Overview
The Liberal Studies Seminar concept is based upon the assumption that every BIS student should have multiple and complementary opportunities to develop a set of core skills early in his or her BIS career. These skills are best introduced through an extended exploration of some “critical issue.” The core skills include
Interdisciplinary approach to problems – looking at problems from different perspectives and surfacing the assumptions that these perspectives carry with them.
Academic writing skills– exercised on multiple occasions, with several different academic essay types, each occasion following a draft-review-draft pattern with substantial instructor or writing partner feedback. Several of these essays should be on the same topic encouraging the student to build on the feedback he or she receives and develop a deeper understanding of the issue in question.
Academic conversation skills – receiving and evaluating feedback, facilitating a discussion, participating in a discussion of common readings and challenging material, presenting ideas with clarity and professionalism before a group.
Critical thinking skills – under-standing the elements of an argument (evidence, reasons and conclusions), constructing a sustained argument for a position using abstracts and structured outlines, evaluating the strength of arguments, recognizing the importance of hidden assumptions, sensitivity to objectivity and bias, and statistical and causal reasoning.
(300-level)
Research fundamentals – selecting and narrowing a topic, defining a thesis and associated research questions, designing and carrying out a sustained research program, familiarity with standard research sources and tools, interpreting and evaluating source materials (both primary and secondary), writing for the reader, understanding one’s responsibility in academic research and writing (400-level) |
