Draft Learning
Outcomes
Global education
across the disciplines seeks to equip students with knowledge of the
diverse peoples, governments, histories, and natural systems that
comprise the world and the forces that continue to shape them. It
produces graduates who respect the many groups that make up a global
society and who have skills and perspectives to meet the challenges
of an interdependent world. As students learn to see the global in
the local, global education allows students to understand how
their own behavior affects and is affected by larger world patterns.
Multiple Perspectives
Learning
outcome: Each student will demonstrate the ability to
perceive any given event from more than one cultural viewpoint.
Sample
learning activity: Students work in small, diverse groups
to assess a current or historical issue from the different points
of view represented in the group, and seek to understand the
reasons behind the differing perspectives.
Interdependence
Learning
outcome: Each student will show how a given enterprise or
living being affects and is affected by [depends upon and also
influences] the larger natural, economic, or social systems of which
it is a part.
Example:
Welfare rolls in the Central Valley increased after the Asian
financial crisis. This was a result of the reduced purchasing
power of Asian currencies, which led people in Thailand, Japan,
and elsewhere to reduce their purchase of imported foodstuffs,
including nuts and other agricultural products from the Central
Valley.
Equity/Living
Responsibly with Others
Learning
outcome: Each student will show how the behavior of
individuals, groups, and nations affects others, in terms of human
rights and economic well-being.
Example:
Students will give examples of national policies that may have had
unintended negative effects on other nations. Or: Students
will identify their own behaviors that may unintentionally
compromise the human rights or the dignity of others.
Sustainability
Learning
outcome: Each student will demonstrate ways of handling
environmental resources that will help or hurt future generations
ability to meet their own needs.
Examples:
Students will explain the long-term economic and environmental
impact of continuing to develop Central Valley farmland for urban
uses. Or: Students will explain the short-term and
long-term issues involved in harvesting the massive forests of
Russia or the Amazon region for lumber to export.
Language
Learning
outcome: Students will demonstrate that they can satisfy
basic social needs in a language other than English.
Means of
demonstration: Students can demonstrate this learning
through successful formal language study, high-intensity language
training (HILT), testing, or other means to be determined.
Draft Learning
Outcomes
Upon graduation,
students will be able to:
- Demonstrate
critical thinking abilities and skills in geography, other
cultures, international relations, and global issues.
- Demonstrate
open-minded attitudes and an absence of ethnocentrism (including
an awareness of racial, ethnic, and international issues).
- Understand the
importance of cultural diversity in a global community.
- Demonstrate
willingness to learn and practice critical thinking skills that
will develop the competencies required to live in a global
community.
Draft Learning
Outcomes
Students will:
- Experience a
culture other than their own.
- Acquire
communicative competence in a second language.
- Be able to
identify and discuss international and cultural issues from
multiple perspectives.
- Understand and
respect the values, practices, and products of other cultures.
- Be able to
appreciate and evaluate other cultures.
- Actively and
ethically engage with people of cultures other than their own.
- Creatively apply
multicultural skills to a dynamic, changing work environment.
Learning Outcomes
-
International
Education
-
Global Perspectives
[Knowledge]
-
Intercultural
Communication/Cross-cultural Adjustment [Skills]
-
Social Justice and
Sustainable Development [Values]
International
Education
International
education involves a transformation of social consciousness beyond
national consciousness. It prepares students to become responsible
global citizens. It helps clarify values that seem to be in
contradiction by developing an understanding for and appreciation
of different cultural perspectives. It seeks to find a common
ground. It is learning to create cultural bridges. It requires
that students understand culture as the context in which people
solve their problems, not as the cause of their problems. Conflict
arises when different groups fail to understand their problems as
interrelated. International education emphasizes the development
of multicultural communities centered on creating respect for
differences as well as addressing common problems affecting
humanity. Through an interdisciplinary and experiential approach
to international education, KSU creates opportunities for students
to immerse themselves in systems of meaning different from their
own. The more we know about other countries and cultures, the
better we will understand our own.
The following list
of global (general) learning outcomes is meant as a starting point
for conversations about developing specific learning outcomes,
primarily for courses in the general education curriculum but also
within degree programs. The categories provide a general framework
and may overlap considerably.
Global Perspectives
[Knowledge]
- Through the
general education curriculum, students will demonstrate knowledge
of world history, literature, regional geography, and economics.
- Students will
demonstrate the ability to systematically acquire information from
a variety of sources regarding diverse regions, countries, and
cultures.
- Students will
acquire knowledge and methods needed for critical assessment of
global events, processes, trends, and issues.
- Students will
demonstrate an understanding of the interconnectedness of
political, economic, and environmental systems.
- Students will
develop an understanding of the role of culture in identity
formation, social relationships, and the construction of knowledge
systems.
