Learning Outcomes in General Education

Geneseo's faculty have enumerated the following learning outcomes for the different areas of the General Education Curriculum. Those interested in the relationship between these outcomes and the SUNY Board of Trustees' outcomes in General Education should consult the Gen Ed Assessment page on this site.

The Board of Trustees' ten knowledge and two competency outcomes may be downloaded in pdf format, viewable with Adobe's Acrobat Reader.

Natural Science

Students will demonstrate:

• the ability to analyze data;
• understanding of the methods scientists use to explore natural phenomena, including observation, hypothesis development, measurement and data collection, experimentation, evaluation of evidence, and employment of mathematical analysis;
• the ability to apply scientific data, concepts, and models in two of the natural sciences;

Social Science

Students will demonstrate:

• understanding of social scientific methods of hypothesis development;
• understanding of social scientific methods of document analysis, observation, or experiment;
• understanding of social scientific methods of measurement and data collection;
• understanding of social scientific methods of statistical or interpretive analysis;
• knowledge of some major social science concepts;
• knowledge of some major social science models;
• knowledge of some major social science concerns;
• knowledge of some social issues of concern to social scientists;
• knowledge of some political issues of concern to social scientists;
• knowledge of some economic issues of concern to social scientists;
• knowledge of some moral issues of concern to social scientists.

Fine Arts

• Students will demonstrate the ability to interpret works of art by analyzing appropriate social, cultural, psychological, and environmental aspects of the works;
• Students will demonstrate the ability to analyze and interpret works of art using the language of art criticism relevant to the art form under study;
• Students in courses that treat the history of an art form will understand the cultural dimensions and contributions of the arts;
• Students in courses that treat the history of an art form will appreciate the personal and cultural forces that shape the arts and how the arts in turn shape the diverse cultures of past and present society;
• Students in studio courses will demonstrate an understanding of the principles and elements used in the art form under study, and demonstrate sensitivity to, and creativity with, the medium.

Western Humanities

Students will:

• demonstrate knowledge of the contributions of significant Western thinkers to ongoing intellectual debate about moral, social, and political alternatives;
• demonstrate knowledge of the major trends and movements that have shaped and responded to this debate: e.g., monotheism, humanism, etc.
• demonstrate the ability to think critically about moral, social, and political arguments in the Western intellectual tradition, evaluating the logic of these arguments and relating them to the historical and cultural context;
• consider moral, social, and political issues from an interdisciplinary perspective.

Critical Writing and Reading (Intd 105)

Students will:

• read significant texts carefully and critically, recognizing and responding to argumenative positions;
• write sustained, coherent, and persuasive arguments on significant issues that arise from the content at hand;
• write clearly, following conventions of Standard English.

Numeric/Symbolic Reasoning

Students will demonstrate:

• the ability to convert a problem into a setting using symbolic notation;
• the ability to connect and find relationships among symbolic quantities;
• the ability to construct an appropriate symbolic framework;
• the ability to carry out algorithmic and logical procedures to resolution;
• the ability to draw valid conclusions from numeric/symbolic evidence.

Non-Western Traditions

Students will demonstrate:

• an understanding of knowledge held outside the Western tradition;
• an understanding of history, ideas, and critical issues pertaining to Non-western societies;
• an understanding of significant social and economic issues pertaining to Non-western societies;
• an understanding of the symbolic world coded by and manifest in Non-western societies;
• an understanding of traditional and/or contemporary cultures of Latin America, Africa, and/or Asia and the relationship of these to the modern world system;
• an ability to think globally.

U.S. Histories

Students will demonstrate:

• knowledge of a basic narrative of American history: political, economic, social, and cultural, including knowledge of unity and diversity in American society;
• knowledge of common institutions in American society and how they have affected different groups;
• an understanding of America's evolving relationship with the rest of the world;
• an understanding of the distinct, overlapping, and shared histories of people based on varied identities and experiences, especially those connected to at least two of the following: race, ethnicity, gender, class, sexual orientation, religion, and disability;
• an understanding of the causes and effects of inequalities, past and present, rooted in American social, economic, legal, and political structures, and of efforts to eradicate those structural inequalities.

Foreign Language

Students will demonstrate:

• basic proficiency in the understanding and use of a foreign language;
• knowledge of the distinctive features of culture(s) associated with the language they are studying.