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Date: Tue, 03 Dec 1996 17:21:57 -0400
From: johnsondc@cofc.edu (Diane C. Johnson)
Subject: Group 5 Final Report
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After three meetings with various members of Group 5 participating enthusiastically at various meetings, I will try to summarize the discussions, using Martin Jones' much-appreciated notes.

Our extremely succinct answer to the nature and characteristics of an educated person:
In our discussions, we assumed that this person would necessarily be knowledgeable, motivated to learn, globally and ecologically aware, open-minded, concerned, questioning, well-read, numerate, and possess strong communication skills.

The next two meetings were more focused on the list of goals and objectives to be reviewed and refined.

Objectives #1 through #3 addressing the issue of building skills (reading, writing, and oral communication; critical thinking, problem solving; information retrieval) are essentially satisfactory.
1. To develop reading, writing and oral communication skills.
2. To develop critical thingking and problem solving skills and to provide training in the methods of scholarly and scientific research.
3. To develop, through a strong core curriculum, basic knowledge in the humanities, arts, mathematics, and the sciences.

Objective #4 (commitment to intellectual curiosity and lifelong learning) we felt may be best obtained during the pursuit of the Major Requirements, rather than in the Gen Ed requirements.

Since the first three are "skill builders" and useful for the work in the major and beyond, then #5 and #6 are goals to be achieved in eduational requirements "outside the major" (involving "global awareness" and "appreciation of cultural diversity.")
So...assuming the above skills are achieved at the early stages of the student's education, perhaps the following are goals for the later stages, to be taken along side and interrelated with one's major requirements:

4. To develop basic knowledge in the social sciences,and enable students to address major contemporary issues of political, social, economic and scientific issues in an interdisciplinary way.
5. To help students understand people from diverse backgrounds and cultures, and to encourage their development of a global outlook.

The above are refinements of many of Group 8's list, to which we would like to add a goal related to helping students learn how to handle the practical matters of daily life and set life goals for themselves after college. Something like:

6. To promote and encourage the ability to set and achieve goals, and to integrate and connect knowledge and ideas for practical use.

In and around the process of talking over the refining of this list, the individuals in group 5 each offered insights into the issue of education from varying disciplinary and experiential directions ...all of which was, in my opinion, extremely productive in bringing multiple perspectives to the table for our own development of understanding of diverse outlooks!

All in all, it seems that most of us are generally satisfied with the overall idea of gen ed requirements. I did not sense any expression of a strong desire for any radical change, rather for an articulating and refining of the goals.

Diane Johnson, Art History