General Education Requirements

Knowledge Areas

1. AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS

Goal: To develop students’ understanding of American political institutions, primarily the constitution and the institutions of government. A content-specific knowledge area, courses in this area implement the statutory directive that students will demonstrate a reasonable understanding of the history, principles, form of government and economic system of the United States as part of a degree program.

Suggested Competencies:

• demonstrate an understanding of essential concepts, historical events, and mastery of material regarding American institutions
• read and evaluate primary and secondary source material
• describe and explain the constitution of the United States
• understand the social, political, cultural, economic, and historical settings and processes of the United States.

2. SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE

Goal: To develop students’ understanding of themselves and the world around them through study of content and the processes used by historians and 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, and come to an informed sense of self and others.

Suggested Competencies:

• explain social institutions, structures, and processes across a range of historical periods and cultures
• develop and communicate hypothetical explanations for individual human behavior within the large-scale historical or social context
• draw on history and the social sciences to evaluate contemporary problems
• describe and analytically compare social, political, economic, cultural, and historical settings and processes other than one’s own
• explain the social-scientific method to test research questions and draw conclusions

3. FINE ARTS

Goal: To develop students’ understanding of the ways in which humans have addressed their condition through imaginative work; to deepen their understanding of how that imaginative process is informed and limited by social, cultural, linguistic, and historical circumstances; and to appreciate the world of the creative imagination as a form of knowledge and a link between the arts and society.

Suggested Competencies:

• describe the scope and variety of works in the fine arts (e.g., art, music, theatre arts, and dance)
• identify the aesthetic standards used to make critical judgments in various artistic fields
• develop a plausible understanding of the differences and relationships among multi-cultural, classical, and popular cultures
• articulate a response based upon aesthetic standards to observance of works in the fine arts
• participate in practical applications of creative artistic endeavors

4. HUMANITIES

Goal: To develop students’ understanding of human thought through works of literature, theology and philosophy; to deepen their understanding of how human processes are informed and limited by social, cultural, linguistic and historical circumstances; and to appreciate the ideas of others and in cultures and countries not their own.

Suggested Competencies:

• understand human global and historical contexts of the humanities
• understand themes, cultures, and issues concerning human beings
• integrate moral, ethical and aesthetic consideration across multiple contexts
• use reason and communication to articulate human issues and aesthetic judgments
• recognize another’s humanity in relation to one’s own

5. LIFE AND PHYSICAL SCIENCES

Goal: To develop students’ understanding of the principles and procedures of science and to cultivate their abilities to apply the empirical methods of scientific inquiry. Students should understand how scientific discovery changes theoretical views of the world, informs our imaginations, and shapes human history. Students should also understand that science is shaped by historical and social contexts.

Suggested Competencies:

• explain how to use the scientific method and how to develop and test hypotheses in order to draw defensible conclusions
• evaluate scientific evidence and argument
• describe concepts of the nature, organization and evolution of natural systems
• explain how humans interact with natural systems
• understand the relationships between science and the application of scientific knowledge

Again, courses in each Knowledge Area are intended to address each of the four Skills Areas, and both areas are to be made part of the assessment activities of the course.

*Core course requirements: It is recommended that students complete the English and Quantitative Literacy Requirements
before they have earned 60 credit hours at SUU.

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