Approved by the
Approved by the Chancellor: March 2,
2005
The
overarching goal of the Liberal Arts Foundations Curriculum is to provide
students with the fundamental knowledge and abilities
essential to their living worthwhile lives both private and public. The
curriculum is based on the faculty’s belief that the best way to prepare
students for living worthwhile lives is to provide them with a solid foundation
in the core disciplines in the Liberal Arts (the Humanities, Arts, Basic
Sciences, and Basic Social-Sciences), in conjunction with a multi-disciplinary
education in the specific areas of health promotion and physical activity and
mastery of writing and mathematics competencies. The core disciplines in the
Liberal Arts seek knowledge for its own sake as well as for its application.
Multi-disciplinary scholarship in health promotion and physical activity is
essential to promoting health and physical well-being. Together these
disciplines provide the core knowledge base in which all other scholarship is
grounded, including applied disciplinary, multi-disciplinary and
interdisciplinary scholarship. The foundations curriculum thus provides a
common, unified knowledge and skills base to a body of students who will major
in widely different subjects and who come from diverse cultural backgrounds.
Foundations courses give members of ECU’s diverse student body the shared
knowledge and abilities necessary to integrate their foundational education with
their specialized, professional education. Taken from the perspective of the
students’ personal, private interests, this foundation and its integration with
specialized learning in the students’ majors enables students to live broadly
informed, responsible, worthwhile lives. From the public perspective, this
integration is essential to good citizenship in an increasingly global yet
culturally diverse and conflicted world.
Background
1 ) UNC
Statement of
2) UNC
Strategic Directions : IV. B. Improve the quality of undergraduate
education. One of the basic objectives
assigned to the Board of Governors by statute is to improve the quality of
education. . . Educational quality is
also determined by the breadth and coherence of the general education, or core
curriculum, and by the quality of the programs that constitute academic
majors.
3) UNC
Strategies : Strengthen undergraduate degree programs. Urge institutions to
establish goals for their general education or core curricula and to review
these curricula periodically to ensure their breadth, coherence, and importance
to the overall undergraduate degree program.
4) General
Statement of Educational
Fundamental Goals
The Foundations
Curriculum is divided into four basic, core disciplinary areas (Humanities,
Arts, Basic Sciences, Basic Social Sciences), one multi-disciplinary area in
Health Promotion and Physical Activity, and two areas of competence: writing
and mathematics. The fundamental objectives of the courses in each area of the
Foundations curriculum are presented as both the fundamental knowledge and the
basic skills a course must address in order for it to fulfill a Foundations
requirement in a specific area. Disciplines represented at
All foundations courses in the core Liberal Arts disciplines must
meet the three fundamental goals of a foundational Liberal Arts education:
Students must learn the subject matter of one or
more of the disciplines in each of the four core areas (Humanities, Arts, Basic Sciences,
basic Social Sciences).
Students must learn the fundamental concepts and
research methods utilized in one or more of the disciplines in each core area.
Students must learn the relevance of scholarship
in the discipline and in its core area to the student’s overall education.
All
courses in the required multi-disciplinary area (Health Promotion and Physical
Activity) and competency areas (writing and mathematics) must meet the goals
specific to each of these areas stated in the appropriate section below.
Foundations Curriculum
Goals for the Humanities
Core
disciplines in the Humanities –Classical Studies, English, Foreign Languages
and Literatures, Philosophy and Religious Studies, critically examine our
diverse, fundamental beliefs about humanity. These disciplines seek knowledge
for its own sake as well as for its application. In doing this, they provide
the knowledge base necessary to problem-solving applications in other scholarly
fields. Scholarship in these disciplines addresses the humanistic dimensions of
culture, engaging and seeking answers to ultimate questions about human existence.
Where appropriate to their research methodology, these disciplines focus on
value, especially as regards the aesthetic, ethical and moral dimensions of
public and private life. Scholarly study in the humanities promotes the
understanding and intellectual abilities essential for living a worthwhile life
and provides a basis for developing the knowledge and skills required for
broadly informed, ethical, interdisciplinary and professional specialization.
Courses
earning Humanities credit must address the following goals:
Goal
1. Students will learn the subject matter of at least one discipline in the
humanities.
