General Education Program

SE Catalog > Academic Information > General Education Program

Mission

The General Education Program at Southeastern Oklahoma State University seeks to provide a broad foundation of intellectual skills, knowledge, and perspectives essential to all students by virtue of their involvement as human beings in a diverse, technological, and evolving global society. The program is designed to ensure that students acquire a broad understanding of humankind’s cultural heritage in both the arts and sciences, think logically, critically, and creatively, communicate clearly and effectively, and develop skills, values, and attitudes essential to living meaningful and responsible lives.

Vision

To ensure that students perceive general education as a unified and related curriculum, courses within the general education curriculum share certain components so that students clearly recognize common threads woven into the tapestry of their educational experience. To that end, every general education course includes a strong communication component and provides students with active practice in critical thinking and creative problem-solving. In addition, when practical, a general education course includes integration with other disciplines and provides students with global and multicultural perspectives.

Goals of General Education

A. Communication Goal: To enhance the student’s oral and written communication skills.

B. Mathematics Goal: To recognize and communicate using mathematical ideas.

C. Sciences Goal: To observe and evaluate natural processes.

D. Social and Political Institutions Goal: To investigate the development of social, political, and/or economic institutions.

E. Wellness Goal: To recognize the importance of physical and emotional health throughout the life cycle.

F. Fine Arts and Humanities Goal: To explore the cultural heritage of humans and the intrinsic value of the fine arts.

Learning Outcomes by Goal

A. Communication — students will be able to:

  1. Construct oral and written products using American English with standard diction, grammar, and mechanics.
  2. Compose effective written documents in the form of essays, journals, research projects, or other compositions.
  3. Demonstrate effective speaking and listening skills to convey information in a logical and clear oration.
  4. Critically read a passage and analyze the content.

B. Mathematics — students will be able to:

  1. Solve problems using principles of algebra, statistics, and/or symbolic logic.
  2. Apply mathematical formulas to solve problems.

C. Sciences — students will be able to:

  1. Design an experiment suitable for scientific investigation.
  2. Interpret scientific formulas, graphs, and tables.
  3. Demonstrate proficient knowledge of pure and applied science principles.

D. Social and Political Institutions — students will be able to:

  1. Critically evaluate a major period or event in United States history.
  2. Discuss the origins, organization, and/or operation of the political systems of the United States of America.
  3. Explain the processes of social and/or economic institutions in the context of local, national, and global communities.
  4. Explain the forces that shape individual and group behavior.

E. Wellness — students will be able to:

  1. Create a personal wellness plan that includes physical, emotional, and mental dimensions.
  2. Explain the links between chronic disease, diet, exercise, stress, and mental health using scientific evidence.
  3. Evaluate the different factors which influence individual variations in personal health, such as biological/neurochemical, environment/learning, and cultural context.

F. Fine Arts and Humanities — students will be able to:

  1. Analyze theories and competing explanations of events, behaviors, and aesthetics.
  2. Construct logical arguments based on cultural and aesthetic artifacts.
  3. Distinguish how different cultural perspectives and values affect the interpretation of events and ideas.
  4. Critique the human creative process in the development and production of fine arts and letters.

Forty-four semester hours of general education, distributed as described in the degree requirements, are required of all students working toward a bachelor’s degree. Some degree plans require specific courses to fulfill the General Education categories stated. The Bachelor of (Specialty) degree requires the same General Education as the B.A. and B.S. degrees unless otherwise specified.