General Education Outcomes

The General Education curriculum and student learning outcomes described below were in place through the 2022–23 academic year.

Pre-Fall 2023 Learning Outcomes

First Year Seminar

In the First Year Seminar students will:

1. Explore an intellectually important topic with an instructor and with peers
2. Read primary texts critically and discuss them in a seminar format
3. Investigate specific topics and communicate their understanding through an appropriate form of writing or other medium (e.g. oral presentation, digital media)
4. Present their ideas for discussion and critical reflection
5. Learn about the purposes of a liberal arts education, including personal and intellectual development as well as vocational discernment and career preparation.
6. Develop an appreciation for cultural similarities and differences and how they affect our interactions with others in our global society
7. Where appropriate, engage in problem-solving in a small group context. 
8. Attend out-of-class events and discuss them in class as part of being introduced to the college as an intellectual community

First Year Seminar Assessment Plan

Expository Writing

In Expository Writing I students will:

1. Practice critical reasoning skills
2. Demonstrate clarity and concision in prose style
3. Write with coherent organization at the sentence, paragraph, and document levels
4. Demonstrate knowledge of essential conventions of standard written English
5. Demonstrate savvy, discriminating research skills
6. Practice writing as a creative, collaborative, and recursive process
7. Produce persuasive, evidence-based academic writing, distinctly voiced, and tailored to its audience

Expository Writing Assessment Plan

Health Dynamics

After completing Health Dynamics students will:

1. Appreciate the importance of maintaining good health behavior 
2. Understand the fundamental principles of a healthy diet 
3. Identify an exercise regimen for lifelong fitness 
4. Understand the relationship between health and stress  

Health Dynamics Assessment Plan

Second Language

In modern languages students will:

1. Develop competence in listening and reading comprehension, as well as oral and written expression in a second language
2. Develop a deeper appreciation for worldviews different from their own through knowledge of the history, politics, religion, literature and the arts that shape cultures and societies
3. Prepare themselves to participate meaningfully in an overseas study group
4. Gain empathy by learning to respect and understand personal and cultural differences, in particular of minorities as well as peoples and communities of developing nations 

In ancient languages students will:

1. Develop competence in reading comprehension in a second language
2. Gain access to another culture that is foundational to the Western cultural heritage
3. Develop a deeper understanding of the structure and function of language
4. Enhance their understanding of their native language

Second Language Assessment Plan

Religious Studies

In their Religious Studies courses students will:

1. Develop greater ability to read religious texts, including but not limited to biblical texts, with understanding and sensitivity; with, in short, sympathetic imagination
2. Acquire increased proficiency in thinking critically with respect to religious texts, traditions and experiences, e.g., greater facility in identifying arguments and ferreting out assumptions and implications
3. Develop greater listening skill and skill in communicating – both orally and in writing – their reflections and their convictions clearly, concisely and persuasively
4. Become better able to interpret contemporary religious experience and events in light of past events, other traditions and their own convictions
5. Increase their capacities for intellectual honesty, respect and humility and, in some measure, further develop certain traits of character, e.g., courage, fortitude, justice, wisdom and compassion
6. Gain greater understanding of their own basic convictions, whatever they may be, and gain insight into how these convictions inform their world view and everyday practices
7. Acquire a basic familiarity with the biblical story – its main characters, important themes, historical-cultural contexts, literary genres and the like
8. Obtain a rudimentary understanding of how Christian experience shapes and is shaped by historical contexts and some appreciation for both continuity and change within Christianity
9. Acquire an understanding of and an appreciation for religious traditions other than Christianity

Religious Studies Assessment Plan

Intellectual Engagement with the Christian Faith

Hope College welcomes students into an intellectual engagement with the historic Christian faith. This engagement is assessed using a survey of students who are of junior or senior status. The survey asks students to reflect on their engagement with general Christian and biblical content, theology, culture, ethics and vocation within their Hope College courses.

Global Learning

In courses with a focus on global learning, students will

1. Develop curiosity by pursuing new knowledge and ideas and openness to new perspectives
2. Gain knowledge  that broadens and deepens their understanding of the natural and applied sciences, arts, humanities and social sciences, engaging them in the global concerns that touch each of these fields
3. Develop self-awareness of how each person is shaped by culture and how one’s values and beliefs inform one’s decision and assumptions about others
4. Develop empathy, sensitivity and compassion towards others
5. Cultivate their sense of responsibility  for the welfare of others and for their own actions, so that they grow as ethical individuals and engaged citizens

In courses with a domestic diversity focus (U.S. diversity), in addition to the above objectives, students will:

