ENGLISH LEARNING OUTCOMES

As they proceed through the English degree program, students in all four tracks (creative writing, language arts education and literature) will:

  1. Demonstrate an understanding of the writing process by employing strategies of inquiry, research (with appropriate citation), drafting, peer review, revision and editing in the development of thesis-driven writing projects.
  2. Evaluate and respond to variations in audience, purpose, form and/or genre connected with written, oral, visual and/or digital communication.
  3. Explore interactions among the diverse social and cultural contexts in which we study, teach and/or create texts.
  4. Understand and apply diverse critical and theoretical approaches to the careful examination of texts.
  5. Use discipline-specific technologies and presentation strategies for the public discussion and dissemination of research and writing.

Additionally, students with the creative writing track will:

  1. Demonstrate proficiency in at least one creative genre (poetry, fiction, creative nonfiction, screenwriting and/or playwriting) at a publication or production level.
  2. Employ common techniques, strategies, and processes for peer workshopping and editing of creative work.
  3. Demonstrate an ability to situate one's own creative choices within a relevant aesthetic history and tradition.
  4. Develop a professional understanding of submission, publication and production practices in creative writing.

Additionally, students with the language arts education (LAE) track will:

  1. Situate specific texts/theories/genres within the history and development of English literature.
  2. Contextualize specific language practices within the history and structure of the English language.
  3. Evaluate and employ a variety of instructional methods.
  4. Practice effective teaching techniques for classroom management.
  5. Practice reflective teaching methods.

Additionally, students with the literature track will:

  1. Situate specific texts/theories/genres within the history and development of English literature.
  2. Contextualize specific language practices within the history and structure of the English language.

HISTORY LEARNING OUTCOMES

Students in the history major will:

  1. Demonstrate the skills of a historian by conducting meaningful research using primary and secondary sources, including archival and database sources and other innovative sources, such as material culture, photos, film, television, etc. 
  2. Demonstrate ability to competently craft written history using professional research methods. 
  3. Demonstrate ability to effectively present historical research to an extra-departmental audience.

 

 

PHILOSOPHY, POLITICS AND ECONOMICS

Graduates of the program will have the ability to:

Demonstrate their knowledge of philosophy in the following manner:

  1. Critically Analyze arguments by means of Symbolic logic. (SLO 1a)
  2. Critically Analyze arguments by means of Inductive logic. (SLO 1b)
  3. Recognizing, constructing, and evaluating arguments in one of the following normative subject: Ethics or Political Philosophy or Environmental Ethics. (SLO 1c)
  4. Recognizing, constructing, and evaluating arguments in the subject of Philosophy of Law. (SLO 1d)
  5. Engaging respectfully with competing views in a manner that sustains discourse and communities. (SLO 1e)
  6. Discerning and assessing the value biases involved in social issues. (SLO 1f)

Demonstrate their knowledge of political science in the following manner:

  1. Evaluate the impact of political decisions or policies on societal peace. (SLO 2a)
  2. Describe how power is used to further policy goals, domestic or international. (SLO 2b)
  3. Describe how government structures and institutions expand or restrict political and civic participation. (SLO 2c)

Demonstrate their knowledge of economics in the following manner:

  1. Use models to describe, explain, and predict economic behavior. (SLO 3a)
  2. Evaluate the welfare implications of existing and proposed public policy. (SLO 3b)

Defend their own interdisciplinary views on some topic involving philosophy, politics and economics by clarifying, developing and formulating arguments to support their own interdisciplinary views. (SLO 4)

 

 

SOCIAL STUDIES LEARNING OUTCOMES

Students in the social studies major will:

  1. Demonstrate competency in the content areas of the Social Studies – History, Political Science, Geography, Economics, Psychology, and Sociology.
  2. Demonstrate acquisition of the National Council for the Social Studies 10 Themes for teaching the social studies.
  3. Complete the requirements for entry into the Center for Teacher Education.
  4. Demonstrate successful application of the National Council for the Social Studies 10 Themes for teaching the social studies.
  5. Demonstrate competency in acquiring the skills of the historian. Those include the demonstrated ability to conduct research, and to craft that research into written work that answers significant historical questions.
  6. Demonstrate ability to effectively present historical research to an extra-departmental audience.