The Undergraduate Core Curriculum

Living Responsibly in an Interdependent World

Marywood’s undergraduate Core Curriculum plays an essential role in providing a foundation in the Catholic intellectual tradition to empower and teach students to live responsibly in a diverse and interdependent world, one of the central goals of the University’s Mission Statement. The overarching learning goal of the Core Curriculum is “integrative learning.” This is the ability to make connections among ideas and experiences, across the curriculum and co-curriculum, to synthesize and transfer learning to new situations and beyond campus.

Our integrative Core Curriculum engages students through a variety of courses in the traditional liberal arts as well as the professional disciplines. Core courses are intentionally designed to help students develop a set of skills, such as critical and creative thinking, moral and ethical reasoning, effective communication, and intercultural awareness. Students will gain disciplinary knowledge and approaches that are adaptable to real-world, complex problems.

The Core Curriculum helps students develop intentional learning strategies through the use of metacognition– thinking about and reflecting on their own learning, skills, and processes, identifying areas of strength and struggle. These key teaching practices, interwoven throughout all Core courses, serve to increase students' capacity for self-awareness, agency, and life-learning.

Core Courses address learning outcomes to ensure all students, regardless of major, graduate with essential competencies and skills. The Core Outcomes are based on nationally recognized LEAP Essential Learning Outcomes standards and requirements of The Middle States Commission on Higher Education and the PA Dept of Education. The Core Curriculum also includes several unique outcomes that ensures students graduate with a signature set of skills grounded in Marywood’s Mission and Core Values.

Finally, the Core Curriculum is designed to offer maximum flexibility, variety, and choice to all students. By integrating traditional liberal arts courses, major courses, and many paths to satisfying requirements, the Core strives to deliver a robust, common intellectual experience while at the same time being responsive to the varied interests and needs of students.

The Core Curriculum is composed of 40-42 credits, organized into five distinct categories or “themes.” Category One “Foundations” courses should be completed by year 2. Courses in Categories 2-5 can be taken concurrently or in any order provided any prerequisites are satisfied. While students can choose from a number of course options to satisfy requirements for Categories 2-5, all students are advised to check the current curriculum map for their program to verify if there are any program-required Core courses or semesters that specific Core courses must be taken). All courses offered in a category are designed to address at least one designated student learning outcome.

Core Categories:

Foundations of Applied Liberal Arts - 12 credits
Communication: Written & Oral - 6 credits
Arts & Culture - 9 credits
Scientific & Quantitative Reasoning - 6-7 credits
Diverse Perspectives - 6-9 credits

Category 1: Foundations of Applied Liberal Arts

Foundations courses prepare students to engage in college-level inquiry through practice in academic writing, critical thinking, examination of ethical issues, and immersion in a language and cultures different from their own. Students will also explore various belief systems and traditions.

Required Courses: (12 credits)

ENGL-160 “Writing, Rhetoric, & Composition”
PHIL-120 “The Examined Life” or PHIL-121 “The Good Life”
LANG-150/250 (Spanish, French, or Italian)
RST-112 “Modern Belief”

Foundations Courses Learning Outcomes:

Written Communication: the ability to develop and express ideas in writing across various genres, styles, and modalities.
Intercultural & Global Competency: skills that support effective engagement, interaction, and exchange of ideas across cultural and social contexts beyond one’s own.
Interfaith Literacy: the ability to identify, examine, and articulate one’s own values and beliefs, as well as to engage in respectful cooperation and dialogue with others.
Ethical Reasoning: the ability to recognize, understand, and describe ethical problems and arguments in order to formulate one’s own perspectives about right and wrong human conduct and apply ethical decision-making skills to real-world dilemmas.

Category 2: Written and Oral Communication

Communication courses build upon the skills students develop in Foundations courses. Students gain valuable practice and competency in spoken/oral presentation skills, opportunities to enhance their written work with technology (such as visual or digital media) so that they can effectively articulate and express their ideas, arguments, and positions across a variety of professional and social contexts. Students also hone their academic writing skills through a second course in English writing or a discipline-focused writing course.

Requirements: (6 Credits)

ENGL-WRT -or- Writing Intensive Course
Oral/Speaking Course

Communication Courses Student Learning Outcomes:

Written Communication: the ability to develop and express ideas in writing across various genres, styles, and modalities.
Oral Communication: the ability to deliver prepared, purposeful speech that increases knowledge, fosters understanding, or promotes change in listeners’ attitudes, values, beliefs, or behaviors.

Category 3: Arts & Culture

Arts & Culture courses engage students in the artistic, social, political, and historic contributions of numerous cultures, movements, and forms of human expression around the globe. Students hone skills that are widely applicable across professions, such as: critical and creative thinking, an understanding of aesthetics and artistic expression, the ability to analyze various works, texts, documents, media, and other cultural artifacts, and problem-solving in order to create new ideas or concepts, and the ability to apply insights and inspiration to real-world scenarios.

