Criteria for Evaluating Area 1B Critical Thinking GE Course Proposals
In general, course proposals for courses submitted as satisfying specific general education requirements must provide:
- Clear evidence that student learning outcomes specific to the area or GE Requirement are being taught and assessed
- Course content in outline that demonstrates adequate time devoted to teaching and assessing the outcomes
- Evidence of specific training, currency and/or experience in the basic intellectual and pedagogic competencies in the specific or designated subject area
GE Governing Principles
Proposal clearly demonstrates that the course
- Requires the practice and evaluation of writing in English, including, where appropriate, library assignments
- Provides ample opportunity for students to be active learners in their educational experience
- Does not require a non-General Education prerequisite
If the response to any of the GE governing principles above is No, the course will be returned unapproved.
Area or GE Requirement Student Learning Outcomes
Proposal clearly demonstrates that student learning outcomes are being taught and assessed sufficiently
- Demonstrate the ability to distinguish between knowledge and belief, facts and values, and identify faulty reasoning through an understanding of the formal and informal fallacies of language and thought, through writing, reading, and research
- Analyze and evaluate a range of evidence used to support various types of claims
- Recognize, respond to and use common techniques of persuasion
- Understand the fundamentals of logic and critical thinking and the relationship of logic to language
- Use inductive and deductive reasoning to reach well-supported conclusions
- Identify the assumptions, biases, and prejudices upon which particular conclusions rely and understand how they may erode sound arguments
- Refine fundamental rhetorical strategies used to produce university-level writing, especially
- modify content and form according to the rhetorical situation, purpose, and audience
- incorporate textual evidence through quotation, summary, and paraphrase into their essays and appropriately cite their sources
- evaluate the relevance, validity, and authority of information, and ethically use and cite that information in their own writing
- Develop cogent arguments for views on theoretical and practical matters
- Exhibit knowledge of genre conventions ranging from structure and paragraphing to voice, tone and style
- Control such surface features as syntax, grammar, punctuation, and spelling
Implementation and Assessment
Proposal or supplemental materials provide evidence of
- Specific training, currency and/or experience in the basic intellectual and pedagogic competencies in the specific or designated subject area