Daemen College : Academics & Research
The Daemen Core
Core Curriculum Requirements
Daemen College recognizes that education needs to prepare students for professional, intellectual, and civic leadership. Key to fostering the development of these skills is the core curriculum – a common educational experience for all students, regardless of major. The Daemen College core is designed to strengthen students’ abilities to become intellectually curious, acquire professional rewards, become responsible citizens, and deal with change.
The core experience consists of seven competencies identified as essential – critical thinking and creative problem solving, literacy in information and multimedia technology, communication skills, affective judgment, moral and ethical discernment, contextual competency, and civic responsibility. These competencies are introduced at the freshman level, and are emphasized across the entire curriculum so that students develop a greater understanding of, appreciation for, and practice of these important life skills through their academic work. As students complete the core, they acquire the ability to think, adapt and act in a multicultural environment in which the pace and complexity of change are escalating.
The core curriculum requirements of Daemen College are as follows:
• Fulfillment of the seven core competencies
• Fulfillment of 45 credits of approved core course work outside the major
• CMP 101 English Composition
• Learning Community I (IND 101 + linked course)
• Learning Community II (two linked thematic courses)
• Service Learning requirement (3 credit hours)
• Quantitative Literacy requirement (3 credit hours)
• Research and Presentation requirement (3 credit hours)
• Writing Intensive requirement (3 credit hours in addition to CMP 101 and
Research and Presentation, which are also writing intensive)
The above requirements may be met in either core or major course work, but the total number of Core (non-major) credits required is 45. In addition, at least nine credit hours of the 45 Core credits must be at the 300-400 level. To facilitate advisement, student planning, and credit evaluation towards graduation, Core requirements are published as part of the program plan for each major and are available in hard copy from the Office of the Registrar or on departmental web pages where program plans for particular majors are listed.
The Seven Competencies
The seven competencies described below comprise the heart of Daemen’s core curriculum. Every course approved for Core credit includes one of the competencies as a primary competency and two or more as secondary competencies. Course syllabi explicitly state the learning objectives that relate to the competencies and the assessment techniques that will be used to determine if the student demonstrates mastery of the competency. The seven competencies are:
I. Critical Thinking and Creative Problem Solving
Critical thinking employs intellectual skills such as observation, classification, analysis and synthesis in a reasonable and reflective manner to arrive at meaningful decisions. Creative problem solvers think analytically (cognitively and affectively) and integrate various forms of disparate information into a coherent whole. They demonstrate the ability to reason both inductively and deductively, generate alternative choices, consider consequences associated with each choice, and arrive at a reasonable decision in both familiar and unfamiliar contexts.
II. Literacy in Information and Multi-Media Technology
This competency is defined as the capacity to effectively utilize technologies, including computers, software, the Internet, and databases for research, communication, and presentation. Information technology skills not only support the attainment of practical, academic, professional, and personal goals, but they also foster an awareness of the relevance of these resources to social and personal issues and life-long learning. Proficiency requires an ability to evaluate information obtained electronically and to ascertain the effects of these technologies on the individual and society.
III. Communication Skills
Effective communication includes grammatical and technical competency as well as the ability to communicate across cultural boundaries with an awareness of the rhetorical effects of language in a variety of situational contexts (including non-verbal). An ongoing writing curriculum embedded throughout the core will enhance a student’s abilities to organize ideas coherently and strategically, to choose words precisely for different levels of discourse, and to evaluate appropriate tone in a variety of discursive situations.
IV. Affective Judgment
Affective judgment emanates from the relationship between sensory experience and emotional response. Unmediated sensory experience can move people to great emotional depths and can provoke powerful sensations of certainty, wholeness, ambiguity, and vulnerability, to name just a few, all in the absence of discourse or reasoned contemplation. This kind of awareness, commonly called aesthetic experience, is traditionally nurtured in the arts but may also be triggered by a gesture, an object, an image, or an encounter with nature. Aesthetic or affective experience often provides the key to clarifying and synthesizing disparate events and perceptions. By acquiring affective judgment, one gains sufficient aesthetic sensibility to respond knowingly and probingly to the myriad appeals to affective consciousness that characterize contemporary culture and to participate more fully in the exploration of the human spirit.
V. Moral and Ethical Discernment
Moral and ethical discernment is defined as a non-judgmental understanding of how moral and ethical standards are formed, how they influence aspects of our lives, and how they shape public discourse and policy. Moral and ethical discernment is linked to such concepts as integrity, objectivity, public interest and justice.
VI. Contextual Competency
Contextual competency is the ability to understand past and present issues affecting individuals, organizations, local societies, and global communities. Acquiring contextual competency allows individuals to appreciate the role played by organizational and contextual aspects when making decisions and evaluating results. People who possess contextual competency are comfortable with a global perspective, intercultural communication, diversity, and the existence of multiple and integrated causes for issues, events, and human behavior.
VII. Civic Responsibility
Civic responsibility is grounded in an appreciation that the health of local, national, and global communities is dependent on the direct and active participation of all members in the well being of the community as a whole. Acquiring civic responsibility enables individuals to transform their social interests into personal advocacy and social participation in local and global communities. Civic responsibility entails a life-long commitment to addressing problems these communities face.
LEARNING COMMUNITIES
Certain courses are thematically linked as learning communities of two courses, enabling students from different majors to view course material through the perspective of different disciplines and to develop friendships with students outside their own specific field of study. Learning Community I comprises IND 101 Critical Relationships – the College’s first-year experience course – paired with a topical course, with offerings in a wide variety of disciplines. Learning Community II consists of two linked thematic courses and is typically taken in the second semester of the freshman year.
QUANTITATIVE LITERACY
Quantitative literacy at varying levels is needed in preparation for further study in many academic and professional fields, as well as being of value in everyday life. Many adults, especially college graduates, are likely to assume positions in their communities and in professional organizations where quantitative literacy, such as the ability to deal intelligently with statistics, will come into play and may even be essential for effectiveness. The Daemen curriculum requires a minimum of three credit hours in course work designated as fulfilling our quantitative literacy requirement.
Service Learning
Service Learning focuses primarily on relating theory to practice through the incorporation of a Service Learning component into an academic course. Service Learning frames the reciprocity issue that all partners in the learning experience are servers, served, teachers, and learners. Service Learning assumes that colleges are living communities and the location of learning and serving. The Daemen curriculum requires a minimum of three credit hours in Service Learning. In addition to academic requirements such as readings and reflection papers, students complete a minimum of 20 clock hours for each credit hour of service – i.e., 60 service hours total to fulfill the three credit hour requirement.
Research and Presentation
This requirement facilitates the integration of course work, knowledge, skills, and experiential learning, enabling the student to demonstrate a broad mastery of learning within the discipline. Courses meeting the College’s three credit hour Research and Presentation (R&P) requirement include a research paper as well as an oral presentation with peer critique in a public forum. All courses approved for R&P credit must also have a component that meets Writing Intensive standards.
Writing Intensive
The College emphasizes the critical importance of written communication skills by requiring a minimum of nine credit hours in courses designated as Writing Intensive (WI). Three of these hours are fulfilled in the required CMP 101 English Composition course (3 hours) and additional credits through the Research and Presentation requirement. Additional credit hours are taken in a Writing Intensive course of the student’s choice and/or within the major for a total of 9 credits. A minimum of 25% of the final grade in WI courses is based on writing performance.