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General Education Goals and Objectives: Knowledge


In 1988, the FAS and the Board of Trustees approved a set of "General Education Goals and Objectives." Included are five "knowledge" goals and five "skills" goals. For each of the ten goals there are three to six specific learning objectives. With this package of goals and objectives, the following statement was approved:

"Every course offered at Dowling College is expected to make a contribution to the achievement of the College's Goals and Objectives of General Education. These goals and objective are:

Knowledge
  1. Goal: Each graduate shall be knowledgeable with respect to Western culture and the context within which it is developed.
    Objectives: Each graduate should be knowledgeable with respect to:
    1. The earliest beginnings of human culture and the emergence of social structures.
    2. The ancient world, especially Greece and Rome.
    3. The Judeo-Christian tradition, especially as it is reflected in the Bible (the Old and New Testaments).
    4. The achievements of non-Western cultures (with an emphasis on one particular culture, such as the Chinese).
    5. The development of Western Civilization from its origins to the modern era.
    6. The works, the concepts, values and attitudes that best define the modern world and the modern mind.

  2. Goal: Each graduate shall be knowledgeable with respect to the modes of artistic expression.
    Objectives: Each graduate should be able to:
    1. Distinguish and appreciate the unique qualities of each of the arts (literature, visual arts, music, theater and dance).
    2. Understand the role of the arts in human experience.
    3. Distinguish "the good, the true and the beautiful" as these terms are used in the evaluation of art.
    4. Understand and appreciate different artistic styles as embodied in the major works of different culture and periods.
    5. Understand how social and intellectual conditions influence the arts.
    6. Analyze - using the appropriate vocabulary - the structure of a work of art.

  3. Goal: Each graduate shall be knowledgeable with respect to the nature of the universe.
    Objectives: Each graduate should be knowledgeable with respect to:
    1. The major cosmogonies by means of which different cultures have sought to explain the nature of the universe.
    2. The alternative world views postulated by magic, religion, science and philosophy.
    3. The astrophysical history of the universe.
    4. The geological history of the earth.
    5. The biological history of life.
    6. The ecology of the modern world.

  4. Goal: Each graduate shall be knowledgeable with respect to the dynamics of contemporary societies.
    Objectives: Each graduate should be knowledgeable with respect to:
    1. The natural, political and economic geography of the contemporary world.
    2. The world's principal social, political and economic systems including their historical development.
    3. The institutions and processes through which the United States is governed.
    4. The world's major religions together with their cultural context.
    5. The major trends shaping the contemporary world (e.g., nationalism, urbanization, technology).
    6. The major social issues of our time (e.g., race relations, environmental degradation, nuclear war).

  5. Goal: Each graduate shall be knowledgeable with respect to the variety of human experience.
    Objectives: Each graduate should be knowledgeable with respect to:
    1. The paradoxes that characterize human experience: e.g., rationality-irrationality, normality-abnormality, conscious-unconscious, logic-fantasy, individuality-social interest, reason-emotion, being-becoming, objective-psychological reality, etc.
    2. The continuity and discontinuity between homo sapiens and other animal species.
    3. The similarities and differences in human experience as assessed from the perspective of Western and non-Western cultures.
    4. Historical and geographic perspectives for understanding the psychological and sociological dimensions of human experience.
    5. The issues reflecting the human life-cycle: e.g., birth, autonomy, identity, intimacy, work, generativity, aging and death.
    6. The place of value in human experience: religious, mystical, economic, political, social, technological, humanistic, scientific, etc.