Shared Undergraduate Core

The writing learning goals are introduced through Suffolk’s first year writing program. Recent assessment results on written communication  can be found on the results page for Institutional Results and Assessment.

Learning Goals

Upon graduation from Suffolk, successful students will be able to communicate effectively in diverse contexts, put their education into practice, and engage in lifelong learning. More specifically, successful graduates will be able to:

• Understand academic writing as a revision-based process.
• Understand the rhetorical situation and other elements in composing an expository essay.
• Display critical thinking in academic writing.
• Understand academic work as a recursive process of inquiry, using writing and research to form new questions and pursue existing enduring questions.
• Understand genre expectations for some research-based writing contexts within the university.
• Understand how to read and think critically about different social and cultural perspectives in the texts they study and understand how these perspectives are a part of larger ongoing conversations.

The course or courses taken to fulfill the math learning goals will depend on the student’s preparation and declared major. Information about the math placement exam can be found here.

Learning Goals

Upon graduation from Suffolk, successful students will:

• Understand descriptive, quantitative information and data given in a variety of formats.
• Understand the foundations (at the college level) of how to employ the thinking skills of scientific and mathematical analysis to solve problems.
• Know how to draw, analyze and convey meaningful quantitative conclusions.
• Understand descriptive, quantitative information and data given in a variety of formats.
• Know basic mathematical skills needed to work with quantitative information.
• Understand the foundations (at the college level) of how to employ the thinking skills of scientific and mathematical analysis to solve problems. Be open to dealing with quantitative material in life and other courses.

SCGP/Perspectives learning goals are introduced through courses offered from a number of different departments, Recent assessment results can be found on the results page for Institutional Results and Assessment.

Learning Goals

Upon graduation from Suffolk, successful students will demonstrate an awareness of diverse perspectives and people, an understanding of why things are the way they are in terms of contexts and history, and an ability to adapt to and work in circumstances involving individual differences. More specifically, successful graduates will be able to:

• Understand the mechanisms through which social, cultural or global differences are perceived, understood and constructed.
• Understand the role of power in creating conflict over differences within the changing historical and cultural contexts.
• Analyze how competing perspectives of diverse communities influence change within a social, cultural or global context.

Courses in Creativity and Innovation are drawn from many different disciplines at Suffolk. More information about this requirement can be found here.

Upon graduation from Suffolk, successful students will recognize and foster creative vision, meet and respond to ambiguity and risk in a variety of contexts, and cultivate the knowledge and skills necessary to engage in innovation and collaboration across disciplines. More specifically, successful graduates will understand that:

• We all have the potential to be creative.
• Problems can be solved in creative ways.
• Collaboration cultivates creativity.
• Risk-taking and resilience are important elements in the creative process.

• Upon completing this course students will understand that the STE disciplines involve a manner of inquiry and a process and are not just content.
• Upon completing this course students will know the skills required to locate and understand scientific/technical literature.
• Upon completing this course students will understand the relationship between natural science and technology, the implications of scientific discoveries, and the potential of the STE disciplines to address problems of the contemporary world.
• LAB COURSES ONLY: Upon completing this course students will understand the process of science.

• CAS:
  • Appreciation of Creativity and Aesthetics: Upon successful completion of this course, students will understand how texts studied are shaped creatively by writers to produce a variety of effects on readers.
    • Students will be able to define particular forms and/or genres.
    • Students will be able to demonstrate how texts exhibit or challenge formal elements or techniques associated with particular forms or genres.
    • Students will be able to analyze causes and effects of conformity and innovation in form and genre.
• SBS:
  
  • Students will be able to express an appreciation and an understanding of aesthetics solutions through a consideration of and/or engagement in the creative process.
  • Students will be able to formulate and express their opinions in aesthetics ways (orally and in writing)

Upon graduation from Suffolk, successful students will demonstrate information literacy, an ability to use analytical reasoning in problem-solving and decision-making situations, a sophisticated understanding of theories, processes, and systems, and an ability to reflect and think critically. More specifically, successful graduates will be able to:

• Comprehend descriptive and quantitative information across multiple modalities.
• Evaluate the quality of information and assess its sufficiency for decision-making.
• Employ the scientific method, formal and informal logic, mathematics, and other systems of analysis.
• Accurately interpret data and draw meaningful conclusions.
• Identify areas for systems change necessary to meet desirable outcomes; generate and evaluate different options for that change.
• Analyze and evaluate one’s own behavior and thought processes within multiple contexts in an objective manner.
• Critique particular systems of thought and behavior within multiple contexts.

Information literacy is a learning goal with the Science, Technology, and Engineering requirement.

Oral communication is introduced through SBS 101 and CAS 101. Advanced coverage is major specific.

Students are introduced to general professional development early on; advanced professional development is major-specific.