Core Areas of Knowledge and Inquiry

According to USF's General Education curriculum, "Composition I addresses expository and academic writing and textual interpretation. Through its emphasis on thinking rhetorically, analyzing and synthesizing of ideas encountered in multiple readings, and writing as a process, this course will prepare students for academic writing. Students learn to interpret, critique, summarize, and paraphrase texts. . . . Composition I and II emphasize systematic organization, effective use of detail, compelling treatment of evidence, demonstration of reading skills, appropriate consideration of audience, language use (style) appropriate to discipline and audience, and construction and analysis of valid and sound arguments. In both courses, process writing is fostered through multiple drafts with careful revision and editing."

Dimensions

(All text from http://www.ugs.usf.edu/gened/1_4dimen.cfm.)

Critical thinking is the ability to engage in analytical, reflective, and critical thought -- that is, to go beyond verbatim learning of factual information. When students think critically, they not only know the facts, but they go beyond the facts and think about them in a way that is different from the way facts have been presented to them in class or in the text.

Critical thinking involves reflecting on the information received, moving away from rote memorization toward analysis and synthesis, and moving away from learning by "transmission" of knowledge by the teacher or text to learning by "transformation" of knowledge by the learner.

Objective C2 states, “Students will demonstrate critical thinking and analytical abilities, including the capacities to engage in inductive and deductive thinking and quantitative reasoning, and to construct sound arguments.” This understanding will be accomplished through appropriate pedagogy explicitly designed to construct analytical frameworks beginning with simple operations and building toward complexity.

Inquiry-based learning may include a continuing cycle or spiral of inquiry (e.g., ask, investigate, create, discuss, and reflect) that engages students through participation, problem solving, and reflection. Inquiry processes should enable learning to occur as a function of the activity, the context, and the culture in which it occurs. Because knowledge is constantly increasing and thus the knowledge base for disciplines is expanding and changing, individuals need to develop the skills and inquiring attitudes necessary for generating and examining new knowledge.

Historical studies focus on the context (physical, temporal, intellectual) in which the events of human history have taken place. Historical processes involve the impact these events have on human actions and events, and the ways in which societies evolve as a result. These processes affect not only peoples and societies, but also institutions, ideas, and beliefs and can be seen in intellectual, social, economic, religious, artistic, and political contexts.

The historical process also involves taking the building blocks of historical knowledge, the largely undisputed "facts" such as names, dates, and places, and working these into defensible arguments about the meanings of these facts. While the facts may remain constant, their meanings undergo a constant process of rethinking and reinterpreting.

Courses with a focus on writing must address the following interrelated components:
Systematic organization.
Effective use of detail.
Compelling treatment of evidence.
Demonstration of reasoning skills.
Appropriate consideration of audience.
Language use (style) appropriate to discipline and audience.
Construction and analysis of valid and sound arguments.
Quality feedback and revision of work should be an integral part of instruction.