CURRICULUM OVERVIEW
A Beloit College education blends theory and practice and provides
students with the skills they need to translate their college experience
into rewarding careers and engagement with their communities.
Students practice the liberal arts by acquiring depth of knowledge in a
major area of study and taking full ownership of their education,
bringing to their everyday lives a sense of purpose and consequence.
They engage in meaningful reflection and self- assessment to recognize
new challenges and to take full advantage of new opportunities.
Through its graduation requirements, and especially through careful
advising and mentorship, Beloit College encourages students to develop
the knowledge, skills, and dispositions necessary for the practice of the
liberal arts. Faculty, staff, and students engage in collaborative
exploration of the intersections among the core disciplines and
international, experiential, and co-curricular learning. Students are
expected to engage different ways of knowing and understanding the
world as well as to deepen their understanding of a particular
discipline through a major. They hone their writing and quantitative
reasoning skills while also coming to understand better the ways in
which their social identities affect their perspectives and relationship to
the world. In fulfilling the liberal arts in practice requirement, students
extend their learning beyond traditional classroom and lab experiences
by putting their knowledge into meaningful practice—emphasizing
inquiry, first-hand observation, creative problem-solving, and discovery
through the application of knowledge in new and different contexts.
Finally, through a capstone experience, students deepen and solidify
their expertise in a particular field and bring together multiple threads
of their educational experience, reflecting back on what they’ve learned
and its value and meaning beyond Beloit.
SKILLS
WRITING: Students complete a minimum of 3 writing-designated courses:
Students engage in substantial writing practice by completing
multiple assignments/activities with a writing component.
Instructors use classroom time, design assignments, and provide
activities to address writing strategies and outcomes.
Students draft and write in response to instructor feedback.
QUANTITATIVE REASONING: Students complete a minimum of 1
quantitative reasoning-designated course:
Students engage in multiple assignments/activities with a
quantitative reasoning component.
Instructors use classroom time, design assignments, and provide
activities related to quantitative strategies and outcomes.
Students revisit and improve quantitative reasoning skills in response
to instructor feedback.
INTERCULTURAL LITERACY: Students complete a minimum of 1
intercultural literacy-designated course:
An important objective is to increase students’ awareness of their
political, social, and cultural locations and the ways in which their
cultural lenses affect how they understand and operate in the world.
Students engage in multiple assignments/activities with an
intercultural literacy component.
Instructors use classroom time, design assignments, and provide
activities to advance intercultural literacy.
Students have opportunities to reflect on the development of
intercultural literacy as a lifelong process.
BREADTH REQUIREMENTS (in five domains)
Conceptual and Foundational Systems: This domain concerns the systems
that provide the foundations for communication and discourse, scientific
inquiry, and reasoning itself. Through regular practice, students begin to learn
the rules of the system and how they can use them as tools. In these courses,
students will recognize 1) the coherence of the system they are studying, 2) that
they are working in a system that is one among many, 3) that they work with an
incomplete understanding of the system that can be extended through further
study and practice, and 4) that the rules of the system have a purpose as tools
and the system as a whole has a purpose that allows for higher level thinking.
Examples of Systems courses may include mathematics, music theory, logic, and
introductory modern and classical languages.
Artistic and Creative Practices: This domain concerns the intellectual
processes and techniques used to generate a creative product. The learning
goals of courses in this domain include 1) understanding and practicing basic
skills, including technique and research, that allow students to participate in
their chosen medium, 2) recognizing the productive discomforts of creative risk-
taking and experimentation, 3) considering the complex relationship between
audiences and artistic work, 4) engaging new processes for the generation and
development of work, and 5) developing and practicing self-assessment and
peer critique through reflection and engagement with the classroom
community. Examples of Artistic and Creative Practices courses may include
courses in computer visualization, entrepreneurship, dance technique, visual arts,
music technique, creative writing, and theatre.
Social Analysis of Human Behavior: This domain concerns social analysis as
a way of understanding human behavior. Students explore approaches and
models that enhance our understanding of human behavior within a variety of
cultural and social contexts, both contemporary and historical. This domain
encompasses a range of methodological approaches, both qualitative and
quantitative. Typically, courses offer theoretical/analytical approaches to the
study of human behavior that relate to empirical data. These courses may also
address the implications of social science research for public policy formation.
