CRITICAL THINKING AND REASONING
Students will:
- clearly articulate an issue or problem;
- identify, analyze, and evaluate ideas, data, and arguments as they occur in their own or others’ work;
- acknowledge limitations such as perspective and bias; and
- develop well-reasoned (logical) arguments to form judgments and/or draw conclusions.
SUNY Guidance
Students need to acquire critical thinking and reasoning skills appropriate to the demands of the 21st century citizen, and campuses must have flexibility to implement and assess these learning outcomes across a diverse range of academic programs.
The Critical Thinking and Reasoning competency is not necessarily associated with any one course, though the student learning outcomes may be required in one or more courses. In either case, campuses must ensure that the required learning outcomes are included in each undergraduate degree curriculum.
INFORMATION LITERACY + AI
Students will:
- locate information effectively using tools appropriate to their need and discipline
- evaluate information from a variety of sources with an awareness of authority, validity, bias, and origin; and
- demonstrate an understanding of the ethical dimensions of information use, creation, and dissemination, whether from traditional sources or emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence
SUNY Guidance
Students need to acquire information literacy appropriate to the demands of the 21st century, which includes applying all three learning outcomes of this core competency to various sources of information, including emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence.
CIVIC DISCOURSE
Students will demonstrate the discourse skills necessary to participate in civic life, including:
- the deliberation of ideas through reasoned inquiry that seeks new information and considers multiple viewpoints; and
- the ethical practice of advocacy, dissent, and dialogue that constructively attends to points of conflict.
SUNY Guidance
The phrase “participate in civic life” is intentionally broad to capture the ways in which individuals engage with various communities and public spaces, which may include political and social institutions within the United States and across the globe, as well as other spaces of public life, such as digital forums and the workplace. Conceived of in this manner, the skills of civic discourse are applicable across a range of disciplines.
Civic discourse is the exchange of ideas about public matters. It is distinct from debate, which has as a primary purpose promoting one’s own ideas and attempting to convince others to agree with these ideas.
This core competency is intended to focus on students acquiring the knowledge to understand the importance of, and requirements for, civic discourse, and students will demonstrate the skills that reflect this knowledge. This competency is not intended to assess student conduct in general.