Program Learning Outcomes - Liberal Studies

By the end of the program, students graduating will be able to:

Identify what distinguishes the humanities, social sciences and natural sciences as approaches to academic study.
Describe historical factors contributing to emergence of different academic disciplines.
Give an overview of how scholarship and teaching have come to be categorized in these disciplinary categories.
Discuss the meaning and value of a contemporary liberal education.
Evaluate normative justifications in light of social, political, economic, legal, cultural, and moral considerations.
Practice critical self-reflection in the production of creative, synthetic work.
Differentiate methodological commitments across a range of academic disciplines.
Analyze respective strengths and limitations of qualitative and quantitative research methods.
Apply knowledge of strengths and limitations of specific methodologies in planning and completing research projects.
Appraise a range of social problems in a theoretically informed, rationally justified, and practical manner.
Plan, draft and execute written and verbal demonstrations of critical analysis in relation to contemporary social issues.
Plan, compose, and edit narrative, expository, descriptive and argumentative essays.
Connect and distinguish normative positions taken in a discipline under study, identifying thesis, evidence, arguments, and evidence.
Relate to listeners and readers in an articulate, respectful, and effective manner.
Identify and explain a variety of methodologies and their implications for how knowledge is imagined, organized, and communicated.
Recognize and illustrate the contingent nature of political, cultural, economic, and social truth-claims originating from hypotheses in the social sciences and humanities.
Show responsibility, industry and self-motivation across a range of academic activities.
Analyze in an original and independent way.
Engage with others in a conscientious and considerate manner.