1. Examine diverse cultural perspectives of historically marginalized groups in North America, including racial and ethnic minorities and women
2. Examine issues of difference, intolerance, inequality, justice and power and understand the interplay of these complex concepts
3. Use written, oral, visual or artistic sources produced within the cultures being studied

In courses with an international diversity focus (non-U.S. diversity), in addition to the general objectives, students will:

1. Use comparative analysis of cultural perspectives
2. Analyze the concepts used to study and compare cultures
3. Address the culture’s self-definition and self-expression
4. Focus on theoretical perspectives of gender, race, class, ethnicity and other socially constructed categories

Global Learning Assessment Plan

Cultural Heritage

After completing Cultural Heritage courses, students will

1. Use the fundamental tools common to the humanities (reading, writing, asking good questions, constructing arguments) both to enrich their lives and to achieve more practical goals
2. Read primary historical, literary and philosophical texts critically, imaginatively and reflectively, in order to better understand themselves, others and the world
3. Understand the Western cultural inheritance, its chronological development, its strengths and weaknesses and (in some cases) its relations to non-Western cultures and their development and strengths and weaknesses

Cultural Heritage Assessment Plan

Mathematics and Natural Science

In general education mathematics courses, students will:

1. Develop mathematical and other creative forms of problem-solving skills, understanding that these skills are useful in personal and professional contexts 
2. Understand both the benefits and limitations of mathematical and/or statistical models, particularly in the use of mathematics as the mode of communicating our understanding of the physical world and for the study of human society
3. In addition to objectives specific to mathematics, GEMS mathematics courses emphasize the practical benefits of effective group work

In general education science courses, students will:

1. Understand that science is a way of knowing based on observation, classification and hypothesis testing and that it has basic presuppositions and limitations
2. Use critical thinking skills to understand scientific arguments
3. Understand that science is an on-going cross-disciplinary exploration of the physical universe rather than just a collection of facts and that this exploration is limited to certain types of questions and to the use of certain methodologies
4. Engage in experimentation in the laboratory and field and/or in the observation of natural phenomena
5. GEMS science courses will provide students with an opportunity to explore the human dimensions of science and technology; for example, the ways in which science and technology impact natural and social environments and the ways in which science and technology are impacted by social, ethical or political change
6. In addition to objectives specific to scientific study, students in GEMS science courses will practice oral and written communication skills in order to convey ideas and to work effectively in groups

Mathematics and Natural Sciences Assessment Plan

Social Sciences

After completing their social science component, students will:

1. Demonstrate an understanding of empirical and non-empirical approaches to the study of human, social and institutional behavior employed by the social sciences, including:
   
   • The emergence of the social science disciplines and/or institutions since the 18th century
   • The types of questions that can and cannot be addressed by empiricism and the differences between empirical and non-empirical questions
   • The assumptions, strengths, limitations, and critiques of empirical and non-empirical methods
   • The major ways by which social scientists observe and describe behavior: experimenting, interviewing, conducting surveys, and analyzing existing sets of data
   • Appropriate interpretations and uses of evidence
2. Demonstrate an understanding of, appreciation for, and ability to apply their knowledge of:
   
   • Differences among people, the personal and social effects of social group membership, and cultural diversity
   • Policy-making processes and outcomes of social (that is, familial and religious) and either political or economic institutions
   • Christian perspectives on one of the following: ethical issues, institutions, public policies, or theoretical assumptions about human nature 

Social Sciences Assessment Plan

The Arts

In Arts I and Arts II courses, students will:

1. Attend performances, exhibitions and/or film screenings; read texts; and communicate critically about the arts with increasing sensitivity and depth
2. Understand the artistic value, cultural significance and interconnectedness of the arts
3. Examine art and artists in the context of a variety of diverse cultures, styles and social frameworks
4. Observe the interactive nature of the arts, viewing the arts as an expression of the human experience
5. Understand and participate in the interactive nature of the arts

In Arts II courses, students will:

1. Recognize and understand the creative processes essential to the arts
2. Explore and develop aesthetic modes of expression through acts of creating
3. Observe that lifelong participation in the arts is a valuable part of a life fully lived

The Arts Assessment Plan

Senior Seminar

Students will articulate and explore:

1. Christian ways of knowing and acting, living and learning
   
   • Their commitments and convictions in conversation with the Christian faith
   • Their understanding of the diverse and life-giving purposes and perspectives by which people live
2. Students will deepen their ability to discuss their differences openly and sensitively, reasonably and honestly
3. Students will consider, discuss, and develop their own philosophy of life and write about it in a compelling, coherent and disciplined manner

Senior Seminar Assessment Plan