Rationale:
Disciplines in the humanities value knowledge for its own sake. Understanding
scholarship in the humanities is essential to appreciating the importance of
the humanities to all aspects of human existence, to scholarly reflection on
the meaning and value of human existence and to achieving a full appreciation
of life’s aesthetic, ethical and moral dimensions. This knowledge is an essential
part of the basic foundation necessary for sound, ethical interdisciplinary
scholarship and broadly informed, ethical professional specialization.
Goal 2. Students
will learn the research methodology applied by disciplines in the humanities.
Students will
learn the principles and concepts required to understand and conduct
undergraduate-level research in the discipline, how identify a
problem in the discipline, how to collect, organize and analyze the information
necessary to solve the problem and how to present the results of these
activities in a research paper.
Rationale:
Learning how to do research in a basic discipline in the humanities develops
the ability to discover, evaluate, and communicate knowledge. This ability is essential
to realizing a broadly informed, lifelong commitment to learning.
Goal 3. Students
will learn about the discipline’s contribution to general knowledge.
Students will
learn how the discipline relates to other academic disciplines and to the
non-academic world and teaching students the discipline’s impact on our culture
and on other cultures.
Rationale: In
order to develop a unified, comprehensive world-view and to understand and be
able to contribute to interdisciplinary scholarship, students must understand
the contribution to general knowledge of at least one discipline in the
humanities, how disciplines in the humanities relate to one another, to other
disciplines, and to the non-academic world and must understand specific
examples of the impact of this knowledge on their own and on other cultures.
Foundations Curriculum Goals for the Arts
Core disciplines in the
Arts – visual art, dance, theatre, music, and speech create, utilize and
critique works of visual and performing art. They engage in the scholarly study
of the history and appreciation of the Arts as well of their creation. These
disciplines seek to create art for art’s sake for as well as for its social,
political and other applications. Creative activity and scholarly study in the
Arts promotes the artistic talents and intellectual abilities that contribute
to the general well-being of humanity and that enhance the quality of each
individual’s life-experience. The Arts are integral to daily life. Personal, social, economic and cultural
environments are shaped by the Arts. Scholarly study in the Arts provides a
basis for developing the knowledge and skills required for both creating
artistic expression and for appreciating the value of artistic expression in
all its diverse forms.
Courses earning Arts
credit must address the following goals:
Goal 1. Students will
learn the subject matter, the practice, the history, or the appreciation of the
subject matter of at least one art form.
Students will learn the
basic principles and practice in one or more areas of the Arts. They will gain
an understanding and develop an informed appreciation of the importance of the
Arts to areas of human activity and to life in general.
Rational: Learning
either the subject matter, the practice, the history, or the appreciation of
the subject matter of at least one art form develops the ability to discover,
evaluate, and communicate knowledge of the Arts. This ability is essential to
enhancing both the personal and the public quality of human life.
Goal 2. Students will
learn the creative methods and skills utilized by one or more disciplines in
the Arts, or they will learn the research methods used in scholarship
addressing the history or appreciation of at least one of the Arts.
Students will learn how
to identify and critique (i.e., “appreciate” in an informed, scholarly way) the
creative persons, processes and products of at least one Arts discipline.
Rational: Learning how to
engage in creative activity in or scholarship in the Arts develops the ability
to discover, evaluate, and communicate knowledge of the Arts. This ability is
essential to enhancing both the personal and the public quality of human life.
Goal 3. Students will
learn about the Arts’ contribution to society, to culture and to life in
general. Students will learn how the Arts relate to other academic areas and to
the non-academic world.
Rational: In order to
develop a unified, comprehensive world-view and to be able to contribute to
interdisciplinary scholarship, students must appreciate the value and role of
the Arts as they impact on both the academic and non-academic dimensions of
life, on our culture and on other cultures.
Foundations Curriculum Goals for the Basic Sciences
Core disciplines in the Basic Sciences currently represented at
Courses earning Science
credit must address the following goals:
Goal 1. Students will learn the
subject matter of at least one core discipline in the Basic Sciences.
Students will learn the properties
and processes of one or more basic component of the natural world.
