General Education Program Assessment

A student shall demonstrate reasonable understanding of the history, principles, form of government, and economic system of the United States. Students who fulfill the GE requirement of American Institutions will be able to:

1. Analyze, contextualize, and use primary source documents to understand the history, principles, form of government, and economic system of the United States
2. Explain, interpret, and use historically, politically, and economically relevant information;
3. Communicate effectively about the history, principles, form of government, and economic system of the United States;
4. Engage a diversity of viewpoints in a constructive manner that contributes to a dialogue about the history, principles, form of government, and economic system of the United States;
5. Use historical, political, and economic methods to come to an understanding of the United States that integrates those viewpoints.

A student shall demonstrate reasonable understanding of and interpret numerical information. Students who fulfill the GE requirement of Quantitative Literacy will be able to:

1. Explain information presented in mathematical forms (e.g., equations, graphs, diagrams, and tables);
2. Convert relevant information into various mathematical forms (e.g., equations, graphs, diagrams, and tables);
3. Demonstrate the ability to successfully complete basic calculations to solve problems;
4. Demonstrate the ability to problem solve using quantitative literacy across multiple disciplines. Make judgments and draw appropriate conclusions based on quantitative analysis of data, recognizing the limits of this analysis;
5. Express quantitative evidence in support of the argument or purpose of the work (in terms of what evidence is used and how it is formatted, presented, and contextualized);

Writing skills are foundational for success in higher education, crucial for workforce preparation, and a basis for life as an educated person. Classes that meet E1 and E2 GE requirements should focus on developing effective and efficient writing processes and will not privilege course content over composition instruction and practice. Instructors should provide and arrange for detailed feedback on higher-order concerns on multiple drafts of multiple paper assignments. Students should write 15-20 pages of revised prose for each class (including an 8-12 page research paper for E2). Additionally, they instructors should help students address syntax, usage, and mechanical issues in the context of student writing. Class sizes should be kept low (20-25 students) to ensure that instructors can devote enough attention to student work. Finally, E1 and E2 need to be fulfilled by two courses taken sequentially.

Outcomes: General education courses in this area enable students to:

Course 1 (E1)

• Assess rhetorical situations and plan written responses that account for audience, purpose, context, and genre.
• Organize effective arguments that engage readers, provide needed background, present compelling evidence, and respond to opposing viewpoints.
• Write using an effective process that includes planning, drafting, peer workshopping, and revision. This process should be explicit in class activities and assignment design; revision should improve the overall quality of the document.
• Carefully and critically read written arguments, identifying the use of rhetorical techniques by the author.

Course 2 (E2)

• Assess rhetorical situations and plan written responses that account for audience, purpose, context, and genre.
• Organize effective arguments that engage readers, provide needed background, present compelling evidence, and respond to opposing viewpoints.
• Write using an effective process that includes planning, drafting, peer workshopping, and revision. This process should be explicit in class activities and assignment design; revision should improve the overall quality of the document.
• Carefully and critically read written arguments, identifying the use of rhetorical techniques by the author.
• Think critically about arguments by exploring multiple perspectives.
• Find and evaluate credible primary and secondary research and utilize that research appropriately to support an argument/position. In doing so, students will include precise documentation, avoid plagiarism, and integrate source material smoothly.

Courses to be designated as a Fine Arts (FA) General Education experience are expected to provide students with an understanding of the basic conceptual frameworks, historical and cultural contexts of artistic works, and be instilled with a sensibility of the creative process. Assessment will occur through the student’s ability to critically evaluate creative works using the language and methodology appropriate to the disciplines of dance, music, theater, and/or the visual arts.

Outcomes: General education courses in this area allow students to be able to:

• Students who complete a course designated to fulfill the Fine Arts (FA) General Education requirement at Snow College should be able to:
• Articulate the dynamics of the creative process including the development of a lifetime sensibility as it applies to the disciplines of dance, music, theater, or visual arts.
• Provide an informed synopsis of the performing and/or visual arts in the contexts of culture and history through reading and interpreting pertinent information using a variety of traditional and electronic media.
• Demonstrate an understanding of the conceptual and elemental principles fundamental to the creation of various forms of artistic expression.
• Exhibit an ability to critically analyze artistic works using appropriate techniques, vocabulary, and methodologies.

