General Education Program
Educational Purpose
The overarching
educational purpose of the General Education program is to provide students
with opportunities to acquire and reinforce key intellectual competencies in:
- Writing effectively;
- Thinking critically;
- Reasoning and analyzing
quantitatively; and
- Understanding and using
the scientific method.
Students also have the
opportunity to participate in experiential and integrative learning as part of
their General Education coursework, including Transformational Learning
Opportunities (TLOs), Community-Based Learning, Study Abroad experiences, or
internships.
These competencies
involve a complex set of skills that prepare students for specialized study in
the major and the still more specialized study required at the graduate level.
They are also the backbone of lifelong learning. What is more, as both
educators and business leaders alike emphasize, these competencies are essential
preparation for success in a world that relies on the ability to communicate
expertly combined with highly developed skills in analyzing complex problems,
scrutinizing their implications, and arriving at smart solutions.
Competencies Developed through the UNF General Education Curriculum
General Education
courses provide opportunities for students to develop the competencies central
to our curriculum. Students take many paths through the UNF General Education
Program, depending on their interests and academic goals. Regardless of the
specific paths students take, they all have multiple opportunities to develop
the skills central to the curriculum. These skills are broadly transferrable,
and both faculty and students in the General Education Program are encouraged
to consider how General Education competencies can be used in diverse academic,
professional, and civic contexts.
- Writing Effectively: Students completing the UNF General Education
Program will be able to produce writing that clearly addresses audiences and
purposes; identify and use relevant and reliable source materials; and compose
documents that adhere to generally accepted standards of English usage and
stylistic standards of discipline-specific writing tasks.
- Thinking Critically: While Critical thinking is integral to all UNF
General Education courses, we give these skills particular emphasis in courses
in Humanities, Social Sciences, and Diversity and Difference.
- Through Humanities and Social
Sciences courses, students learn to explain and apply discipline-specific
concepts; examine behavioral, social, and cultural issues from various
points of view; analyze, evaluate, and appreciate cultural artifacts
(such as texts, music, artworks, media productions, architecture); investigate
the role of technology in shaping culture; examine different cultural
traditions, institutions, and political and economic systems; use
different qualitative methods of inquiry, and different kinds of
argumentation and evidence; and reflect critically upon the human
condition and experience.
- Through courses in Diversity
and Difference, students learn to critically
reflect on their own social positions or cultural backgrounds; investigate
systems that produce social inequality or cultural difference; articulate
the perspectives of others; and apply knowledge of diversity and
difference to issues outside the classroom.
- Analyzing and Reasoning Quantitatively and/or
Using the Scientific Method: Students will be able to determine appropriate mathematical and
computational models and methods in problem solving; understand mathematical,
statistical, and computational concepts; apply mathematical and computational
models and methods in problem solving; critically examine and evaluate scientific
observation, hypothesis, and model construction; understand fundamental
concepts, principles, and processes about the natural world; and use the scientific
method to explain the natural world.
- Students who pursue an experiential or integrative learning opportunity will reflect critically on the transformative effects of a Community-Based
Learning, Study Abroad, internship, or other such experience, considering how
the experience led them to change their beliefs, attitudes, understanding, or
behavior in some significant way. They should demonstrate enhanced critical
thinking skills as they consider and communicate how different types of
knowledge relate to one another.
Assessment of Student Learning
The General Education
program seeks to give students direct feedback about the extent to which they
have developed the ability to write well, think critically, analyze and reason
quantitatively, use the scientific method, and apply their knowledge in real
world situations. To this end, faculty in the General Education Program aim to
provide students with opportunities to learn how to reflect critically on their
own work. They also assess student performance on key learning outcomes to
learn where students succeed and struggle, and why. This allows us to
continually improve our General Education curriculum.
Requirements
Current General Education Program Requirements
Previous General Education Program Requirements: 2019-2020 and Earlier
