The General Education Core in CLAS

The General Education Core requirements account for about one third of the 120 semester hours needed for graduation.

CLAS GE Core requirements for students entering UI Summer 2017 or after Communication and Literacy Rhetoric (4 s.h.) Interpretation of Literature (3 s.h.) World Languages((fourth-level proficiency, up to 20 s.h.) ) Natural, Quantitative, and Social Sciences Natural Sciences (7 s.h. with one lab) Quantitative or Formal Reasoning (3 s.h.) Social Sciences (3 s.h.) Culture, Society, and the Arts Diversity and Inclusion (3 s.h.) Historical Perspectives (3 s.h.) International and Global Issues (3 s.h.) Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts (3 s.h.) Values and Culture (3 s.h.) (3 s.h.)

Generally, students take Rhetoric and Interpretation of Literature in their first year at Iowa. Some GE Core courses also count as required, gateway courses in a major, such as those in math and chemistry. Others represent the only course a student will take in a given field.

All GE Core Courses share certain attributes: Assume no prior student knowledge. Build from simple and/or informal assignments to complex ones. Give early and frequent evaluation of student work. Provide models and rubrics. Use a variety of teaching and assessment strategies. Integrate the instructor’s research within the course when feasible. Encourage students to learn from each other whenever possible. Use technology as a supplemental tool. Discuss why academic integrity matters.

GE Core Comprehensive Learning Outcomes Students better understand how learning can transform the individual and society. Students practice and improve their use of the tools, methods, and modes of inquiry central to the GE required areas. Students think critically, using analysis, deduction, inference and/or other analytical strategies. Students write and speak formally and informally, practicing and improving communication skills. This is the abridged version. Please visit the General Education tab on the first page of the CLAS website to learn more.

GE Area Outcomes: Diversity and Inclusion, 3 s.h. Courses develop students’ recognition of their positions in an increasingly pluralistic world while fostering an understanding of social and cultural differences. Courses in this area are generally discussion based. Outcomes Students explore the historical and structural bases of inequality. Students learn about the benefits and challenges of diversity. Students reflect critically on their own social and cultural perspectives. Students increase their ability to engage with people who have backgrounds or ideas different from their own.

Quantitative or Formal Reasoning, 3 s.h. GE core courses approved in this area have as their primary purpose the development of the analytical powers of the student as they might be exercised in presentation and evaluation of mathematical or other formal symbolic systems. Outcomes Students learn and practice a method or methods of analytical or formal symbolic reasoning, for example a specific set of mathematical, statistical, computer programming, or logic skills. Students evaluate arguments made in the symbolic system embodied in the course and will become familiar with its major concepts and ways of formulating questions

Literary, Visual, and Performing Arts, 3 s.h. Literary, visual, and performing arts courses may focus on artistic processes or on analysis of finished works, whether created by professionals or by students themselves. Outcomes Students recognize constituent parts of an artwork and the processes of artistic production. Students recognize how aesthetic and critical meanings are attached to artworks and understand ways quality can be evaluated. Students relate art to the broader human context (e.g. historical, social, ethnic, economic, geographic) in which it is created, including, for example, how an artwork or form is linked to the artist’s culture and identity.

Each course needs TWO descriptions A General Catalog overview of the course. This brief summary is entered automatically when the course is added to the online course schedule. An in-depth description. This gives specific details for a course as taught in the current semester and often includes assignments, exams, and course format. This must be entered on the schedule each semester.

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