Examples of Behavior courses may include history, anthropology, religious
studies, economics, and political science.
Scientific Inquiry into the Physical and Biological Universe:
This domain concerns scientific inquiry as an approach to comprehending the
physical and biological universe. In these courses, students formulate and test
hypotheses about the physical and biological universe by gathering, analyzing,
and interpreting empirical data in laboratory and/or field settings. Students
develop abilities to evaluate scientific evidence and may also develop an
understanding of the applications of science for local, national, and global
issues. Examples of Universe courses are those that emphasize scientific inquiry
in the study of the physical and biological sciences and biologically oriented
anthropology and psychology.
Textual Cultures and Analysis: This domain concerns the study and critical
analysis of texts. In this domain, texts are considered finite, organized
discourses that are intended to communicate. Courses in this domain examine
the connections and coherence between the parts of the discourse and the
cultural, social, philosophical, and/or historical contexts from which they stem.
Students learn how to engage texts, both as reader and respondent, and they
develop the interpretative and analytic skills necessary for responsible
engagement with texts. Examples of Textual courses are those that concern the
study and critical analysis of texts and may include literature, philosophy,
history, and social sciences.
LIBERAL ARTS IN PRACTICE EXPERIENCE
All students complete a Liberal Arts in Practice (LAP) experience, usually
during the junior year. Through action and reflection, students connect
their beyond- the-traditional-classroom experiences with their classroom
learning and transfer the skills developed in those experiences into
other settings. The Liberal Arts in Practice (LAP) requirement may be met
in any one of three ways:
1)
LAP-designated credits: Some courses are structured to incorporate a
significant experience beyond the traditional classroom (such as research-
related fieldwork or community engagement projects), and to assist
students in reflecting on that experience, making meaningful connections
to it, and transferring the skills developed in the experience into other
settings. These courses are LAP-designated credits, and students who
successfully complete a unit of such courses will have satisfied the Liberal
Arts in Practice requirement.
For-credit internships, as well as applied or original work embedded
in many of our off-campus study programs, also count as LAP-designated
credits. While some capstones may qualify as LAP-designated credits, note
that a single capstone unit may not simultaneously satisfy both the
Liberal Arts in Practice requirement and the capstone requirement.
2)
Courses with paired LAP experiences: Some courses may not
themselves incorporate a significant experience beyond the traditional
classroom, but they are designed to reflect on, make connections to, and
transfer skills from beyond-the-classroom experiences external to the
course (such as, for example, off-campus study). All such courses,
together with their paired LAP experiences, satisfy the Liberal Arts in
Practice requirement. This may include certain capstone courses. Note
that the courses in this option need not be a full unit to satisfy the
requirement, and students need not earn academic credit for the paired
LAP experience.
3)
LAP syntheses: LAP syntheses occur when students connect one or more
experiences extending beyond the traditional classroom with their
coursework, transfer the skills developed in those experiences into other
contexts, and reflect on them both in ongoing advising and through a
culminating project: some public presentation, exhibit, publication, or
performance. LAP syntheses include a large and undefined range of
possible experiences beyond the traditional classroom, including but not
limited to: on-campus and off-campus jobs, community outreach,
athletics, student government and other leadership opportunities, work at
CELEB, in art galleries, or in museums, and travel opportunities
unrelated to college work.
Students intending to satisfy their LAP requirement through a LAP
synthesis must declare and explicitly articulate the synthesized
experiences to their academic advisor before the end of their junior year.
Approval is determined by an academic advisor, though the culminating
project may be advised by a faculty or staff member other than an
academic advisor.
CAPSTONE EXPERIENCE
Capstone experiences occur after the fourth semester, typically in a
student’s final year. Each program or department identifies one or more
opportunities for its majors to fulfill the capstone requirement. While
some capstones may qualify as Liberal-Arts-in-Practice-designated
credits, a single capstone unit may not simultaneously satisfy both the
LAP requirement and the capstone requirement.
The primary goal of the capstone requirement is to help students apply and
articulate what they have learned at Beloit College in ways that will make them
better practitioners of the liberal arts. Capstone experiences emphasize
integration and synthesis of theory, practical experience, and content of
courses previously taken. Such culminating experiences can be located within
a major but can also be broadly focused.
