Students will be given the opportunity throughout their course of study to further develop and demonstrate these skills:

Reading

• Identify contextual issues (author,date of publication, etc.)
• Read with an awareness of purpose
• Identify goals to focus attention
• Ask questions that lead to a greater understanding of material
• Select information relevant to a purpose
• Demonstrate the ability to summarize and identify key points
• Demonstrate an understanding and ability to relate discipline or interdiscipline-specific information to theories presented in a course

Writing

• Write with purpose
• Write for an audience
• Organize, state, and develop ideas clearly
• Write with syntactical and grammatical competence
• Understand and value academic honesty
• Write with an organizational schema
• Ask questions that lead to a richer product
• Incorporate research appropriately
• Write with authority
• Cultivate disciplinary and interdisciplinary expertise necessary to question sources, develop ideas, and offer interpretations
• Develop complex positions or arguments through writing

Information Literacy

• Identify general kinds of information available in Mason Library and at KSC
• Find a broad array of informational material – physically in the stacks and using electronic sources
• Evaluate usefulness and reliability of information and sources
• Incorporate information into written work and oral presentations
• Properly cite sources
• Identify discipline-specific scholarly sources within and beyond KSC
• Utilize discipline-specific resources in order to find information
• Evaluate sophistication of sources for potential information appropriate to task
• Develop research (paper or project) using information appropriately

Critical Thinking

• Demonstrate the ability and willingness to approach a particular idea, problem, task, or goal from multiple perspectives
• Ask sophisticated questions when engaging an idea, problem, task, or goal
• Analyze and interpret evidence, conjectures, and alternative strategies related to a given idea, problem, task, or goal
• Gather evidence, formulate conjectures, and implement alternative strategies related to a given idea, problem, task, or goal
• Analyze and interpret arguments made by oneself and by others to formulate and defend a conjecture or thesis
• Synthesize information, arguments, and perspectives in order to create new meaning, insight, and understanding
• Develop analytical arguments
• Apply critical thinking to important ethical and societal issues and problems
• Acknowledge and develop both insight and perspective

Creative Thinking

• Use novel ideas, perspectives, or solutions when engaging with a problem, task, or goal
• Engage a problem, task, or goal with sustained effort over a period of time
• Use multiple models or representations of ideas
• Express personal ideas, points of view, or feelings and bring those to a product
• Invent and reapply ideas
• Confront questions with multiple answers
• Form new combinations of ideas
• Reframe new ides (metaphors, analogies, use of models)
• Consider diverse points of view in order to reconstruct them imaginatively, emphatically, and accurately
• Demonstrate open-mindedness and flexibility in thinking
• Create new uses for existing patterns or structures
• Go beyond standard schema when investigating a problem
• Solve unstructured problems

Critical Dialogue

• Organize what one wishes to convey
• Speak with purpose when conveying thoughts or ideas
• Avoid “fillers” (uh, you know, like) when conveying thoughts or ideas
• Develop the skill to use emotional involvement as a tool of respectful engagement with the listener
• Meet allotted time guidelines
• Project voice so all can hear
• Use language appropriate for the audience or other discussion participants
• Demonstrate thoroughness of research and effective preparation in making a formal presentation
• Engage the listener through verbal and nonverbal behaviors
• Demonstrate an awareness of the listener and the response of others to what is being said
• Use paraphrase or restatement in responding to a listener
• Demonstrate active listening in order to avoid disengagement with the speaker
• Maintain focus on the content of the presentation, regardless of the speaker’s style of delivery
• Demonstrate appropriate nonverbal behaviors (attention, engagement)
• Practice listening objectively
• Recognize emotional involvement while listening
• Practice mental engagement with the speaker in order to formulate thoughtful questions based on conversations and presentations
• Make notes regarding key points in order to question or respond effectively

Technological Fluency

• Use e-mail to communicate with classmates and professors (successfully sending, receiving, and manipulating a variety of file formats)
• Use Internet search techniques and engines with discrimination to find resources and information
• Format text documents, including academic papers, using an approved style
• Use appropriate presentation software to deliver a formal presentation
• Use a database and/or spreadsheet to access and set up information
• Use an information management program (e.g., SPSS, e-portfolio, institutional repository) to organize, interpret, and convey ideas
• Employ computer media (visual images, sound, graphical displays) as appropriate in academic work
• Use an array of numerical manipulations to interpret basic information

Quantitative Reasoning

• Read and interpret graphs, charts, and tables in common media
• Analyze the relationships between two variables
• Use the basic measurements of statistics
• Use symbolic expressions to represent, convey, and interpret relationships among variables
• Develop and apply appropriate quantitative-oriented problem-solving strategies
• Read and interpret graphs, charts, and tables in discipline specific media
• Perform simple data analysis, both numerical and graphical
• Draw conclusions and inferences supported by own data analysis
• Critically evaluate conclusions and inferences drawn by others based on data presented as support

Updated: April 21, 2008