Requirements: (9 Credits)

ART (ART, MUSIC, DANCE, THEATRE) course
HISTORY course
ENGLISH LIT course

Arts & Cultures Courses Student Learning Outcomes:

Aesthetic Appreciation & Expression: an understanding of the theories, values, concepts, and terms used to interpret and evaluate works of art, and the ability to apply them to one’s own work or others’.
Critical Reading: using processes to understand and construct meaning from historical, primary, written, and other texts, such as interpretation, decoding, rhetorical analysis, etc.
Inquiry & Analysis: the ability to systematically explore an issue, object, or work through a disciplinary lens, break down complex topics, and use available evidence to draw conclusions or judgements.
Intercultural & Global Competency: skills that support effective engagement, interaction, and exchange of ideas across cultural and social contexts beyond one’s own.

Category 4: Scientific & Quantitative Reasoning

Scientific & Quantitative Reasoning courses develop competency in data analysis, numerical problem-solving, forming and testing hypotheses, and interpreting results. Further, scientific and quantitative concepts can be applied to disparate areas of knowledge, in order to evaluate or critique scientific and numerical claims, methods used, and conclusions offered.

Requirements: (6-7 Credits)

1. SCIENCE (BIOL, CHEM, ENVS)*

2. MATH -or- a Quantitative designated course**

*A 3-credit SCIENCE or 4-credit SCIENCE + Lab required by a student’s program will satisfy the Core Science requirement.

**Students that transfer in appropriate level MATH credit can elect to take a Quantitative-designated course instead of an upper-level MATH.

Scientific & Quantitative Reasoning Courses Student Learning Outcomes:

Scientific Reasoning: The ability to apply scientific methods to understand the natural world, to identify scientific aspects of daily life, and to evaluate the quality of scientific information on the basis of its source and the methods used for its generation.
Quantitative Reasoning: the ability to reason and solve quantitative problems in authentic contexts and everyday life situations, support arguments using quantitative evidence, and communicate data using appropriate visual formats (tables, graphs, etc.).

Category 5: Values, Ethics, & Diverse Perspectives

Diverse Perspectives courses deepen students’ understanding of complex cultural and societal issues through exposure to a wide variety of disciplines and topics that explore the appreciation of differences, unmet human needs, social justice work, and the empowerment of others. Moreover, they foster students’ capacity for empathy and reflection and ability to create personal and professional meaning in their lives and careers.

Requirements: (6-9 Credits)*

1. SSCI (PSYC, SOC, CJ, PS, ECON)

2. PHIL or RST (upper-level)

3. CORE Elective*

*The Core elective may be any additional Core course from Categories 2-5 eg. HIST, ENGL, PHIL, RST, +SPAN -or- any program/major course that has been approved as a Core elective.)

Diverse Perspectives Courses Student Learning Outcomes:

Inquiry & Analysis: the ability to systematically explore an issue, object, or work through a disciplinary lens, break down complex topics, and use available evidence to draw conclusions or judgements.
Interfaith Literacy: the ability to identify, examine, and articulate one’s own values and beliefs, as well as to engage in respectful cooperation and dialogue with others.
Ethical Reasoning: the ability to recognize, understand, and describe ethical problems and arguments in order to formulate one’s own perspectives about right and wrong human conduct and apply ethical decision-making skills to real-world dilemmas.

Core Attribute Course Requirements

Core Attributes are universal competencies that all students are expected to encounter and develop through the course of completing their Core and program requirements and may be delivered by any course or discipline. Therefore, they do not require additional courses or credits to be taken. Rather, over the course of their study, students should choose at least one attribute-designated Core or major course for each of the two Core attributes below:

Core Attribute Requirement 1: Information & Digital Literacy (IDL)

Courses with a IDL designation teach students how to identify and analyze information sources and types, emphasizing issues of bias, perspective, credibility, and authority in research, professional, and personal contexts. Students learn and use a variety of research tools and resources in order to locate, evaluate, verify, and use information effectively and ethically.

Requirement: Any IDL-designated Core course from Categories 2-5 or IDL-designated major course will satisfy the IDL requirement. This may be the same course that satisfies another Core or major requirement.

Information & Digital Literacy Attribute Student Learning Outcome:

Information Literacy: the ability to identify an information need, and to effectively locate, evaluate, and ethically use and share information

Core Attribute Requirement 2: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)

Courses with the DEI designation engage students in theories, ideas, and concepts related to structural racism, allowing students to develop methods and approaches to remove unjust social structures and ensconced, systemic inequalities.

Requirement: Any DEI-designated Core course from Categories 2-4 or IDL-designated major course may satisfy the DEI requirement. This may be the same course that satisfies another Core or major requirement.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Attribute Student Learning Outcome:

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Competency: the ability to recognize and critically reflect on historical and continuing processes of oppression.