Core objective #11: Global contexts
Objective: Advanced areas of focused inquiry
Brief description of learning objective: Students will apply and evaluate modes of academic inquiry, creative expression, or results of research to problems in historical and contemporary global contexts. Students will articulate connections among local, national, and international contexts and evaluate the ways that historical and contemporary global influences affect their current situations.
Standards or Requirements for Verification
Students will critically reflect on their learning and life experiences in a global context and develop an understanding of different viewpoints on contemporary societies. Courses satisfying this objective will teach students to critically reflect on their learning and life experiences in a global context (e.g., non-U.S., comparative, or transnational) and comprehend different viewpoints on and contexts for contemporary culture, politics, and interactions. They may examine topics such as the history, cultures, economic systems, or political systems of nations other than the United States; international conflicts and their causes; colonialism and postcolonialism; and global phenomena that connect the fates of nations and regions. Where appropriate, majors are encouraged to develop this objective within their courses, and if possible to integrate this objective into the Core Capstone course.
This Core Objective will typically be satisfied with a single course that devotes at least 1 credit of student effort (e.g., 15 hours of instruction) to this objective, or that has prerequisite courses that cumulatively devote sufficient attention to the objective.
Courses or sequences satisfying this Core Objective should:
- Include the Core Objective, together with its brief description, on the course syllabus in its original form.
- Include 1 or more student learning outcomes addressing this Core Objective on the course syllabus, along with other student learning outcomes appropriate to the course.
- Identify in the course syllabus the teaching techniques and student experiences that will help students acquire the competencies described in the Core Objective.
- Assess whether students have acquired the competency described in the student learning outcomes and use methods for collecting and analyzing data that can be reported to the Core Curriculum Board.
Capstone courses that integrate CO11 should include among their student learning outcomes some that specify, advance, or broaden this Core Objective.
Some examples of approved student learning outcomes and assessment methods are listed later in this document. Faculty may incorporate 1 or more of the examples from this list or propose their own student learning outcomes and methods of assessing the objective.
Suggested student learning outcomes and assessment methods
Faculty may incorporate one or more of the examples from this list or propose their own student learning outcomes and methods of assessing the objective.
Students will apply and evaluate modes of academic inquiry, creative expression, or results of research to problems in historical and contemporary global contexts. Students will articulate connections among local, national, and international contexts and evaluate the ways that historical and contemporary global influences affect their current situations.
Courses that satisfy CO11 and Capstones that integrate it may include such SLOs as the following, as appropriate for the level and intent of the course:
Students will be able to:
- articulate and evaluate connections among local, national, and international contexts
- analyze multiple connections between geographically and/or temporally distant places and periods
- demonstrate how local and global contexts of ideas or events affect understandings of contemporary and/or historical ideas, events, or issues
- critically examine complex issues and problems of global nature
- select appropriate methods of inquiry or creative expression to apply to problems in global contexts
- apply modes of academic inquiry, creative expression, or results of research to problems in historical and contemporary global contexts
- demonstrate how local and global contexts of ideas or events result in nuanced or conflicting understandings of contemporary and/or historical ideas, events, or experiences.
- contextualize current events and experiences in relation to historical and current global contexts
- identify, analyze, and interpret connections between localized events and their global contexts
- identify and apply multiple perspectives pertaining to global issues.
All courses that are verified as satisfying a Core Objective will be assessed on a regular basis to determine how well students are learning the knowledge and skills described in the objective. Instructors are expected to develop ways of directly measuring student learning (through evaluating the work students produce in the course) and to report these measurements to the Core Board upon request.
Courses satisfying CO 11 must also include assessment methods and plans. The following are suggestions for assignments that may generate measurable data for assessment, along with some potential measurement tools:
- shared (standard, program-wide) exam questions that require student demonstration of knowledge of theories, definitions, or issues pertaining to globalization and/or transnationalism (multiple-choice questions of this kind might be subjected to item analysis; short written responses might be scored by programmatic raters using a rubric keyed to CO11 SLOs)
- writing assignments that require students to identify, analyze, and interpret connections between local events and their global contexts (arguments or essays thus generated could be collected and scored against a rubric articulating features for 1 or more CO11 SLOs)
- individual or group writing projects that require students to gather, analyze, and present information on contemporary or historical global contexts (reports or essays thus generated could be collected and scored against a rubric articulating features for 1 or more CO11 SLOs)
- oral presentations that analyze and interpret multiple viewpoints on issues and concerns of global significance (in the context of a live or recorded student performance, these analyses/interpretations might be assessed by 2 or more expert raters using rubrics keyed to the CO11 SLOs).