History

via Jean Stonehouse, Chairperson, October 22, 2002

Before addressing the questions the the Committee has put to us, we believe that it is essential that the College Community should understand that we believe the college's ability to deliver any effective Program of General Education including the one in effect now and any that the Committee might draft in the future, however elegant, is contingent on capping the GER enrollment at 30 students per section. We would argue further that in some cases fewer than 30 students may be necessary for effective learning.

A Program of General Education Should Enable Students to:*

1. Discover their intellectual powers and the satisfactions of exercising them;
2. Appreciate their own ability to complete a rigorous curriculum successfully and gain confidence in their own ability as thinkers;
3. Develop the skills and habits that will make them life-long learners and give them the flexibility to change professional direction when necessary or appropriate.
4. Become critical readers of complex texts;
5. Develop habits of informed analysis and critical thinking skills;
6. Attain fluency in written and oral expression; specifically they should be able to: ..
7. Develop and use effective oral and written arguments
   • Write clear thesis statements
   • Craft coherent paragraphs
     
   • Use prose that is clear, correct, concise, and varied
     
   • Use standard academic English and spelling
     
   • Participate productively in class discussion and speak confidently in professional settings
     
     

   *We are indebted to the, "Report of Curricular Review Committee," Trinity College, September 2002; and to statements regarding "Outcomes" from George Mason; Northeastern Illinois and Central Washington Universities. We have borrowed from these documents, reshaped them to suit BSC, and added our own comments
   

The Study of History at the College Level is One of the Most Effective Ways to Assist All Students to:

1. Articulate, understand and practice methods of historical inquiry (including techniques of research and investigation, analysis, and problem-solving), specifically by:
   
   • Forming questions to guide productive research
   • Becoming aware of all available evidence
   • Evaluating evidence
   • Identifying multiple perspectives
   • Analyzing arguments and evidence that reflect others' points of view
   • Using numerical data, charts, and graphs in developing and explaining arguments
   • Taking careful notes
   • Documenting their arguments appropriately
2. Write clear historical arguments
3. Practice explication of texts
4. Attain the knowledge necessary to follow the references commonly used in public discourse
5. Understand relationship of the historical and/or cultural traditions of the arts to social, cultural, intellectual, and political history
6. Understand the relationship of the history of science, technology, literature, philosophy, the social sciences, business and the arts to social, intellectual, and political history and apply the techniques of other disciplines to the study of history when appropriate.
7. Cultivate the ability to make informed ethical judgments
8. Acquire knowledge of several cultures, including American, Western, and non-Western traditions;
   
   • Develop a greater self-awareness through an appreciation of previous epochs and other cultures
     
   • Understand previous epochs on their own terms.
     
   • Understand the varieties of human experience over time
   • Understand how the past has shaped the modern world.
9. Study, and gain through experience, useful forms of civic and societal knowledge appropriate for citizenship at the local, national, and international level

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