DC 1A: ORAL COMMUNICATION

Goal: To develop speakers who can effectively communicate their ideas using appropriate organization, delivery, and supporting information.

Student Competencies: MSUM students will be able to

• Understand and clearly state the purpose and thesis of their speech.

• Analyze particular audiences and select appropriate ethical communication strategies.
• Identify, access, select, evaluate, and cite supporting information for a speech.
• Present a clearly organized set of ideas.
• Use clear and engaging language and delivery.
• Understand critical listening and interpersonal communication techniques.
• Plan, prepare and conduct an effective group presentation.
   

DC 1B: WRITTEN COMMUNICATION

Goal: To develop students who use written language effectively and ethically and who write, read, and think critically.

Student Competencies: MSUM students will be able to

• Use a coherent writing process including invention, organization, drafting, revising, and editing to form an effective final written product.
• Consult effectively and appropriately with others to produce quality written products.
• Read, analyze, evaluate, synthesize, and integrate appropriately and ethically information and ideas from diverse sources and points of view in their writing.
• Locate, use, and cite appropriately primary and secondary source materials from both print and electronic resources.
• Create logical, engaging, effective written products appropriate for specific audiences and purposes.
• Use correct grammar and mechanics in writing.

DC 2: CRITICAL THINKING

Goal: To develop thinkers who are able to unify factual, creative, rational, and value-sensitive modes of thought. Critical thinking will be taught and used throughout the general education curriculum in order to develop students’ awareness of their own thinking and problem-solving procedures. To integrate new skills into their customary ways of thinking, students must be actively engaged in practicing thinking skills and applying them to open-ended problems.

Student Competencies: MSUM students will be able to

• Clearly define a problem and imagine and seek out a variety of possible goals, assumptions, interpretations, or perspectives which can give alternative meanings or solutions to the given situation or problem.

• Gather factual information and apply it to a given problem in a manner that is relevant, clear, comprehensive, ethical and conscious of possible bias in the information selected.
• Identify, construct, and assess arguments; generate and evaluate implications that follow from them.
• Analyze the logical connections among the facts, goals, and implicit assumptions relevant to a problem or claim.
• Recognize and articulate the value assumptions and cultural perspectives which underlie and affect decisions, interpretations, analyses, and evaluations made by ourselves and others.

DC 3: MATHEMATICAL / SYMBOLIC SYSTEMS

Goal: To increase students’ knowledge about mathematical and logical modes of thinking.  This will enable students to appreciate the breadth of applications of mathematics, evaluate arguments, and detect fallacious reasoning. Students will learn how to apply mathematics, logic and statistics in making decisions concerning their lives and careers.

Note: Minnesota’s public higher education systems have agreed that developmental mathematics includes the first three years of a high school mathematics sequence through intermediate algebra.

Student Competencies:  MSUM students will be able to

• Solve real world problems using mathematics/logical systems.
• Express mathematical/logical ideas clearly in writing.
• Organize, display, analyze information, and understand methods of data collection.
• Explain what constitutes a valid mathematical/logical argument (proof).
• Apply a variety of higher-order problem-solving and modeling strategies.
• Exhibit mastery of computational skills and the ability to make reasonable estimates.
   

DC 4: NATURAL SCIENCES

Goal: To improve students’ understanding of natural science principles and of the methods of scientific inquiry. To instill an appreciation of the ongoing production and refinement of knowledge that is intrinsic to the scientific method. By studying the problems that engage scientists, students will comprehend the importance of science in past and current issues that societies confront. Students should be exposed to the contributions of multiple scientific disciplines.

Student Competencies: MSUM students will be able to

• Demonstrate an understanding of the scientific method and of the relationship between hypotheses and theories.

• Recognize and define problems and formulate and test hypotheses using data collected by observation or experiment. One project must develop, in greater depth, students’ laboratory or field experience in the collection of data, its quantitative and graphical analysis, its interpretation, its reporting, and an appreciation of its sources of error and uncertainty.
• Exhibit knowledge of the development and contributions of major scientific theories.
• Demonstrate knowledge of the concepts, principles, problems, and perspectives of one or more specific scientific disciplines.
• Consider societal issues from natural science perspectives, making informed judgments by assessing and evaluating scientific information.
   

DC 5: HISTORY AND THE SOCIAL SCIENCES

Goal: To increase students’ knowledge of the content of history and the social sciences, and to increase their knowledge of how historians and social scientists discover, describe, and explain the behaviors and interactions among individuals, groups, institutions, events and ideas. Such knowledge will better equip students to understand themselves and the roles they play in addressing the issues facing humanity.

Student Competencies: MSUM students will be able to

• Describe social, scientific and/or historical approaches to understanding human behaviors.
• Understand appropriate methods to gather, analyze and interpret data.
• Critically analyze objective information and subjective interpretations.
• Explain the complexity of human interactions and significant social problems from a variety of perspectives.
• Examine social behavior across a range of historical periods and cultures.

DC 6: THE HUMANITIES—THE ARTS, LITERATURE, AND PHILOSOPHY

Goal: To expand students' knowledge of the human condition and human cultures, especially in relation to behavior, ideas, and values expressed in works of human imagination and thought. Through study in disciplines, such as literature, philosophy, and the visual and performing arts, students will learn to place human expression in cultural, intellectual, and historical context.