Rationale: Scholarly study in the basic sciences promotes the
intellectual abilities essential for an understanding of the complexly
interrelated systems of physics, chemistry, biology, and geology. It promotes
understanding of the scientific method – one of the primary ways of knowing, allowing
one to distinguish reality from speculation.
It helps students understand the technological advances upon which
society depends and provides a basis for developing the knowledge and skills
required for broadly informed, interdisciplinary, and professional
specialization.
Goal 2. Students will learn the
research methodology, principles and concepts required to understand and
conduct undergraduate-level research in a basic science.
Students will learn how to identify a problem in the science, how to
formulate questions and hypotheses, how to design experiments that isolate
variables, how to collect and record data, how to interpret data and make
correlations, how to draw conclusions, and how to present the results of these
activities in a research paper. It
involves laboratory study, which is important for understanding how science is
done, how experiments are carried out, and generally how scientists manipulate
the world.
Rationale: This learning develops
the ability to reason logically, and to observe and manipulate the physical
world.
Goal 3. Students will
learn about the discipline’s contribution to general knowledge.
Students will learn that
the Basic Sciences are connected and interdependent, how the Basic Sciences relate
to other academic disciplines and to the non-academic world, and the impact of
basic science on our culture and on other cultures.
Rationale: Basic Science
never stands apart from the social and cultural context in which it is
practiced. It both conditions and is
conditioned by society and culture. It
is not the only path to knowledge, but is the one that deals specifically with
questions about the physical structure and function of the world. Understanding
the Basic Sciences is necessary to understanding the interplay of Basic
Science, politics and social policy as well as the crucial interplay among
Basic Science and technology, the social order and political decisions.
Core disciplines in the Basic Social Sciences represented at
Courses earning Basic Social Science credit must address the
following goals:
Goal 1. Students will
learn the subject matter of at least one discipline in the Basic Social
Sciences.
Rationale: Scholarly study
in the social sciences promotes the intellectual abilities essential for an
understanding of the interrelationships of individuals, group and culture. It
provides for a practical understanding of why the field exists, what its
driving issues are, and how scholars in the field pursue those issues.
Goal 2. Students will
learn the research methodology, principles and concepts required to understand
and conduct undergraduate-level research in a Basic Social Science.
Students will learn how
identify a problem in the discipline, how to formulate questions and
hypotheses, understand the variety of research designs to collect data, how to
interpret data and make inferences from data, how to draw conclusions, and how
to present the results of these activities in a research paper.
Rationale: Such learning
develops the ability to observe social phenomena, think and reason in a
consistent fashion, and understand how to differentiate between scientific
(broadly defined) and pseudoscientific understandings of individual, group and
cultural processes. It is essential to
the ability to compare methods of inquiry in one field to those in another and
to recognize strengths of the methods used in the social sciences for
understanding social phenomena.
Goal 3. Students will
learn about the discipline’s contribution to general knowledge.
Rationale: In order to
develop a unified, comprehensive world-view and to understand and be able to contribute
to interdisciplinary scholarship, students must understand the contribution to
general knowledge of at least one discipline in the social sciences, how
disciplines in the basic social sciences relate to one another, to other
disciplines, and to the non-academic world and must understand specific
examples of the impact of this knowledge on their own and on other cultures.
Foundations Curriculum Goals for the Health Promotion and Physical
Activity Disciplines
The health promotion
and physical activity disciplines enable students to develop the knowledge and
skills required for the physically fit and healthy functioning human body.
These closely related disciplines create and critically examine scholarship
addressing health and physical activity. Scholarly study in the health
promotion and physical activity disciplines promotes the understanding and
intellectual abilities essential to making informed decisions about how to lead
a healthy, physically active and fit life. Proficiency in engaging in
life-enhancing group and individual physical activity is essential to living a
healthy, high-quality life. Scholarship in these areas address behaviors and
develop skills that have a positive impact on overall human wellbeing.
Goal 1. Students will develop
an understanding of the physical, psychological, and socio-cultural factors and
human behaviors that influence human health and affect the major health
problems in our society.
Rationale: The
physical, psychological, and socio-cultural dimensions of health are
interrelated. To make informed decisions
about how to lead healthy, productive lives, students must have an
understanding of these dimensions of health, and recognize behaviors and develop
skills that will have a positive impact on their well-being and the health of
society.
