General Education Goals

Summary of HST 103/104 (World History Survey) contributions to the goals of General Education at Missouri State University.

The World History Survey is a two course sequence designed to familiarize students with the course of global human history from its origins to the present. The course requires students to engage with:

  1. how complex societies developed independently across the globe establishing cultural traditions that persist today;
  2. how social categories such as class, gender and race took shape and then evolved;
  3. how social and cultural traditions and norms define societies;
  4. how encounters between societies drive change through the dissemination of ideas, goods and diseases;
  5. how people have labored in societies over time;
  6. the impact of technology on societies;
  7. how societies have developed different forms of government;
  8. how historians have come to different conclusions about the past.

Having taken a World History course students should:

  1. possess a general understanding of the course of world history;
  2. have developed a historical basis and underpinning for further study in disciplines including anthropology, geography, political science, psychology and sociology, art and literature;
  3. have refined and developed organizational and expositional skills;
  4. have developed a fuller understanding of how historians use evidence to draw conclusions;
  5. have developed a fuller understanding of the limits of historical knowledge.

These goals and outcomes make World History an ideal course for the General Education curriculum as it both develops intellectual abilities and dispositions and contributes to a student’s knowledge and understanding. In terms of Intellectual Abilities and Dispositions, this course is particularly strong in building skills defined in the General Education Program Goals under the headings of Information-Gathering, Reasoning and Synthesizing Abilities; Reflective, Creative and Critical Dispositions’ and Communication Skills. In terms of Knowledge and Understanding, this course is particularly strong in increasing student understanding as defined in the General Education Program Goals under the heading Culture and Society, although it also makes a contribution to the goals listed under Self Understanding. Please see Part Three of this portfolio for a more detailed assessment of the course’s contribution to specific General Education Program Goals.

Alignment of History 103/104 World History Survey Course with Missouri State University General Education Course Goals  

General Education Goal

Course Goal

 

 

Part One:

Intellectual Abilities and Dispositions

 

 

 

A.  Conceptual and Practical Understanding of Modes of Learning, Problem-Solving and Creative Inquiry

 

 

 

B.  Information-Gathering, Reasoning, and Synthesizing Abilities

 

1.  Skill in formulating questions and in setting goals for inquiry.

 

2.  Knowing how and when to make generalizations and value judgments.

 

3.  Skill in generating and evaluating observations and evidence.

 

4.  Skill in making deductive inferences.

 

5.  Ability to use relevant quantitative methods.

 

 

 

C.  Reflective, Creative, and Critical Dispositions

 

1.  Striving to be well informed and open-minded.

World History challenges students to think critically about diverse interpretations of historical developments.

2.  Looking for multiple possibilities and being able to deal with ambiguity.

World History requires students to engage with a diverse set of belief systems, political systems and social structures-- comparing these structures with each other and with their own culture.

3.  Striving to achieve one’s best with persistence and imagination.

 

4.  Willingness to make choices and to evaluate those choices.

 

 

5.  Intellectual self-awareness:  being conscious of one’s own thinking process, including the cultural and social contexts of that thinking.

World History challenges students to engage with multiple cultural and social traditions both individually and comparatively.

 

 

D.  Communication Skills

 

1.  Writing and speaking with clarity and precision for diverse audiences.

World History instructors require students to complete formal writing assignments in a variety of formats designed to develop clarity and precision in argument and exposition.

2.  Making use of computers and other technological tools

 

3.  Interpreting and communicating visual information

 

 

 

Part Two:

Knowledge and Understanding

 

 

 

A.  Understanding the Natural World

 

1.  Knowledge of the physical Universe, including its origin and the physical laws governing it.

 

 

 

 

2.  Knowledge of living systems, including their nature, organization, and evolution.

 

 

3.  Understanding the history and methods of scientific inquiry and alternative explanations of the natural world.

 

4.  Understanding the multiple influences on scientific inquiry and the consequences of science and technology.

 

 

5.  Understanding the ways human choices affect the earth and living systems and the responsibilities of individual citizens and communities to preserve global resources.

 

 

 

 

B.  Understanding of Culture and Society

 

1.  Knowledge of the many expressions of culture, including

bulletUnderstanding the unique shared ways of thinking, believing, and acting, developed by a people who live together over a long period of time.
bulletAbility to conceptualize and trace the influences of community, institutions, and other constructions such as class, gender, and race
bulletFamiliarity with the ways in which culture is expressed artistically, through literature, performance, and artifact
bulletAwareness of and appreciation for the ways in which culture and society influence and are influenced by work and leisure.

World History requires students to engage with the diversity of cultural traditions on the planet.  It places particular emphasis on issues of gender, race and class. These topics advance the university’s public affairs mission.

 

World History teaches students how present-day situations have grown out of past events, like the Atlantic Revolutions, Industrialization, World War II and anti-slavery movements.  This understanding advances their ability to participate in America’s democratic experiment.

 

2.  Understanding the sources and expression of diverse values throughout the world, including ethical, religious, aesthetic, political, and economic values as well as social and cultural priorities.

At the very core of the World History curriculum is a comparative study of diverse cultural traditions-- with special focus on religious, political, economic and social developments.

3.  Ability to trace the impact of technology on societies and cultures for diverse audiences.

A core theme of World History is technological development across cultural regions.

4.  Understanding the ways human choices affect communities, from local to global, and responsibilities of individuals to assume the duties of citizenship.

World History at its core is a study of how human choices shape communities, one theme of which is the emergence of states where citizens are sovereign and take on critical duties.

 

5.  Understanding the role of government regulation and of legal requirements, political processes, and financial and economic influences on decisions of individuals and society.

 

 

 

 

C.  Self-Understanding

 

1.  Understanding the nature of our humanness and how human beings are like and different from the other beings with whom they share the planet.

 

2.  Knowledge of individual physical, emotional, intellectual, social and creative development as well as ability to use such knowledge to improve personal well-being.

 

3.  Knowledge of individual physical, emotional, intellectual, social, historical, spatial, and cultural matrices into which the individual is born; and the influence of the unique set of experiences which the individual encounters.

World History requires students to engage with multiple cultural, social and intellectual traditions through time and space, contextualizing their own cultural background.

4.  Ability to perceive one’s own being not only from cognitive perspectives but also from those perspectives which come from exposure to and creative vision of the arts – to imagine the possibilities the future holds and to develop responsible goals for interactions with others, modes of personal expression, and roles in improving the world.