SAGES uses seminar-based instruction to teach students how to use the skills of academic inquiry, to think critically and ethically, to find information, and to communicate their ideas in writing and other media effectively. Its sequence of courses builds core academic skills, introduces discipline-specific concepts and methods, and then culminates in a capstone experience that demonstrates students’ ability to apply what they have learned.

This mission is achieved through a commitment to five core student learning outcomes:

Student Learning Outcome 1: ACADEMIC INQUIRY.

Upon completion of the SAGES program, students should be able to pose a question or problem relevant to an academic discipline and independently use knowledge to answer or solve it. Academic inquiry is founded on the ability to identify questions and problems that engage others. It includes the ability to apply appropriate theories and methods of investigation, ones capable of producing insightful ideas that help answer a question or solve a problem relevant to an academic discipline. In addition, academic inquiry is attended by certain attitudes: passion for learning, a sense of agency, an appreciation of deep rather than surface knowledge, and a willingness to reflect on and assess one’s own learning.

Student Learning Outcome 2: CRITICAL THINKING AND ETHICAL DELIBERATION.

Upon completion of the SAGES program, students should be able to think and act with an awareness of their own values and reasoning, as well as an appreciation of the perspectives of others. Critical thinking starts with the ability to formulate questions and problems clearly and precisely. It also involves the ability to identify the assumptions that frame our thinking and determine our actions, as well as to gauge the degree to which those assumptions are accurate and valid. Critical thinkers are able to look at ideas and decisions from multiple perspectives, and consider open-mindedly the assumptions, implications, and practical consequences of alternative systems of thought. Based on this information, they derive well-reasoned conclusions and solutions, testing them against relevant criteria and standards. This awareness of one’s own values and assumptions, combined with an appreciation of the different perspectives of others, forms the basis of ethical deliberation. By developing a coherent ethical framework and considering the likely consequences of a proposed solution as viewed by different value systems, ethical thinkers can make justified, autonomous choices about matters of the human good, of social justice, or of natural value, and do so with self-awareness and clarity.

Student Learning Outcome 3: RESEARCH AND INFORMATION LITERACY.

Upon completion of the SAGES program, students should be able to independently research and evaluate information to answer a question or solve a problem relevant to an academic discipline. This ability originates in the determination of the nature and extent of information needed to answer a question or solve a problem. It includes the skills needed to find, access, and evaluate that information critically, as well as to use it effectively and ethically in support of an answer or solution to a question or problem. In disciplines where inquiry depends on the generation and quantitative analysis of raw data, this outcome assumes that all students should understand how to use data once it has been processed into information.

Student Learning Outcome 4: PERSUASIVE WRITING.

Upon completion of the SAGES program, students should be able to write a clear and persuasive argument in support of an answer to a question or a solution to a problem. In an academic setting, all effective communicators are able to express their ideas in writing. The emphasis that SAGES places on open-ended inquiry and critical thinking requires that students be able to articulate and defend an argument that supports an answer to a question or a solution to a problem. Effective communicators are able to express their ideas with an awareness of purpose, as well as how to engage both discipline-specific and broader audiences. In addition, although there may be variations in disciplinary conventions for writing genres and formats, persuasive academic writing demands that the explanation or defense of a proposed answer or solution use a coherent thesis to govern the structured and clear presentation of a persuasive argument based on reasons and evidence.

Student Learning Outcome 5: ORAL AND MULTIMODAL COMMUNICATION.

Upon completion of the SAGES program, students should be able to communicate ideas and information in a clear and coherent oral presentation that uses a mixture of modes and is appropriate to an academic discipline. As with academic writing, effective communicators organize the presentation of ideas with an awareness of purpose, audience, and context. They deliver a clear and compelling central message designed to increase knowledge, foster understanding, or promote change in listeners’ attitudes, values, beliefs, or behaviors. They use credible, vivid, and varied supporting material in the form of explanations, examples, images, statistics, analogies, quotations from relevant authorities, and other kinds of information or analysis that supports the principal idea and their authority. They group and sequence ideas and supporting material in ways that enhance the effectiveness of the presentation, reflecting a purposeful choice among possible alternatives, such as a chronological pattern, a problem-solution pattern, an analysis-of-parts pattern, etc., that makes the content of the presentation easier to follow and more likely to accomplish its purpose. They select and effectively use a combination of modes (e.g., visual, digital) that complement and enhance one another, engaging audience members in multiple ways and amplifying the overall effectiveness of the presentation.

Download these SAGES Student Learning Outcomes and Performance Standards as a PDF.