosperity and to the general
welfare.
Knowledge is
ever changing; therefore, general education must alert students to the
connections and the potential for interaction among all branches of knowing,
ordering, and imagining. General
education should inform students that the world is understood in different ways
and should provide them with the means to come to terms, intelligently and
humanely, with diversity. As a result
of their general education, students should acquire appropriate investigative,
interpretative, and communicative competencies.
General
Education Reporting Matrix - Northwest Missouri State
State-Level Goals: Skill Areas
Communicating - To develop students' effective use of the English
language and quantitative and other symbolic systems essential to their success
in school and in the world. Students should be able to read and listen
critically and to write and speak with thoughtfulness, clarity, coherence, and
persuasiveness.
Institutional
Competencies
|
Primary Course(s) and
Credit Hours |
Secondary Experiences |
Associated Assessment(s) |
|
A. Students
will analyze their own and others’ speaking and writing. COMM 102: ·
Critique sample oral performances by assessing content,
organization, and delivery. ENG COMP 111, 112 & 115: ·
Self-evaluation and peer review of others’ writing by
looking at organization, development and language. |
This
competency is met in the following courses: 29-102 Fund Oral Comm (3 cr) 10-111 English Composition (3 cr) 10-112 English Composition (3 cr) 10-115 Honors Composition (6 cr) |
None specified at this time. |
Students conduct peer
evaluations of oral presentations. Students reflect and
respond to their own and their peers’ writing. |
|
B. Students
will conceive of writing as a recursive process that involves many
strategies, including generating material, evaluating sources when used,
drafting, revising and editing. ENG COMP 111, 112 & 115: ·
Generate researched writings that develop and organize a
valuable central idea. ·
Use writing process to successfully invent, plan, draft,
revise and edit. |
This
competency is met in the following courses: 10-111 English Composition (3 cr) 10-112 English Composition (3 cr) 10-115 Honors Composition (6 cr) |
Library Tutorial online with a pre-test and post-test;
then two-three days of library orientation on how to locate materials and how
to evaluate sources for a research paper. Writing Center tutoring available M-F for students. |
|
|
C. Students
will make formal written and oral presentations employing correct diction,
syntax, usage, grammar, and mechanics. COMM 102: ·
Deliver public speeches and group presentations
employing linguistic techniques appropriately and properly. ENG COMP: 111, 112 & 115: ·
Write papers using correct diction, syntax, usage,
grammar, and mechanics. |
This
competency is met in the following courses: 29-102 Fund Oral Comm (3 cr) 10-111 English Composition (3 cr) 10-112 English Composition (3 cr) 10-115 Honors Composition (6 cr) |
Writing Center tutoring available M-F for students. |
Faculty prepare written
evaluations of vocal and linguistic quality in oral presentations. |
|
D. Students
will focus on a purpose (e.g., explaining, problem solving, argument) and
vary approaches to writing and speaking based on that purpose. COMM 102: ·
Deliver public speeches with a specific objective in at
least two genres: informative and persuasive. ENG COMP 111, 112 & 115: ·
Write expository, persuasive, problem solving, and
argument essays. |
This
competency is met in the following courses: 29-102 Fund Oral Comm (3 cr) 10-111 English Composition (3 cr) 10-112 English Composition (3 cr) 10-115 Honors Composition (6 cr) |
Writing Center tutoring available M-F for students. |
|
|
E. Students
will respond to the needs of different venues and audiences and choose words
for appropriateness and effect. COMM 102: ·
Explicitly account for and adapt to target audiences in
public speeches. ·
Display sensitivity toward and adaptation to others
during interviews and interpersonal interactions. ENG COMP 111, 112 & 115: ·
Write essays with rhetorical awareness of audience,
purpose, content, genre, tone and authorial stance. |
This
competency is met in the following courses: 29-102 Fund Oral Comm (3 cr) 10-111 English Composition (3 cr) 10-112 English Composition (3 cr) 10-115 Honors Composition (6 cr) |
Writing Center tutoring available M-F for students. |
Faculty incorporate
audience adaptation into evaluation rubrics for public presentations. |
|
F. Students
will communicate effectively in groups by listening, reflecting, and
responding appropriately and in context. COMM 102: ·
Engage in formal team deliberations and presentations in
problem-solving and/or developmental groups. |
This
competency is met in the following courses: 29-102 Fund Oral Comm (3 cr) |
None specified at this time. |
Formal group
communication assignments include evaluation of leadership collaborative
skills. |
|
G. Students
will interpret quantitative and/or graphical models. |
This
competency is met in the following courses: 03-130 Plant Science (4 cr) 04-102/103 General Biology & Lab (4 cr) 04-112/113 General Botany & Lab (4 cr) 04-114/115 General Zoology & Lab (4 cr) |
None specified at this time. |
General
Education Reporting Matrix - Northwest Missouri State
State-Level Goals: Skill Areas
Higher-Order Thinking - To develop students’ ability to distinguish among
opinions, facts, and inferences; to identify underlying or implicit
assumptions; to make informed judgments; and to solve problems by applying
evaluative standards.
Institutional
Competencies
|
Primary Course(s) and
Credit Hours |
Secondary Experiences |
Associated Assessment(s) |
|
A. Students will identify problems, construct
alternative solutions recognizing the implicit and explicit assumptions made
and advocate a reasoned choice after examining potential conflicts resulting
from differing sets of presumptions. |
This
competency is met in the following courses: Social Sciences group |
None specified at this time. |
Educational Testing Service Academic Profile. |
|
B. Student will reflect on and evaluate their
critical-thinking processes. |
This
competency is met in the following courses: Behavioral Sciences group |
None specified at this time. |
Educational Testing Service Academic Profile. |
General
Education Reporting Matrix - Northwest Missouri State
State-Level Goals: Skill Areas
Managing Information - To develop students’ abilities to
locate, organize, store, retrieve, evaluate, synthesize, and annotate
information from print, electronic, and other sources in preparation for
solving problems and making informed decisions.
Institutional
Competencies
|
Primary Course(s) and
Credit Hours |
Secondary Experiences |
Associated Assessment(s) |
|
A. Students
will access and/or generate information from a variety of sources, including
the most contemporary technological information. ·
Access periodical articles via a Web-based periodical
index using basic keyword search strategies and Web pages via a search engine
using a menu driven search interface. ·
Access periodical articles via a Web-based periodical
index, a library catalog, and the Web using advanced keyword search
strategies. ·
Access Web pages about a selected topic employing
advanced search strategies within Web search engines. |
This
competency is met in the following courses: 29-102 Fund Oral Comm (3 cr) |
None specified at this time. |
Students prepare a speech on the topic that is evaluated by the |