Goal 2. Students
will develop an understanding of the role of knowledge and personal
responsibility in fostering a commitment to human health.
Rationale:
Acquiring health knowledge and skills enables students to make informed
personal health decisions and thereby positively impact the health of the
individual and society.
Goal 3. Students
will develop an understanding of the components of health-related physical
activity and their relationship to human health.
Rationale:
Knowledge of the components of health-related physical activities is essential
to changing physical activity habits toward more healthful behaviors. The Surgeon General has recognized the
centrality of physical activity to maintaining human health. As such, increasing the physical activity of
our citizens is a priority National objective.
Goal 4. Students
will develop or enhance physical fitness and lifelong sport skills.
Rationale:
Individuals who possess physical activity or sport skills are more likely to
remain physically active in later life, and thereby will continue to experience
the healthful benefits of an active lifestyle.
Foundations Curriculum
Goals for Writing and Mathematics Competencies
Writing
Competence
The writing
competence curriculum focuses on student aptitudes rather than on a particular
content because composing is a recursive process that depends not on specific
knowledge but on fluent, flexible, creative thinking. To concentrate on the essentials of
composing, the program explicitly treats stages of process such as discovery,
drafting, etc. It concentrates on exposition and argument as the modes most
useful for the student and the citizen.
It teaches students how to use library resources so that students may
expand their access to knowledge essential for informed discourse. The program emphasizes critical thinking as
well as traditional rhetorical skills because only insight can generate
substance for the writer’s craft to shape.
Courses
earning writing credit must address the following goals:
Goal 1. Students will learn to use various
heuristic and planning tactics in preparing a written composition. In drafting and revising, they will learn to
choose words carefully, exploit English syntax fully, and ensure
coherence. They will learn to edit for
standard written English usage, punctuation, and spelling. They will also become competent in using the
computer to perform those processes.
Rationale: The ability to engage in the writing
process—discovering subjects, exploring subjects; and drafting, revising, and
editing manuscripts—is an aptitude fundamental to academic achievement and to a
full civic life.
Goal
2. Students will improve their
reading skills in order to understand literally, to infer, to recognize
ideological bias, and to evaluate. They
will deepen their sensitivities to connections and differences among texts. They will increase their capacities for
reflecting on experience and analyzing and solving problems creatively.
Rationale: The ability to engage in reading and thinking
critically is an aptitude fundamental to academic achievement and to a full
civic life.
Goal
3. Students will learn the aims and
means of the expositor and the advocate and will learn to write in order to
inform and to persuade.
Rationale: The ability to write clear and expository and
argumentative compositions is an aptitude fundamental to academic achievement
and to a full civic life.
Goal 4. Students
will learn to formulate research questions, identify and search both print and
electronic bibliographic indexes, locate resources in the library, and read
widely for selected kinds of information.
They will learn to incorporate information gained from the library and
other sources into their compositions, citing documents appropriately.
Rationale: The ability to conduct bibliographic research
and to use library resources effectively in written compositions is an aptitude
fundamental to academic achievement and to a full civic life.
Mathematics Competence
The
mathematics competence curriculum provides students with basic skills in
mathematics or logic.
Courses
earning mathematics credit must address the following goals:
Goal 1. Students
will learn Mathematics that is appropriate to their background and educational
needs.
Rationale:
Mathematics is an important intellectual activity that trains students in logic
and deductive reasoning, which are important in analyzing and solving problems in
all disciplines.
Goal 2: Students
will learn to use mathematical or logical techniques and procedures in
problem-solving activities.
Rationale:
Developing students’ problem-solving skills in the area of mathematics most
appropriate to their major course of study will empower students with knowledge
to succeed in their technological and quantitative studies.
Goal
3. Students will develop the ability
to recognize and use the words and symbols of mathematics or formal logic.
Rationale: This
is a technological and scientific age, and mathematics is the language of
technology and science. It is very
important for students to be comfortable with dealing with issues in their
discipline, and in everyday life, which are most commonly expressed in
mathematical terms.
This replaces the 1994
Restatement of General Education Goals and Objectives available at http://www.ecu.edu/data-fsonline/committee/as/1994gegoals.htm.