We believe that the world needs ethical
leaders who possess strong critical thinking skills and the ability to bring
together ideas and people from multiple disciplines and perspectives. We
support a curriculum that provides depth, breadth and integration of
knowledge in an environment that builds character and promotes
citizenship.
A Vision for Monmouth College, 2009
"Our future is not in the stars but in our own minds and hearts.
Creative leadership and liberal education, which in fact go together, are
the first requirements for a hopeful future for humankind."
Senator J. William Fulbright
Integrated Studies & General Education Coordinators:
One of the distinctive and defining characteristics of general education at Monmouth College is that it is spread over four
years. Well-integrated in design, interdisciplinary in emphasis, both
national and global in scope, Monmouth’s general education program provides
an intentional and developmental educational experience.
Many studies
have shown us
that students
learn more from logical sequences of courses that build on one another than
from independent and unrelated courses.
Thus, our academic program
interweaves general education with the major field of concentration to enable students to
experience a full and meaningful undergraduate education.
General education courses and major courses move in parallel through
a student’s career. These are joined
and reinforced at opportune moments by the liberal arts worldviews and
skills conveyed in the Integrated
Studies Program.
Designed as
a logical sequence of learning experiences taken throughout a four-year
program, the Integrated Studies
Program is comprised of four courses.
Introduction to Liberal Arts
welcomes students to Monmouth College
and introduces them to the liberal arts experience.
This course concentrates upon building students’ intellectual and
practical skills as they develop an understanding of their place within
academia. This concentration on
a college-located self is then expanded so that students can place
themselves in the world:
Global Perspectives emphasizes the global context of their education.
Having considered the academic world during
their first year and their material world during their sophomore
year, students are prepared to address more abstract questions of human
values, philosophies, and religions in their third year, within a
Reflections course.
Finally, the capstone experience and the final course in this sequence,
Citizenship: Responsible Action, encourages students to use their
reflections upon the abstract to return again to the concrete, taking their
place in this world as active, mature, and educated citizens.
Five
educational objectives anchor our academic program.
Each element is comprised of specific goals.
Our Educational Objectives
All students graduating from Monmouth
College will be able to:
Effective
Communication
All students
graduating from Monmouth College will be able to:
-
Originate and
develop ideas;
-
Support assertions;
-
Utilize suitable
organizing strategies;
-
Understand language
confidently;
-
Use language to
communicate successfully.
Ethical Inquiry
All students
graduating from Monmouth College will be able to:
-
Explore the nature
and scope of the human condition;
-
Investigate the
diverse ways in which human beings make that condition meaningful;
-
Develop a system of
values which informs belief and practice.
Varieties of
Human Experience
All students
graduating from Monmouth College will be able to:
-
Comprehend a
variety of individual perspectives;
-
Comprehend a
variety of cultural perspectives;
-
Understand the
richness of world societies, learning and traditions.
Depth of
Knowledge and Integration of Learning
All students
graduating from Monmouth College will be able to:
-
Gain basic
knowledge in a variety of fields;
-
Combine detailed
disciplinary knowledge with broad interdisciplinary learning;
-
Discover patterns
of meaning across disciplines;
-
Produce comparative
judgments about the purposes and methodologies of any particular
discipline.
Integrated Studies
Introduction
to Liberal Arts
Our Integrated Studies program begins with Introduction to Liberal Arts.
We meet first-year students in the midst of the transition between high
school and college. Guided by an instructor who is professor, mentor, and
the students’ academic advisor, the course addresses the purposes of
liberal and collegiate education by examining a single topic or theme from
a variety of disciplinary perspectives. The aim is to identify and
celebrate the liberal arts as a community of learners excited by the
informed exchange of ideas. Although all sections share common objectives,
foundation skills goals, common core readings, and a common theme, each
section is enhanced by the instructor’s distinctive emphasis.
Global
Perspectives
Once our students have found their new place in the world of higher
education, we ask them in the second year to turn attention to their place
in the larger world: to investigate communities, societies, political
systems, and civilizations other than their own. How are we to understand
a complex and changing world and its peoples, where events unfold and are
chronicled with ever-increasing speed? Global Perspectives addresses this
question by highlighting the influence and importance of cultural
differences and by asking students to understand culture as a lens through
which we view the world. Inherent in this process is fostering critical
thinking about the students’ own place in that world, as well as garnering
knowledge about world political economy, about global demographics, and
about the differences between developed and developing nations. Like
Introduction to Liberal Arts, Global Perspectives shares common readings
and emphasizes communication skills introduced in the first year.
Reflections
The turn outward represented by Global Perspectives is balanced in
Reflections by a turn inward to consideration of personal values. As in
Global Perspectives, we ask students in Reflections courses to analyze
familiar and unfamiliar systems of thought and belief, but this time in
order to explore their own and others’ ideas about the ultimate meaning
and purposes of our lives. Because inquiry about human values can occur in
a variety of disciplinary contexts, our students may choose in their third
year from a menu of courses representing philosophical, religious,
artistic, and scientific perspectives. Yet each course in its own way
addresses foundational questions, linking provisional answers
to descriptions of ethical conduct and an examined life.
Citizenship
By the time students are seniors, they have been asked in Integrated
Studies courses to develop some understanding of their places in college,
their places in the world, and their own beliefs and values. The senior
capstone course, Citizenship, challenges students to move past study and
contemplation to conscientious action. Citizenship courses, chosen from a
menu of offerings, typically take an interdisciplinary approach to
understanding important social issues. Then students are called upon to
address those issues variously as citizens of community, nation, and
world. Individual and group projects may involve position papers, social
or political policy proposals, development of and participation in service
projects, or other experiential learning projects.
General Education Program
Courses that satisfy the requirements of the general education program are
designated by the faculty. In addition to the courses listed in the
Catalog, some courses
that vary in content satisfy requirements when particular topics are
offered. Such courses are listed in semester course schedules.
See the PDF version of the Monmouth College
Catalog
(also accessible via the drop-down menu on the opening page of the
College website) for the latest information about courses that meet
specific requirements.
See the
Course Schedule page on the Registrar's Office website for the
current year's schedule of courses, with associated information.