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Each Eastern graduate will complete and will be able to articulate five “Learning Outcomes” (core competencies) identified by faculty as important for life and career success. Eastern’s Liberal Arts Curriculum teaches these outcomes in various settings and courses, individually and in combination.
Critical thinking is the analysis and evaluation of complex ideas, artifacts, information and arguments as a basis for formulating a well-reasoned belief, judgment or conclusion.
Why is this skill important?
Liberally educated students are curious and reflective. By practicing critical thinking skills, students develop the habits of questioning, evaluating and forming educated judgments in preparation for the challenges of personal and professional lives. Critical thinking relates to nearly all situations, careers, environments and opportunities.
Eastern graduates will be able to demonstrate critical thinking by:
Ethical reasoning requires students to recognize ethical issues, identify their own ethical positions and analyze other ethical perspectives in real-world situations in order to consider the impact of decisions and actions on other individuals, society and the environment.
Why is this skill important?
Liberally educated students carefully consider how decisions and behaviors affect individuals, communities and the world. In an increasingly complex and globalized society, it is imperative to contemplate the impact that human actions have on others and to recognize and weigh the ethical implications of different courses of action in life and work.
Eastern graduates will be able to demonstrate ethical reasoning by:
Communication requires students to recognize and utilize the most appropriate means to address specific audiences in relevant contexts or genres to effectively inform or persuade.
Why is this skill important?
Effective communication is an essential professional skill. Liberally educated students convey their ideas in compelling ways to others. Effective communication involves expressing oneself clearly, accurately and in a manner suited to the audience and occasion.
Eastern graduates will exhibit their communication skills by:
Creativity is the ability to utilize skills and strategies to synthesize ideas, perspectives, information or materials in original and self-aware ways, and to use that synthesis to generate imaginative acts or products.
Why is this skill important?
Liberally educated students adapt and innovate in our rapidly changing world. Although creativity is often associated with the arts, innovative thought and expression are used across the disciplines and in various work situations. The capacity to see new possibilities and to make things that did not exist before is a valuable skill for various fields.
Eastern graduates will be able to demonstrate creativity by:
Quantitative literacy is competency in working with numerical data to reason or solve problems, the ability to make judgments and draw conclusions supported by quantitative evidence, and the ability to communicate those arguments utilizing quantitative tools.
Why is this skill important?
Liberally educated students understand, reason with, and communicate quantitative information in a wide variety of contexts and everyday situations. In today’s technological and data-driven society there is an ever-increasing demand, across disciplines and careers, for the ability to work with quantitative information of all types.
Eastern graduates will demonstrate their quantitative literacy by: