General Education Program Goals
The mission of the General Education Division is to create a learning environment that provides our students with the opportunity to become educated persons. In our view, and educated person is one who is familiar with the frames of reference and habits of mind that are present in the liberal arts and sciences. In particular, an educated person is engaged in a lifelong quest to grow in the ability to think, communicate, cooperate, act, and value; to accept the challenges of living in a complex and changing global society; and to pursue meaningful work, service to others, and personal well-being.
Broad Learning Outcomes
Through their experiences in the general education curriculum, students at Labouré College will acquire knowledge of the physical, natural, social, spiritual, and aesthetic worlds; knowledge of self; historical consciousness; appreciation for diversity; and theological understanding. In particular, they will refine their abilities to:
- Think, including: critical analysis; reasoning and problem-solving across multiple contexts – historical, literary, quantitative, scientific, ethical, and theological; and creative expression.
- Cooperate, including: teamwork and collaboration with others; understanding and tolerance of racial, ethnic, religious, and cultural diversity; and managing conflicts and disagreements with civility.
- Communicate, including: conveying ideas to others clearly, coherently, and persuasively both orally and in writing; using intrapersonal communication to facilitate problem-solving and self-reflection; and listening and sharing ideas respectfully across cultures.
- Act, including: empowerment through the development of personal agency skills: civic engagement; finding answers to questions through mastery of information resources; and being lifelong learners.
- Value, including: personal/social responsibility; self-worth; ethics/morality; personal happiness; and empathy.
Guiding Principles
The guiding principles of the general education curriculum are derived from the Constructivist approach to teaching and learning. Constructivism is based on the core belief that teaching should focus not on “knowledge transfer” but on guiding students through activities and experiences that enable them to apply the innate human ability to construct knowledge. Principles derived from the Constructivist model that have shaped this framework include the following:
- Intelligence describes a person’s level of expertise, not a fixed trait;
- Students learn through the processes of Assimilation and Accommodation. Assimilation is when students’ existing knowledge and skills enable them to successfully meet their challenges, and their confidence and mastery are, as a result, reinforced through repetition. Accommodation is when students are confronted with challenges that require them to modify or replace their existing knowledge and skills with a higher level of expertise. Good teaching strives for a balance between Assimilation and Accommodation;
- Effective learning is not a passive process; students construct meaning through active engagement;
- Effective learning involves not just thinking, but thinking about thinking which is called metacognition;
- Reflection is necessary in order for students to construct meaning;
- Learning depends heavily on the use of language, a primarily social activity that is best achieved in interactive groups;
- Learning always occurs in a context and must be understood accordingly;
- Relevance is key to establishing motivation to learn and retention of learning; and
- Learning is motivated by challenge and inhibited by threat.