Core Curriculum

Foundations for the Future

Overview

Because the Core Curriculum is intended to be developmental, the Foundations for the Future courses are intended to be the basic skills classes, ideally taken in the first year, that provide a strong foundation/scaffolding for students' further learning and time at Springfield College. In Foundations for the Future, students will develop their abilities to read, write, and think critically, building foundational lifetime skills and the essential underpinnings of a broadly educated college graduate. The skills learned in these domains will serve as a platform for improved success in courses that deal with the dominant domains of knowledge and the major.

  • Springfield College Seminar

    Students take SCSM 101 Springfield College Seminar in their first semester.
    Approved Course

    Learning Outcomes
    1. Demonstrates logical reasoning and analysis based on evidence from multiple sources.
    2. Interpret issues from diverse perspectives, including but not limited to cultural, philosophical, and/or global perspectives.
    3. Identify and apply a variety of disciplinary approaches to investigate a central big question.
    4. Reflect on the role the Humanics philosophy plays in your Springfield College educational experience.

    (Learning Outcomes revised December 6, 2021)

  • Quantitative Reasoning

    Approved Courses

    Learning Outcomes
    1. Demonstrate the ability to interpret and draw inferences from mathematical models.
    2. Demonstrate the ability to represent mathematical/numerical information in various ways.
    3. Demonstrate the ability to solve problems using an array of mathematical methods.
    4. Demonstrate the ability to construct and utilize mathematical models for applications.

    (Learning Outcomes revised January 24, 2023)

  • Composition I

    Approved Course

    Learning Outcomes
    1. Students will demonstrate ability to write using well developed central ideas, appropriate supporting details, and clear organizational patterns.
    2. Demonstrate the ability to create written arguments supported by authoritative sources.
    3. Demonstrate the ability to locate, evaluate, and use academic and other appropriate sources, as well as to how a source’s value is informed by context.
    4. Demonstrate the use of an appropriate set of conventions for citing sources (APA or MLA).
    5. Demonstrate awareness of the grammar, mechanics, punctuation, and usage errors they are most likely to commit and work to reduce them.

  • Composition II

    Approved Course

    Learning Outcomes
    1. Students will learn and use key rhetorical concepts of audience, purpose, context, and genre in order to analyze and produce a variety of texts.
    2. Students will demonstrate an ability to develop and expand central ideas, cite appropriate supporting details, and employ clear organizational patterns in the service of writing produced for various audiences and purposes.
    3. Students will use strategies—such as interpretation, synthesis, response, critique, and design/redesign—to compose texts that integrate the writer’s ideas with those from appropriate sources. (wording from The WPA Outcomes Statement for First-Year Writing 3.0)
    4. Students will practice applying appropriate citation strategies (e.g. MLA or APA) in their own work and to apply basic proofreading strategies.

  • Wellness and Physical Literacy

    Approved Courses

    Learning Outcomes
    1. Demonstrate an understanding of the dimensions of wellness, factors that impact each dimension, and how dimensions are interrelated.
    2. Demonstrate the ability to assess individual wellness and reflect on how individual wellness practices have lifelong impacts.
    3. Demonstrate knowledge of a range of skills and physical activities that enhance physical literacy.
    4. Demonstrate the motor competence, tactical knowledge, perceived motor competence, and intrinsic motivation necessary to be able to select and participate in physical activities throughout life.

    (Learning Outcomes revised October 2023)

  • Literature

    Approved Courses

    Learning Outcomes
    1. Demonstrate the ability to analyze a literary text by examining textual elements such as plot, character, point of view, tone, imagery, symbols, and theme.
    2. Demonstrate the ability to discuss and cite relevant quotations from a literary text in service of a thesis or line of inquiry.
    3. Recognize and describe the diversity of human experience through literary analysis.
    4. Demonstrate the ability to evaluate literature in the context of relevant historical and cultural factors.

    (Learning Outcomes revised December 2022)