Questions? 662-280-5444
Purpose of CORE Program [General Education]
The CORE Program is responsible for the core curriculum of the university and offers opportunities to acquire a deep understanding of a specialized field as well as broad exposure to other fields of study so necessary to have in life as well as a career. Participation in a democratic society requires more than the central instruction provided by one major field of study. In our world of rapid economic, social, and technological change, a strong and broadly-based education is essential. By focusing on such essential skills as communication and critical thinking, and on an understanding of ethics, culture and society, and the global economy, we prepare students in all majors for their roles as leaders of their professions and their communities.
Knowing Self and Those Around You
Courses CORE Program provide a broad program of study to help you learn more about yourself, your cultural heritage and human societies.
Awareness of the World Around You
CORE Program helps students achieve the intellectual integration and awareness they need to meet challenges in their personal, social, political, and professional lives.
Provokes Thinking Processes in You
Additionally, CORE Program courses introduce the great ideas and controversies in human thought and experience.
Courses in the CORE program contain the common knowledge and skills you need to be effective as a person, an employee, a consumer, and a citizen. Additionally, CORE courses introduce the great ideas and controversies in human thought and experience. These courses provide the breadth, perspective, and rigor that allow Leighton University graduates to claim to be “educated persons.” Most Americans change their careers three times during their lifetime. A solid general education provides a strong foundation for the life-long learning that makes career-change goals attainable.
To that end, Leighton University has expressed our shared, university-wide articulation of expectations for degree recipients. The shared expectation (Institutional Student Learning Competencies – ISLC), which consist of a set of seven dimensions attained by all its graduates from associate's degree and bachelor's programs are as follows:
Category 1 - Purposive Communication
A competent communicator can interact with others using all forms of communication, resulting in understanding and being understood.
Graduate will demonstrate the ability to understand and interpret complex materials; assimilate, organize, develop, and present an idea formally and informally; use standard English; use appropriate verbal and non-verbal responses in interpersonal relations and group discussions; use listening skills; and recognize the role of culture in communication.
Category 2 - Quantitative Skills
A person who is competent in quantitative skills has the skills and knowledge in the use of logic, numbers, and mathematics to deal effectively with common problems and issues; use numerical, geometric, and measurement data and concepts, mathematical skills, and principles of mathematical reasoning to draw logical conclusions and to make well-reasoned decisions.
Graduate will demonstrate the ability to use logical and mathematical reasoning with the context of various disciplines; interpret and use mathematical formulas; interpret mathematical models such as graphs, tables and schematics and draw inferences from them; use graphical, symbolic, and numerical methods to analyze, organize, and interpret data; estimate and consider answers to mathematical problems in order to determine reasonableness; and represent mathematical information numerically, symbolically, and visually using graphs and charts.
Category 3 - Behavioral & Social Understanding
A Behaviorally and socially competent person possesses an awareness, understanding, and appreciation of the inter-connectedness of the social and cultural dimensions within and across local, regional, state, national, and global communities.
Graduate will demonstrate the ability to assess the impact of social institutions on individuals and culture —past, present, and future; describe their own as well as others’ personal ethical systems and values within social institutions; recognize the impact the arts and humanities upon individuals and cultures; recognize the role of language in social and cultural contexts; and recognize the interdependence of distinctive world-wide social, economic, geo-political, and cultural systems.
Category 4 - Scientific Reasoning
A person who is competent in scientific reasoning adheres to a self-correcting system of inquiry (the scientific method) and relies on empirical evidence to describe, understand, predict, and control natural phenomena.
A Leighton University graduate will demonstrate the ability to generate an empirically evidenced and logical argument; distinguish a scientific argument from a non-scientific argument; reason by deduction, induction and analogy; distinguish between causal and correlational relationships; and recognize methods of inquiry that lead to scientific knowledge.
Category 5 - Humanities & Fine Arts
As a component of the General Education, under the category of Humanities and Fine Arts, students learn to explore issues that are fundamental to the human uniqueness, as these are expressed in the cultural, artistic, and intellectual traditions of the world’s civilizations.
Graduate will have develop an orientation add meaning to human experience through the study of fine arts, interpretations of history, rituals and the various belief systems of religion and philosophical thought. After successful completion of the coursework under this category, the graduate will have the knowledge and skills to respond more knowledgeably to those humanistic and artistic works and traditions created by people of various societies and times.
Category 6 - Technological Literacy
Technologically literate person recognizes when information is needed and has the ability to locate, evaluate, and use it effectively.
Graduate will have the ability to determine the nature and extent of information needed; effectively and efficiently access needed information; critically evaluates information and its sources and incorporates selected information into his/her knowledge base; effectively and individually or as a member of a group, uses information to accomplish a specific purpose; and understands many of the economic, legal, ethical and social issues surrounding access and use of information.