General Education

Return to: General Education and Degree Program Information

Taught by faculty from across the college
 

Program Mission Statement

General education at Lyndon prepares all students to respond responsibly, productively, and creatively to a complex and changing world that is characterized by rapidly evolving careers and communities. Statistics show that college graduates today are likely to face at least four significant career changes before retirement, regardless of major. Lyndon’s general education responds to this challenge in two ways. First, the general education program provides focused practice in the foundational skills required for all career paths: critical thinking, writing, reading, communication, information literacy, and quantitative reasoning. Second, general education provides a framework of content, thought, and inquiry designed to help every student succeed personally and professionally in today’s global society.

Program Goals

Students completing the General Education program at Lyndon will demonstrate

• An enhanced ability to engage in the foundational skills of critical thinking, reading, and writing, communication, and quantitative reasoning. 
• Knowledge and skills that will prepare students for work and citizenship in a rapidly changing global society.

Program Learning Outcomes

• Students will demonstrate an awareness of fundamental factors influencing human individual and social behaviors.
• Students will practice critical interpretation and analysis of past and present human written expression.
• Students will demonstrate aesthetic appreciation for, understanding of, and/or the creation or performance of original works of art.
• Students will demonstrate basic attitudes and skills that enable them to work productively, profitably, and with sensitivity across a wide range of cultural boundaries.
• Students will identify and analyze change across time, either within their own discipline or across broad human endeavors.
• Students will demonstrate a fundamental awareness of the complexities and interconnectedness of the economic and political realms in which citizens function at both the local and global level.
• Students will apply the concept of sustainability in critically examining social, ethical, environmental, and/or scientific issues related to the use of earth’s natural resources.
• Students will practice scientific and empirical reasoning and relate scientific concepts, facts, and theories to problems of wide concern.

Program Assessment

The general education program is assessed systematically through procedures that align with individual graduation standards assessment at the College (see the section on Graduation Standards for more information) and ensure continuous program improvement. Foundational skills are assessed in lower-level courses using the College’s graduation standards rubrics as well as a rubric for critical thinking; general education learning outcomes are assessed with rubrics developed for each of the outcome-defined categories of knowledge and skills defined by the program goals. Analysis of assessment data from rubrics creates an ongoing cycle of program and course refinement that will lead Lyndon students to success.

Program Guidelines

Students who transfer into Lyndon State College with 60 or more college credits may choose to waive the course INT 2040.

When a student is completing the General Education requirements:
• They may count no more than 2 courses in their home department in the 8 categories of the General Education.
• They may count no more than 2 courses in the same course designator in the 8 categories.

The list of courses in the eight categories may change each year, and the most recent list is the one to which students should adhere, regardless of their catalog year.
 

General Education Distribution (25 - 27 credits; one course from each outcome-based catagory):

Return to: General Education and Degree Program Information