Aesthetics
Aesthetics are those disciplines that concern the artistic and creative expression of humankind as a way of knowing, experiencing and viewing the world. Courses may include traditional visual and performing arts as well as film and architecture. Examples may include various courses in music, dance, theater and film, philosophy and/or history of art, and related studies.
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of issues related to the arts in one or more forms: visual arts, theatre, music, dance, film, and others.
- Students will be able to articulate, verbally and in writing, their artistic preferences. They will demonstrate an ability to critique the arts and specific arts events by backing up their positions with concrete artistic evidence and concepts specific to the art form being discussed.
For example, from ideas presented in class meetings and from their own experience of artistic events, students will write a critical reflection paper on a particular form of artistic expression.
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of the historical and social context surrounding the arts.
For example, students will complete a project demonstrating the influence of the French impressionistic movement on music and/or art.
Cultural Traditions
Cultural Traditions includes those disciplines that examine the handing down of culture or inherited patterns of thought and action over time. The examination of culture is to be construed broadly and may include the following components of culture: political, social and economic structures and their impact on life; ideas, values, and beliefs; behavior patterns, social organization and customs; language, literature, and the arts; the effect of physical environment on culture; gender; social class; distribution of power; cultural diversity; and cultural solidarity. Tradition can be examined through information handed down in writing, by word of mouth, or by example. Cultural Traditions is open to content areas either Western, non-Western, or aboriginal, viewed in and over time.
- Students will demonstrate knowledge of culture as historically and socially constructed.
- Students will demonstrate the ability to analyze and interpret culture viewed over time in order to make informed decisions about past and/or current issues and conflicts.
For example, students will create a 20-minute oral presentation describing a solution to a current world problem based upon an analysis of relevant historical, social, institutional, and environmental factors.
- Students will demonstrate an ability to understand how culture is changed/shaped through changes in the environment, contact with other cultures, inventions, etc.
Faith Traditions I
Students will understand the basic terminology necessary to engage the Jewish and Christian Scriptures and relevant theological literature of the Judeo-Christian Worldview.
Exemplar: Students will be able to define basic terminology on a test, and employ the terms in class discussion of scriptural texts.
Students will recognize and understand central animating themes of the Jewish and Christian covenants such as God, creation, sin, salvation, justice, and the community created of God and human beings.
Exemplar: Students will be able to identify each theme within the scriptural readings and examine how these themes create a coherent worldview of beliefs and moral directives.
Students will acquire introductory skills of historical-critical interpretation of scriptural literature.
Exemplar: Students will be able to place a given scriptural thematic insight within the context of the larger Judeo-Christian worldview through a descriptive essay.
Fatih Traditions II
Students will demonstrate an understanding of the Roman Catholic theological tradition that can include, for example, the nature of God, the essential events of Christian salvation history, and the role of the Church as a community of faith.
Exemplar 1: Students will be able to compare and contrast Christian, specifically Catholic, doctrines vis-à-vis contemporary ideologies and worldviews in class discussion and written essays.
Exemplar 2: Students will be able to interpret with sophistication how doctrine is developed within the context of the organic Catholic Christian worldview through a written essay.
Students will analyze intellectual, cultural, spiritual, and personal perspectives in terms of Judeo-Christian, especially Roman Catholic, traditions.
Exemplar 1: Students will be able to compare and contrast the differences between the foundational assumptions of post-modern Western cultures and a classical Roman Catholic perspective in an essay test.
Exemplar 2: Students will be able to critically interpret a biblical passage and write a 2-page reflection paper on the application of the passage to situations in their own lives.
Students will be able to evaluate the historical and theoretical connections between the Catholic Christian faith’s statements of belief and human engagement with the world.
Exemplar: Students will complete a group project requiring discernment on a particular moral problem, evaluating options for action within the range of possibilities presented by an analysis of doctrine.
Human Systems
Human Systems includes those disciplines that examine the human condition through an analysis of interpersonal and intrapersonal relationships as they exist within personal, social, political, and/or economic systems. Courses in these disciplines should provide an overview of classical and contemporary theory and research in human systems along with basic epistemology, concepts, and principles for understanding dynamic human systems.
- Students will be able to describe and interpret interpersonal and/or intrapersonal relationships as they exist within personal or socioeconomic systems.
- Students will be able to identify and analyze classical and contemporary theories of personal or socioeconomic systems.
- Students will be able to interpret and apply results of research, including quantitative and qualitative methods, in personal or socioeconomic systems.
