The Essential Learning Outcomes
General Education Review Committee
Draft as of January 23, 2009
Knowledge and Appreciation of Human Cultures and the Physical and Natural World:
- Through study in the sciences, engineering, and mathematics; social sciences; humanities; histories; languages; and the arts
- Through exploration of theories of knowledge across disciplines
Intellectual and Practical Skills, including:
- Inquiry and analysis
- Critical and creative thinking
- Written and oral communication
- Quantitative literacy
- Information literacy
- Aesthetic literacy
- Teamwork and collaborative problem solving
Personal and Social Responsibility, including:
- Civic knowledge, engagement, and stewardship—local and global
- Intercultural knowledge and competence
- Ethical and moral reasoning and action
- Financial literacy
- Commitment to and skills for lifelong learning
Integrative and Applied Learning, including:
- Interdisciplinary inquiry
- Synthesis and advanced accomplishment across general and specialized studies
In general, methods of instruction aimed at these outcomes and objectives should be: focused on engagement with big questions, both contemporary and enduring; practiced extensively across the curriculum, through progressively more challenging problems, projects, and performance standards; and anchored through active involvement with diverse communities and real-world challenges.
NOTE: This listing of learning outcomes for general education follows the format presented in George D. Kuh, High-Impact Educational Practices, published as part of the LEAP Initiative of the Association of American Colleges and Universities (Washington D.C., 2008). It also derives from reflection and discussion by the General Education Review Committee at Southern Methodist University in fall 2008. The Committee consulted numerous campus constituencies as well as general education curricula at several dozen other universities. The Committee considers it quite affirmative that the formulation of desired knowledge, skills, and dispositions arrived at by the Committee closely resembles the outcomes articulated by Kuh and the LEAP initiative of the AACU. Kuh’s listing is the product of a “multiyear dialogue with hundreds of colleges and universities” (p. 4).
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