The General Education Model and Goals

 

General education requirements (GER) are those courses or groupings of courses that each student, regardless of major or degree, must take to graduate. The purposes of GER include the acquisition and development of skills and knowledge deemed essential to living as productive and responsible citizens. The GER at YSU are founded in thirteen goals adopted by the YSU Academic Senate in May 1994, enumerated in the undergraduate bulletin, available online at http://www.ysu.edu/catalog/catalog.shtml.

The purpose of the general education requirements is to foster:

• Qualities such as curiosity, intellectual honesty, fairness, civility, and an openness to ideas and the sharing of knowledge

• Thinking that is critical, independent, and objective

• Integration of knowledge across disciplines

• The ability to function effectively in a technological society

• Understanding of the importance of studying the past and present

• Appreciation of literature and the arts as expressions of human culture

• Recognition of the importance of acting as informed, responsible, democratically-minded citizens and members of the global community

• And an attitude that learning is a personal and a collaborative process exercised over a lifetime.

Learning Outcomes

Students will demonstrate the ability to:

1. Write and speak effectively.
2. Acquire, process and present quantitative and qualitative information using the most appropriate technologies.
3. Reason critically, to distinguish among forms of argumentation, and to derive justified conclusions. Students will demonstrate an understanding of:
4. The importance of ethical reflection and moral reasoning.
5. The use mathematics for problem-solving and decision-making.
6. The scientific method.
7. The interrelationships among science, technology, and society
8. Artistic expression in multiple forms and contexts.
9. The relationships between physical, mental, and emotional well-being and the quality of life of the individual, the family, and the community.
10. The development of cultures and organizations of human societies throughout the world and their changing interrelationships with Western Society.
11. The organization of and theories behind legal, governmental, and social systems as well as economic markets.
12. Diversity in America in all of its forms.
13. The natural environment and the processes that shape it.

All incoming students after the fall of 2000 will follow the new requirements.

An upper-division general education course must have a general-education lower-division prerequisite

View the model for both types of degrees by clicking the links in the navigation bar at the top of the page.

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