Understanding the Past

This Learning Domain studies human life in past societies (primarily pre-1945) as a process of continuity and change over time. It includes courses offered in a range of scholarly fields concerned with historical questions—including but not limited to History, Archaeology, Anthropology, Economics, Geography, Literature, and Sociology. Courses in this learning domain are distinguished by their interest in reconstructing the past through the analysis of primary evidence, in critically reflecting on the ways the past has been explained and understood, and in examining the ways human experience is shaped by diverse geographies and chronological periods.

Courses in this Learning Domain are largely offered at the 200-level and without prerequisites, as they are designed to be introductory in content and relatively general in scope. Nonetheless, courses offered at other levels of the undergraduate curriculum will be considered for inclusion in the Domain.

Learning Outcomes and Writing Expectations
Approved by the Liberal Studies Council, Spring 2006
Revised and Updated June 2006 (Pending Approval)

What follows is the statement of learning goals and learning outcomes approved by the Understanding the Past Learning Domain Committee in June 2005, in accordance with the Cycle 6 MOA made with APRC, and as revised in January 2006 in light of the subsequent response of the Liberal Studies Council to our original proposal. Please note, as well, that we have incorporated our expectations for writing in item 4 of the learning outcomes.

Understanding the Past (UP) courses explicitly engage the Four Learning Goals of the Liberal Studies Program. They encourage reflectiveness about the importance of time as a tool for contextualizing and understanding past peoples, events, cultures, and ideas. Critical and creative thinking are central to courses in this Domain, for they not only focus on critical reading and writing skills, but also emphasize the use of creative imagination to bridge the gap between the present and the past. Finally, the courses in this domain foster multiculturalism and value consciousness by instilling a respect and understanding for multiple world views, cultures, and value systems in a global perspective, though individual courses need not focus on more than one region in the world.

Learning Goals and Outcomes:

Understanding the Past courses explicitly engage the Four Learning Goals of the Liberal Studies Program. They encourage reflectiveness about the importance of time as a tool for contextualizing and understanding past peoples, events, cultures, and ideas. Critical and creative thinking are central to courses in this Domain, for they not only focus on critical reading and writing skills, but also emphasize the use of creative imagination to bridge the gap between the present and the past. Finally, the courses in this domain foster multiculturalism and value consciousness by instilling a respect and understanding for multiple world views, cultures, and value systems in a global perspective, though individual courses need not focus on more than one region in the world.

The central U. P. learning goal is to help students become literate about the past and the methods used to understand the past. We consider that Liberal Studies and Domain learning goals are achieved if students are able to:

1. demonstrate in their written work, exams, and/or contributions to class discussions that they have acquired knowledge of prehistoric or historical events, themes, and ideas;
   
2. demonstrate the ability to reason through analysis, evaluation, and/or synthesis of a range of primary and secondary source evidence;
   
3. demonstrate an understanding that there are different perspectives on the past, whether those be historical or methodological in nature;
   
4. demonstrate the ability to express knowledge and reason effectively in written work.

The above statement of U. P. Learning Outcomes should be included on syllabi of courses taught in the domain.

Writing Expectations:

Regardless of content and strategies for teaching critical thinking, all courses must use writing as an evaluation tool. While in-class writing exercises or essay exams are useful especially in terms of assessing knowledge acquisition, instructors should assign at least six pages of written work that students complete outside of class. Such writing assignments should be designed to evaluate both content-0based knowledge and skills in critical thinking, reading, and writing; they should not be limited to “opinion” or “response” pieces. In lower division courses, instructors are encouraged wherever possible to favor shorter, more frequent writing assignments over long end-of-term papers, in order to create more opportunities for students to practice writing and to receive comments and writing instruction from faculty. Revisions of papers are especially encouraged and will be counted toward fulfilling the page requirement above (i.e., a 4-6 page paper that is graded as a rough draft and as a revised paper would constitute 812 pages total outside writing).