- Students will
demonstrate the ability to perceive any given event from more than
one cultural viewpoint.
- Students will
analyze the effects of globalization on local culture(s).
Intercultural
Communication/Cross-cultural Adjustment [Skills]
- Students will
recognize individual and cultural differences and demonstrate an
ability to communicate and interact effectively across cultures.
- Students will
perform in a culturally appropriate and professional manner in
international, cross-cultural, and/or multicultural contexts.
- B.A. degree
seeking students will demonstrate at least an intermediate ability
to speak, read, and write one or more foreign languages.
- Students will
demonstrate awareness of their own values as well as of their
biases and how these influence interaction/relationships with
others.
- Students will be
able to read the signals of an unfamiliar situation, interpret its
elements, and adjust to them.
- Students will
demonstrate flexibility, openness, empathy, and tolerance for
ambiguity.
- Students will
demonstrate respect for diversity.
- Students will
demonstrate an ability to successfully use computer technology,
including e-mail and the Internet, for both local and global
communication needs.
Social Justice and
Sustainable Development [Values]
- Students will
recognize the importance of diversity in globalization.
- Students will show
how the behavior of individuals, groups, and nations affects
others, in terms of human rights and economic well-being.
- Student will
demonstrate ways of handling environmental resources that will
protect future generations ability to meet their own needs.
- Students will
connect root causes of basic global problems (e.g., population
growth, poverty, disease, hunger, war, and ethnic strife) to
issues of land use and access to natural resources (e.g., clean
air and water, biodiversity, nutritious food sources, minerals,
and energy).
- Students will
demonstrate an understanding of the need to protect human rights
in areas such as access to education, health care, and employment.
- Students will
recognize the interconnected nature and importance of issues such
as arms control, maintaining peace, enhancing security,
alleviating poverty, and managing resources cooperatively,
responsibly, and equitably.
Draft Learning
Outcomes
Upon completion of
general education requirements, students will:
- Appreciate the
value of learning languages.
- Demonstrate an
awareness of world geography, economics, politics, religion,
philosophy, history, literature, the arts, and other aspects of
culture.
- Understand how
policy decisions made by one government affect other nations.
- Understand the
interconnectedness of modern world politics and economics.
- Exhibit an
awareness of the interrelatedness of global society.
- Develop critical
thinking skills and be able to apply them when encountering
unfamiliar environments, experiences, and change.
- Demonstrate a
respect for diversity and an appreciation of the multiplicity of
perspectives.
- Gain an
appreciation of their cultural heritage.
- Develop an
understanding of the ways that culture shapes an individual's
world view.
- Use technology to
be able to participate in global exchange of ideas and
information.
- Achieve awareness
of international business, interpersonal, and intercultural
etiquette.
- Understand the
ethical implications of personal, business, and political
decisions.
- Achieve an
awareness of the commonality of core human experience.
International
Student Learning Goals
Graduates of Portland
State University should leave the university with certain knowledge,
attitudes, and skills that will enable them to function as citizens
of the world. Specifically, they should have acquired or developed
these attributes:
Knowledge
- Understand where
the main culture zones of the world are, and why they are
important.
- Understand
prevailing world conditions, developments, and trends associated
with such world issues as population growth, economic conditions,
international conflict, human rights, and the like.
- Understand how
human actions modify the physical environment, and how physical
systems affect human systems.
- Demonstrate
in-depth knowledge of a single culture (other than their own).
Attitudes
- Recognize and
appreciate differences among cultures; have developed tolerance
for the diverse viewpoints that emerge from these differences.
- Have moved beyond
ethnocentrism to a position approaching empathy; have developed
the ability to see others as they see themselves, given their
conditions and values.
- Have developed
self-awareness and self-esteem regarding their own culture, with
all its inherent diversity.
Skills
- Communicate
effectively across cultures.
- Can use maps and
other geographic representations to acquire, process, and report
information.
- (Recommended) Can
use another language to accomplish basic communication tasks,
including understanding a newspaper, technical reports, and
everyday instructions.
Status of Learning
Goals: These goals are in draft stage. We have not yet taken them to
our Faculty Senate for approval because we are working with a
Faculty Senate committee (the Educational Policies Committee) to
explore the possibility of incorporating these international
learning goals into a broader set of goals the baccalaureate
markers for all graduates.
Assessing
International Learning Goals
Because our
international learning goals are a work in progress, so are our
specific strategies for assessing them. We feel confident that our
participation in the Global Learning for All project will provide us
with ideas that we can use to achieve these goals.
At present, we are
focused on the big picture, namely, how assessing international
learning goals meshes with the larger climate of assessment that
prevails on our campus. A group of graduate students working on our
Assessment Initiative noticed that Portland State has nearly a dozen
assessment-related initiatives underway simultaneously, some more
developed than others. How are these things related? they asked. Can
we connect the dots?
