General Education

Mission

Messiah University educates men and women toward maturity of intellect, character, and

Christian faith in preparation for lives of service, leadership, and reconciliation in church and society. General Education plays a vital role in advancing this mission, both by developing our students’ intellect and by reflecting our distinctive values as a Christ-centered university.

General Education at Messiah University cultivates thinking, knowing, being, and doing that is rooted in our calling to love God and neighbor. Learning is grounded in exploration of a wide range of disciplinary perspectives in order to promote an intellectual curiosity that considers the what, how, and why of learning. Making connections across bodies of knowledge reveals a fuller and more complex view of the world. Disciplined reflection inspires a richer understanding of and deeper commitment to living out the Christian faith. Encountering a diversity of perspectives advances intercultural understanding and instills joy in the rich heritage of a global community. General Education ensures that students make connections between what they learn and how they live, so they place their gifts in service to God and others in ways that are transformational not only for individuals but also for the common good.

General Education at Messiah University is important because a specialized degree must be placed in a wider context. Broadly educated students gain unique insights and wisdom about how to become creative agents in the work of healing and redemption in the world.

Purpose

The General Education program works with undergraduate schools and departments to ensure that the University’s mission and Undergraduate Learning Outcomes are addressed in the undergraduate curricula of the University: students learn academic skills common to all disciplines, develop an attachment and a sense of delight in relationship to the content, achieve an introductory-level understanding of a variety of disciplines, and develop an ability to apply knowledge gained from these disciplines to a wide range of problems. In the process, students challenge and nurture their intellect, develop and form their character, and engage their Christian faith. Moreover, service, leadership, and reconciliation are addressed at increasingly mature levels as students progress through the program.

Program

Ways of Knowing Courses

• Literary/Aesthetic
  • One three-credit course in Literature/Art

• Cultural/Humanistic
  • Two levels (6 credits) of the same modern Language
  • One three-credit History course
  • One three-credit Philosophy or Religion course

• Social Scientific
  • One three-credit Social Sciences course

• Mathematical and Scientific
  • One three to four-credit Mathematics course
  • One three to four-credit Lab Science

First Year Seminar

• One three-credit First Year Seminar Course

Holistic Wellness

• One one-credit holistic wellness course

Written Communication

• One three-credit composition course

Oral Communication

• One three-credit oral communication course

Ethics and the Common Good

• One three-credit Ethics and the Common Good course

Intercultural Perspectives

• Intercultural Perspectives - US
  • One three-credit Intercultural Perspectives-US course or Domestic Cross-Cultural course
• Intercultural Perspectives - Global
  • One three-credit Intercultural Perspectives-Global course or International Cross-Cultural course or 3rd level language

Interpreting the Bible

• One three-credit Interpreting the Bible course

Christian Beliefs

• One three-credit Christian Beliefs course

Interdisciplinary Courses

Interdisciplinary (ID) courses provide areas of integrated learning in which students wrestle with and address complex questions that face our society and are woven throughout the curriculum. Throughout their General Education experience, students will be challenged to answer these questions by examining different perspectives, theories and experiences in order to arrive at a more discerning conclusion. Students cultivate adeptness in navigating complexity and thinking holistically about these issues in order to reflect upon their own beliefs, as well as bridge values and assumptions of diverse perspectives. In turn, students are empowered to respond to unexpected and ever-changing realities they will encounter in life, work and society. Interdisciplinary courses include:

• First Year Seminar
• Ethics and the Common Good
• Intercultural Perspectives - US
• Intercultural Perspectives - Global
• Cross-Cultural

Lists of specific courses meeting General Education requirements, including those cataloged within specific departments which are approved to meet the ID course objectives, are identified in the course descriptions and are published each semester by the Office of the Registrar. Course titles and content in each category may vary from semester to semester.

Writing Across the Curriculum

Writing across the curriculum focuses on essential academic writing skills that are highly transferable: locating and using credible information sources, making arguments supported by evidence, reading rhetorical situations and issuing fitting responses, adapting to different writing conventions, and applying digital literacy skills to writing tasks. Students are introduced to academic writing in the general education written communication course, and then students complete the following learning objectives through courses in the academic major.

Writing in the Major Course Learning Objectives

• Ethically locate, evaluate, and manage credible, effective, diverse information sources in one’s field of study. (Critical and Creative Thinking)
• Make an argument in writing by incorporating, analyzing, and engaging evidence. (Critical and Creative Thinking)
• Demonstrate rhetorical flexibility, including awareness of context, audience, purpose, genre, and conventions across diverse writing situations. (Communication)
• Write in ways that attend to the conventions of one’s field of study and its related media and genres. (Communication)
• Apply digital literacy skills to produce content that could be disseminated in a variety of media. (Communication)

Structural Parameters for the Major Writing Objectives

• Each major designates the course(s) in which its students will fulfill the Major Writing Objectives.
• It is the responsibility of the department to ensure that the requirements of the Major Writing Objectives are fulfilled (just as it is the department's responsibility to oversee the fulfillment of any other required course in the major). These can be fulfilled in any number of courses across the major but with the understanding that each objective will appear at least once in a required course in the major. While objectivesmay appear in more than one course, each CLO should be assessed in a minimum of one course and the CLO must be met in full in that course. (In other words, the requirements to meet a Writing in the Major Objective should not be split between two separate courses). In the event that a CLO is offered in more than one course, the CLO should be assessed in the course that is most likely to occur at the furthest point in a student’s academic progression, but prior to the Senior Capstone course. 
• As the Major Writing Objectives are designed to promote and monitor developmental writing skills that demonstrate student writing progression outside the introductory level general education course and prior to the Capstone course, each CLO should be assessed in a course other than the Capstone course.
• A course that is designated to fill the Major Writing course learning objectives may be an actualwriting course existing within the requirements of the major (for example, CLA 302 "Writing for Classicists"); more likely, it will be an already existing content course adapted to meet Major Writing Objective parameters. Although the subject content of the Major Writing course may remain the course's primary objective, the writing process surrounding that objective should be an integral part of the intellectual and pedagogical fabric of the course.
• A trained faculty member should dedicate at least 3-5 instructional hours per Writing Across the Curriculum Major Writing Objective. (See definition of “instructional hours” in COE handbook). If multiple objectives appear in the same course, it is permissible that some of these instructional hours may overlap.
• A trained faculty member will incorporate at least two helpful interventions (conferencing, librarian visit, tutoring, peer collaboration, professor comments on ungraded drafts, etc.) in the writing processes in at least one assignment that meets the requirements of the objective being addressed.
• Students should complete ENGL 110, the general education written communication requirement, in their first year, and departments should design intentional scaffolding of the Major Writing CLOs across required courses in the major to ensure sufficient development of this essential skill. 
• Departments should design writing in the major requirements in ways that ensure all students have sufficient opportunities to develop these essential writing skills. Therefore, departments should avoid embedding writing CLOs in courses that students frequently transfer in.