The Humanities are a group of academic disciplines that study the many ways by which humans have attempted to understand themselves and their world. At Snow College, the Humanities focus on cultural traditions that are expressed largely through text or which have a strong textual component: languages, literature, and philosophy. The methods by which the Humanities study culture are at once analytical and interpretive, objective and subjective, historical and aesthetic.

Outcomes: General education courses in this area enable students to:

• Ask and explore a variety of philosophical and theoretical questions about human thought and experience.
• Understand how knowledge is created through the study of language systems, literature, and/or philosophy.
• Understand cultural traditions within an historical context and make connections with the present.
• Critically read and respond to primary texts (original, uninterpreted) from a Humanities’ perspective.
• Write effectively within the Humanities discipline to analyze and form critical and aesthetic judgments.

For the natural sciences, science is the systematic inquiry into natural phenomena organizing and condensing those observations into testable models and hypotheses, theories or laws. The success and credibility of science is anchored in the willingness of scientists to:

1. expose their ideas and results to independent testing and replication by other scientists which requires the complete and open exchange of data, procedures, and materials;
2. abandon or modify accepted conclusions when confronted with more complete or reliable experimental evidence. Adherence to these principles provides a mechanism for self-correction that is the foundation of the credibility of science (Adapted from a statement by the Panel on Public Affairs of the American Physical Society which was endorsed by the Executive Board of the American Associations of Physics Teachers in 1999).

Broad categories of the Natural Science disciplines include Physics, Astronomy, Chemistry, Geology, Meteorology, and Biology. At Snow College, the first five are considered physical sciences and biology the life science. While properties of matter and energy in the physical sciences are common to life science, the emergent properties resulting from the complexities of life require additional study to amplify and clarify the scientific mechanisms of nature.

Outcomes: A student who has earned Snow College General Education Life Science Learning Outcomes will be able to:

• Demonstrate understanding of science as a way of knowing about the natural world.
• Demonstrate basic understanding of how organisms live, grow, respond to their environment, and reproduce.
• Discuss the organization and flow of matter and energy through biological systems.
• Explain from evidence patterns of inheritance, structural unity, adaptation, and diversity of life on Earth.
• Describe how the Life Sciences have shaped and been shaped by historical, ethical, and social contexts.

Outcomes: A student who has earned Snow College General Education Physical Science Learning Outcomes will be able to:

• Demonstrate understanding of science as a way of knowing about the physical world;
• Demonstrate understanding of forces in the physical world;
• Discuss the flow of matter and energy through systems (in large and small scales);
• Develop evidence-based arguments regarding the effect of human activity on the Earth;
• Describe how the Physical Sciences have been shaped by historical, ethical, and social contexts.

Students will develop understanding of the world around them through study of content and the processes used by social and behavioral scientists to discover, describe, explain, and/or predict human behavior and social systems. Students must understand the diversities and complexities of the cultural and social world, past and present, from a social scientist’s perspective, and methodologies, and come to an informed sense of self and others.

Outcomes: A student who earns General Education in the Social and Behavioral Sciences will be able to:

• Explain social institutions, structures, and processes across a broad range of historical periods and cultures
from a social and behavioral science perspective.
• Develop and communicate hypothetical explanations for individual human behavior within the large-scale historical or social context.
• Draw on the social and behavioral sciences to evaluate contemporary problems using social science research methodology.
• Describe and analytically compare social, political, economic, cultural, geographical, and historical settings and processes other than one’s own.
• Explain and use the social-scientific method to test research questions and draw conclusions.
• Write effectively within the social science discipline, using correct disciplinary guidelines, to analyze, interpret, and communicate about social science phenomena.