- The initiative
begins with assessment of student learning. Set in motion
by the demands of accreditation, assessment has been a
major effort at Portland State and has led to a cultural shift.
Does our curriculum do what we think it should, in terms of its
impact on students?
- Assessment feeds
into program review, based on the assumption that a fair
test of the quality of programs is whether they work. Regular
program review becomes part of accreditation. We also want to know
if graduates actually demonstrate the characteristics we might
reasonably expect of a college graduate, hence the
baccalaureate markers.
- We have already
put more than 10 years into a statewide effort to transform the
other end of our students college careers, a system known as
PASS, or proficiency-based admissions system, a system which
will admit students on the basis of what they know and can do,
rather than GPA and seat time.
- Admissions are, in
turn, related to enrollment management, an effort to be
intentional about our student population as our campus expands
wildly. All of these evaluative activities point in directions set
by our work in planning, vision, and values. And most of
this is happening in public, on our electronic institutional
portfolio, which can be accessed by anyone in the university,
the community, or the country.
According to the
recent brochure titled Connecting the Dots, The President s
Internationalization Initiative is integrally related to each
of the other initiatives, with mutual recognition of those
interests that are shared with the diversity initiative.
International priorities inform admissions and enrollment management
alike.
Global citizenship is
part of Portland State s institutional vision and part of what we
want graduates to take away with them. It goes without saying that,
if part of internationalization is what we want our students to know
and be able to do, we need to find a way to assess that knowledge.
And to assess it, we first need to refine our student learning
goals. This we plan to do during 2003 04 through the work of the
Internationalization Action Council and the internationalization
cohort of the Scholarship of Teaching Resource Team.
Learning Outcomes
-
Global Perspective
-
Intercultural
Competencies
-
Global Communication
Skills
-
Technology Skills
-
Resiliency and
Coping Skills
Global Perspective
- Students will
demonstrate an understanding of the interconnectedness of
political, economic, and environmental systems.
Sample learning activity: Successfully complete two
courses from a list of courses that integrate the concepts of
interdependence and the integration of social systems. Students
must complete a course with a grade of C or better.
- Students will
demonstrate a knowledge of history and world events.
Sample learning activity: Successfully complete at
least one world history/political science course from a list of
world history and political science courses. Students must
complete a course with a grade of C or better.
Intercultural
Competencies
- Students will
demonstrate an understanding of the common human experience and
knowledge of intercultural issues and viewpoints.
Sample learning activity: Successfully complete an
intercultural communications course in which students learn to
work in small, diverse teams to complete projects and activities
that focus on intercultural communication issues. Students must
complete a course with a grade of C or better.
- Students will be
able to recognize individual and cultural differences and
demonstrate knowledge for these differences.
Sample learning activity: (Same learning activity as
noted in #1 above)
- Students will
demonstrate good listening and information processing skills.
Sample learning activity: (Same learning activity as
noted in #1 above)
Global Communication
Skills
- Students will
demonstrate an ability to speak, read, and write one or more
foreign languages.
Sample learning activity: Successfully complete a
two-semester sequence of a foreign language course.
- Students will
demonstrate an ability to interact successfully with people of
other cultures, backgrounds, and countries.
Sample learning activity: Successfully complete an
intercultural communications course in which students are assigned
to diverse work teams to complete projects and activities that
focus on intercultural communication issues. Students must
complete a course with a grade of C or better.
- Students will
demonstrate an ability to use appropriate international etiquette
in business and other situations.
Sample learning activity: Successfully complete a
course from a list of courses with learning activities that
address business and personal etiquette of different peoples and
cultures. Students must complete a course with a grade of C or
better.
Technology Skills
- Students will
demonstrate an ability to successfully utilize computer
technology, including e-mail and the Internet, for communication.
Sample learning activity: Successfully complete a
course from a list of courses containing computer literacy
learning activities. Students must complete a course with a grade
of C or better.
Resiliency and
Coping Skills
- Students will
demonstrate an ability to manage change in their personal and
professional life.
Sample learning activity: Successfully complete a
course from a list of courses having time management, personal
growth and development, and life management activities. Students
must complete a course with a grade of C or better.
Learning Outcomes
The globally
competent learner will be able to:
- Demonstrate
appreciation of all people, regardless of differences in race,
gender, age, lifestyle, and class.
- Demonstrate the
equality of peoples of different nations.
- Recognize the
geopolitical and economic interdependence of our world.
- Recognize the
impact of other cultures on American life and vice versa.
- Demonstrate a
capacity to work in diverse teams.
- Demonstrate an
understanding of the non-universality of culture, religion, and
values.
- Demonstrate the
responsibility of global citizenship.
- Recognize and
celebrate cultural diversity, respecting the rights of all to
express and share their individual cultural heritages.
Last updated: April
27, 2005 |