Student Competencies: MSUM students will be able to

• Demonstrate, in writing and/or discussion, awareness of the scope and variety of works in an area (or areas) of the arts and/or humanities.
• Explain how those works are expressions of individual and human values within historical and social contexts.
• Engage in the creative process or interpretive performance.
• Analyze and/or critically evaluate works of human imagination and thought in discussion and/or writing.
• Articulate an informed personal reaction to works in the arts and/or humanities.
• Present informed aesthetic judgments.

DC 7: HUMAN DIVERSITY

Goal: To develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes central to living in and contributing to a diverse world.

Student Competencies: MSUM students will be able to

• Articulate one’s cultural heritage and how it affects one’s worldview, values, and assumptions, as well as exhibit a willingness to examine one’s personal values, worldview, assumptions, and biases.
• Understand the causes, manifestations, and impacts of prejudicial exclusion, structured inequalities, and systemic oppression.
• Demonstrate knowledge of the experiences and contributions of the many groups that shape societies and cultures, in particular those groups that have been historically excluded and oppressed.
• Cultivate attributes such as flexibility, respect, and self-reflection necessary for adapting to changing and diverse communities and for building authentic relationships with diverse peoples.
• Demonstrate intercultural communication skills (verbal and nonverbal) for interacting with those culturally different from one’s self.
• Appreciate diverse perspectives and alternative approaches to interaction and problem solving and evaluate multiple perspectives and their underlying assumptions.
• Recognize stereotypes and critically assess cultural images.
• Employ skills necessary for working collaboratively in a diverse group toward a common goal.

DC 8: GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE

Goal: To increase students’ understanding and appreciation of the world’s nations and peoples. To increase understanding of the interconnectedness of the economic, social, political, cultural, artistic, and environmental systems at the global, regional, and local levels. To obviate fear generated by the unknown, and to increase the ability to function in a globalized world.

Student Competencies: MSUM students will be able to

• Demonstrate an understanding of our universal human concerns.
• Demonstrate how human security* relates to the global context.
• Explain globalization and how it links and affects the local, regional, and international levels of society as well as the mechanisms and norms of global cooperation.
• Discuss global perspectives and world views by giving attention to the perceptions of peoples of various regions of the world as well as difference stemming from cultures,  arts, ideologies, and institutions.
• Explain the interrelations among environment, technology, and/or social organization in various regions of the world.
•  Demonstrate the critical thinking skills necessary for participation in the global community.
• Demonstrate an understanding of more than one language.

*Examples of Human Security include, but are not limited to: food, shelter, clean water, education, healthcare, human rights.
 

DC 9: ETHICAL AND CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY

Goal: To develop students' awareness of the ethical dimensions of personal and political decisions, and to cultivate their deliberative skills through respectful engagement with others whose views differ. To strengthen understanding of self-government through engagement with local issues and political processes.

Student Competencies: MSUM students will be able to

• Understand core ethical concepts including right, wrong, duty, virtue, vice, care, harm, and respect and use them to articulate their own ethical views.
• Explain the grounds of their ethical and civic commitments and respond constructively to those whose beliefs differ.
• Make responsible personal, professional, and civic decisions and evaluate how these affect other people.
• Understand core concepts of self-government including rights, duties, public and private goods, pluralism, minority rights, and majority rule and apply them to issues that affect the community and their own daily lives.
• Analyze and reflect on the ethical dimensions of legal, social, cultural and/or scientific issues.
• Identify ways to exercise the rights and responsibilities of citizenship.

DC 10: PEOPLE AND THE ENVIRONMENT

Goal: To develop students’ understanding of the concept of sustainability and the challenges we face in responding to environmental variables and resolving environmental problems. Students will examine how societies and the natural environment are intimately related. A thorough understanding of ecosystems and the ways in which different groups interact with their environments is the foundation of an environmentally literate individual.

Student Competencies: MSUM students will be able to:

• Explain the concept of sustainability.

• Identify and evaluate possible pathways to a sustainable future and demonstrate an awareness of the tradeoffs necessary to achieve a sustainable future.

• Identify the structure, function, and processes of ecosystems (ecosystems include environmental systems such as climatic, hydrologic, soils, social, and biological systems).

• Assess and analyze the environmental problems of a technological society using the framework of well-founded physical and biological principles.

• Describe the relationships between environments and socio-cultural groups, and identify how natural resource challenges are being addressed by the social, legal, economic, political, cultural, and religious systems within societies.

• Understand how socio-cultural variables affect the ways in which environments are perceived and managed, and the ways in which people or societies react to environmental challenges.

DC 11: INFORMATION LITERACY

Goal: To foster researchers who have the ability to locate and investigate, organize, critically evaluate, and effectively synthesize information. Information literacy will be interwoven throughout the general education curriculum in order to develop students’ academic integrity regarding their research. (No specific course is listed - satisfied by completing Dragon Core Requirements).

Student competencies:  MSUM students will be able to

• Determine the nature and extent of the information needed.
• Access needed information effectively and efficiently.
• Evaluate information and its sources critically and incorporate selected information into their knowledge base.
• Use information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose.
• Understand the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information.
• Access and use information ethically and legally.

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