General Education Program Guiding Philosophy
The General Education program prepares you for success at CWU and as a citizen in our dynamic, diverse, and global society. The program fosters integrated learning, enhancing your ability to make connections across courses and disciplines and to apply a breadth of knowledge to real-world problems. It will help you develop skills in critical thinking, clear communication, creative leadership, ethical decision-making, and complex problem solving. Combined with your major, the General Education program will cultivate curiosity, empower personal development, strengthen understanding of and respect for diverse perspectives, and build a foundation for life-long learning.
General Education Program-Level Goals
Explore: You will explore a breadth of knowledge, methods of inquiry and reasoning, and fundamental questions. That process will cultivate curiosity, facilitate the understanding of diverse perspectives, empower personal development and growth, and build a foundation for life-long learning.
Engage: As you engage with new knowledge, people, and perspectives, you will assume responsibility for your learning. In the process, you will develop enhanced communication-written and spoken-and critical thinking skills grounded in logic, reason, analysis, and synthesis. Combining these skills will enable you to employ multiple approaches to complex and real-world problems. As an engaged citizen, you will bring intellectual creativity and curiosity into your personal, civic, and professional life.
Connect: You will discover how disciplines, societal challenges, and cultures are interconnected. This process links coursework and community, local and global issues, past and present. Your ability to integrate learning will lead to new ways of thinking, analyzing, and interacting with our dynamic and diverse world.
Create: Your knowledge and skills will empower you to ask innovative questions and envision unique projects. This process of creative engagement will enable inquisitiveness and original thinking. It will provide you with agility for success in your career and life.
Empathize: Your General Education will facilitate open-mindedness and enable you to better understand and imagine others’ experiences. As you become more knowledgeable and curious about the world, you will develop respect for diverse points of view, engage in ethical decision-making, and demand and demonstrate compassionate leadership.