Habits of Mind
Habits of Mind
Fundamental to a liberal arts education are the habits of mind that prepare students for a lifetime of learning and critical engagement with the world.
Considered fundamental to a liberal education, habits of mind foster each person's development as one who seeks to know the truth and is preparing for a lifelong pursuit of knowledge.
The SMC Core is designed to challenge students to develop their skills across their four years in:
- Critical Thinking: Recognizing, formulating and pursuing meaningful questions about one's own and others' ideas.
- Shared Inquiry: Reasoning together about common texts, questions and problems.
- Written and Oral Communication: Development of strong written and oral communication skills.
- Information Evaluation and Research Practices: Understanding how information is gathered and evaluated in society.
Students will first encounter these skills in their Collegiate Seminar and Composition courses, further practicing and developing them in their majors and throughout the rest of the curriculum.
Requirements:
4 Seminar Courses, one per year. 3 Writing courses.
Seminar 1: Critical Strategies and Great Questions
Seminar 2: Western Tradition I
Seminar 102: Western Tradition I for transfer students
Seminar 103: Western Tradition II
Seminar 104: The Global Conversation of the 20th and 21st Centuries
English 4: Composition
English 5: Argument and Research
Writing in the Disciplines: Taken within major