General Education Outcomes
The university faculty has identified five areas students need for success in a chosen major and to appropriately engage their world.
Through the General Education experience at MidAmerica the student should learn and grow in the following areas:
Faith Integration - Students gain knowledge through Scripture, tradition, reason, and experience, in order to know the triune God-Father, Son, Spirit-and deepen their faith journey.
Formational Thinking - Students exercise intellectual curiosity, creative problem-solving, and precision of thinking by locating, analyzing, organizing, and applying knowledge for meaningful solutions.
Discovering Creation - Students learn and interpret information from creation, both as one who is created and one capable of creatively engaging their world.
Communication & Self-Expression - Students integrate knowledge, creativity, and ethical practice by understanding, producing, and evaluating messages in and for multiple contexts.
Global Citizenship - Students apply historical and cultural knowledge to the development of self and demonstrate sensitivity across cultures, ethnicities, beliefs, and life experiences.
The Committee requires two areas of emphasis be a part of all courses approved for General Education: application and creativity. These “cross-cutting themes” distinguish MNU’s General Education as experiential, integrative, and relational.
General Education courses build on and participate in God’s mission of reconciliation, restoration, and renewal of the person as a servant-leader in their vocational calling. The following overarching areas of emphasis found in all General Education courses’ instructional approaches help to achieve this. These “cross-cutting themes” are partially derived from the elements of 21st Century Skills with a strong connection to the academic identity of the institution. The themes focus on the formation of the person through creativity and application opportunities. Formation is a by-product of application and creativity. When thinking processes are deepened and skills strengthened, students become creators and life-long learners. Embedding application and creativity rekindle curiosity of the mind and spark the generative power of thought. While all general education courses embed these themes, departments are encouraged to apply the themes throughout a student’s major, within content specific instructional methods.
APPLICATION represents the content relevance embedded in all general education courses so students can use what is learned in new situations. Students solve problems by applying acquired knowledge, techniques, and processes in different ways. Experiential learning opportunities such as laboratory experiences, simulations, internships, performances, compositions, practicums, and other hands-on applications both inside and outside the classroom provide environments for application. In this way, application provides opportunities for creativity.
CREATIVITY is generated from an ability to question and look for opportunities beyond the obvious. Students engage, plan, construct, invent, design, and perform. Creativity requirements included in the learning experience provide limitations, forcing a thinker to see possibilities and new solutions through interdisciplinary connections. This may include considering diverse perspectives across the liberal arts curriculum through the humanities, mathematics, hard sciences, social sciences, and health sciences to identify connections, departures, and conflicts. In doing so, creative learning experiences are both integrative and relational.
These themes prioritize both the vocational and formational goals of General Education. In general, 21st Century Skills are not unique to this century. However, their relevance and priority are increased through the outcomes and cross-cutting themes. Since content is more easily obtained in this information age, the skills to effectively select and strategically apply that knowledge present an urgent need. Students must be conversant with content knowledge and gain experience by putting that knowledge into action.
It is the vision of the MNU General Education Committee that these outcomes thread through a student’s major.
Core Classes
The University faculty has selected a core of courses to meet the above General Education goals. The number of hours varies according to the learning outcomes of each academic school, levels of knowledge, and competence which a student has achieved before entering college. Additionally, the Professional Programs have some variation in the courses that are included in the general education curriculum and the general education for the bachelor degrees for both traditional and professional students are listed below.
The student must pass classes in each area as prescribed below or show competence by some other acceptable measure such as CLEP, Advanced Placement Credit, or university departmental exam.
The goals of General Education will be addressed to some level in each General Education class. Yet certain classes are seen as contributing more directly to a specific area than others. Formational Thinking, for example, will be developed across the curriculum, but is given special attention in mathematics classes.
Freshman Seminar is required for first-time freshman with 24 or less transfer credits.
Students who transfer to MNU with three credit hours of English Composition I from a community college, a four-year institution, or have received dual credit (through a high school) need not take this course. Students may also fulfill this requirement by testing out with a CLEP score of 50 or higher, an AP test score of 3 or higher, or an ACT English score of 26 or higher.
Students may demonstrate proficiency in Algebra by earning an ACT Math score of 22 or higher, an SAT Math score of 580, an Accuplacer competency score, or through transferring in a college credit for an Algebra course. Adult learner options are offered below as well.
The Associate and Bachelor of Arts (Traditional)
Bachelor of Arts
The Associate and Bachelor of Arts (Professional)
Professional General Education
The Bachelor of Music Education
Bachelor of Music Education
The Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology
Bachelor of Science (Kinesiology)
The Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education
Bachelor of Science (Education)
The Bachelor of Science (Natural and Computer Sciences)
Bachelor of Science (Natural and Computer Sciences)
The Bachelor of Science in Nursing
Bachelor of Science in Nursing
These BSN general education courses are for traditional four-year nursing students only. Transfer students will need to work with the Traditional Nursing Program Academic Advisor.
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