For example, in an American national Government class students will be provided voting data and will interpret and analyze that data using quantitative
Literature
Literature constitutes those literary forms in their varied genres in any language or in translation that inform/enlighten the reader about our human condition. This understanding of the human condition may be pursued via modern or classical literature.
- Students will derive meanings from literary works on the basis of possible contexts (autobiographical/historical/cultural) and/or different critical perspectives (formalist, poststructuralist, etc.).
- Students will describe the key functions of the various elements (e.g., narrative point of view, figurative language, etc.) that make up fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and/or drama.
- Students will read literary works both critically and reflectively through application of the elements mentioned above. This may be achieved by writing, for example, a critical evaluation of a work of fiction in which the narrative point of view is presented and analyzed.
- Students will formulate and defend a thesis statement about a literary work through close textual analysis.
For example, students could explore the representation of colonialism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness.
Moral Traditions
Moral Traditions encompasses those disciplines and learning experiences which employ a philosophical method to examine aspects of a moral understanding of human life. Disciplines that contribute to this learning experience will be those which engage the student in deductive, critical and dialectical inquiry into human commitments and choices with the goal of understanding how we live well in our world. Such inquiry will be in dialogue with the Catholic intellectual and cultural traditions made contemporary for the times in which we live.
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of philosophical questions that arise in various disciplines. These questions emerge from a deductive, critical, and dialectical examination of our world, both past and present.
- Students will demonstrate a knowledge of what constitutes a moral commitment, as well as the various views of human nature that inform moral decision making.
- Students will demonstrate a knowledge of how the philosophical commitments that are examined in the course are in dialogue with Catholic intellectual and cultural traditions.
- Students will demonstrate the ability to pose reflective alternatives to the ethical positions studied.
For example, students will be able to write or present orally a thoughtful analysis of the pros and cons of capital punish
Natural Scientific Systems
Natural Scientific Systems includes those disciplines that apply the scientific method to the natural world. The method includes observations of phenomena in the physical or biological realm, formulation and testing of hypotheses, and using the results of experimental or theoretical work to develop theories, create models, or postulate predictions of natural behavior. The goal of these studies is to improve our understanding of the workings of the natural world. Examples include courses that advance knowledge in the areas of physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, and earth sciences.
- Students will demonstrate an understanding of science as a process by describing those characteristics which distinguish science from other human endeavors.
- Students will use the scientific process to solve problems. This may include generating hypotheses, designing meaningful experiments, controlling variables, gathering relevant data, interpreting results and drawing conclusions.
- Students will be able to explain and apply the fundamental principles of biology, chemistry, or physics. For example, students will be able to balance a simple chemicalreaction and explain how the balanced equation is a consequence of the law of conservation of matter and Dalton's atomic theory.
- Students will demonstrate an ability to critically interpret the scientific work of others. This includes the ability to read and interpret data, understand graphic representations, interpret basic mathematical and statistical arguments, detect invalid arguments and know when and how to access authoritative information from reliable resources.
For example, students will be able to refute unsubstantiated claims of the performance of a household cleaning agent by designing and carrying out a controlled experiment testing the cleaning performance. The students will report the results of their experiments in a concise, coherent letter to the president of a (fictitious) consumer advocacy group.
It is our understanding that courses coded in this area include a significant lab component.
Quantitative Systems
Quantitative Systems refers to those disciplines that apply quantitative methodology to solve complex problems from a variety of fields. Courses in this area provide students with opportunities to analyze, organize, and synthesize quantitative/abstract models, and to present findings verbally, numerically, graphically, and symbolically.
- Students in a college-level course* will interpret and explain relationships among quantities by verbal, numeric, graphic, and symbolic means. The study of these relationships will be a central theme of the course.
For example, a chemistry application could have students compare the rates of a chemical reaction measured at several temperatures to discover a functional relationship between reaction rate and absolute temperature.
- Students will analyze problem situations and translate them into quantitative descriptors. Students will use these descriptors to develop solutions.
For example, a business application could have students calculating an optimal solution to a word problem using an optimization function subject to multiple constraints.
- Students will use quantitative techniques to solve problems from more than one discipline.
For example, a political science application could have students complete the necessary research, computations, and analysis for the establishment of one new stoplight in a local community using empirical probability as a basis for the decision. Students could then present the results of their study orally in a mock city council meeting.
* For example, M100 would not satisfy this requirement.
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