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Miami Plan Learning Outcomes

Four Pillars

The “Four Pillars” of the MGP are the anchors of liberal education at Miami. Each course in the MGP will meet each of the Four Pillars in some way.


Pillar Outcomes

Civic Mindedness & Social Engagement

Understand and articulate how research and studies relate to the greater social good

Understand their education not simply as preparation for a better job but as preparation for global civic engagement and service to others

Critical & Integrative Thinking

Research and explore complex claims, objects, texts, and problems through the development of questions and hypotheses, collection and analysis of evidence, the formation of sound conclusions or judgments, and a habit of self-scrutiny and revision

Communication & Expression

Communicate research and ideas—and, as applicable, to persuade—with sophistication, force, and clarity, orally, in writing, and through other audio/visual/semiotic means

Collaboration & Innovation

Gain experience in collaborative and innovative research, effective teamwork, adaptability, creativity, entrepreneurship, leadership, and technology literacy

 

Perspective Areas

Global Citizenship

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

Outcomes
  • Analyze the means by which identity—both individual and collective—is formed and expressed in a range of contexts through intersecting and constitutive features such as race, color, language, religion, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, and socio-economic status, while also accounting for the ways identities and cultural biases are informed by historic, economic, political, and social factors
  • Describe and analyze some of the historical and social structures that have shaped modern ideas about identity and difference globally, including ethnocentrism, colonialism, slavery, democracy, and imperialism
  • Define and analyze the historical, political, social and economic systems that influence distribution of, and access to, resources, while also showing knowledge of the inequalities that accrue from such systems
  • Interpret diverse cultural practices from multiple perspectives;  identify cultural stereotypes and mitigate their impact on individuals and communities (Or) Explain empathy and develop strategies to embrace its value as both an individual and collective response to the needs and suffering of others

Intercultural Consciousness

Outcomes
  • Develop and exercise the ability to communicate and act respectfully across linguistic and cultural differences
  • Explore and conceptualize one’s place and influence in the changing world by recognizing the role of global biocultural diversity in shaping their own—and others’—attitudes and values as global citizens
  • Describe the development and construction of group and individual identities and cultures in terms of intersectional phenomena that include notions of race, gender, sexuality, caste, class, ability, ethnicity, nationalism, and/or other socially constructed categories
  • Understand the ways marginalized and dominant groups define and express themselves, and the contexts in which these definitions are constructed

Global Inquiry

Outcomes
  • Describe the origins and contexts of global forces and their impacts on individuals and collective groups
  • Determine and assess relationships among societies, institutions, and systems in terms of reciprocal – though not necessarily symmetrical – interactions, benefits, and costs
  • Identify and analyze the consequences of global forces and their impacts on individuals and collective groups

Formal Reasoning & Communication

Mathematics & Formal Reasoning

Outcomes
  • Learn to improve in the ability to develop logical arguments.
  • Explore the logical and systemic methodology used by mathematicians to examine and explore concepts, such as quantity, space, probability, structure, and the study of motions and shapes of physical objects
  • Begin a formal introduction to logic and methodologies used in deriving conclusions
  • Investigate concepts of truth, proof, meaning, and their role in informing and influencing our perceptions, imagination, thought processes, and learned experience

English Composition

Outcomes
  • Rhetorical Knowledge: Demonstrate an ability to write effectively for different contexts, audiences, purposes, and genres, while in the meantime, develop an understanding of how rhetorical devices and moves work to enhance writings on specific communicative situations
  • Composing Processes: Develop effective strategies for developing ideas, researching topics, producing drafts, revising, peer responding, editing, and proofreading. Practice delivering writing via both print and digital media.
  • Inquiry, Invention, and Research: Ask critical questions, conduct research-based inquiries, and use invention techniques effectively to explore ideas, engage differing perspectives, and synthesize findings into sustained arguments or narratives. Learn to locate, evaluate, integrate, and cite secondary sources of information effectively and ethically.
  • Writing Technologies: Demonstrate a critical awareness of the affordances and limitations of the diverse writing technologies and modalities of communication, both digital and non-digital. Learn to effectively produce, share, and publish your writing by using appropriate technologies of production, editing, commenting, delivery, and sharing
  • Reflection and Mega-Cognitive Awareness: Apply concepts and terms from the field of rhetoric and composition to reflect critically on composing practices and rhetorical decisions, especially writing are shaped by and shaping your communities/identities, audiences, and the writing technologies in use

Advanced Writing

Outcomes
  • Be able to read academic and/or professional or technical texts and understand how disciplinary conventions and goals shape the texts they read.
  • Understand and use writing as a means of learning and thinking
  • Compose texts that respond to the needs of appropriate audiences, using suitable discourse conventions to shape those texts. Use academic conventions of format and structure when appropriate
  • Locate, evaluate, organize, and use appropriate primary and secondary research material
  • Compose texts that integrate the writer’s ideas with those from academic sources and other documents
  • Engage in extended drafting and revision of extended and formal texts using appropriate technologies and modalities

Science & Society

Social Sciences

Outcomes
  • Investigate human behavior, social relationships, and/or the interactions of people with their cultural, social and political environments
  • Examine social phenomena including distinct human communities, political processes and structures, interpersonal and intercultural relationships, economic behaviors, psychological phenomena, and the relationships that discrete human populations have with other subnational, national, or international entities
  • Explain the primary theoretical approaches used in the social science discipline
  • Analyze the primary quantitative and/or qualitative research methods used in social science discipline
  • Discuss the primary ethical issues raised by the practices and findings of the social science discipline

Biological Sciences

Outcomes
  • Understand the basic facts, principals, theories and methods of modern science
  • Explain how scientific principles are formulated, evaluated, and either modified or validated
  • Critically evaluate current models and ideas in order to describe, explain, or predict natural phenomena
  • Apply scientific methods of inquiry appropriate to the discipline to gather data and draw evidence-based conclusions
  • Distinguish between science and technology and recognize the role of science in everyday life
  • Recognize that new advances can change scientific understanding and that it is critical to constantly evaluate information from a variety of sources

Physical Sciences

Outcomes
  • Understand the basic facts, principles, theories and methods of modern science
  • Explain how scientific principles are formulated, evaluated, and either modified or validated
  • Critically evaluate current models and ideas in order to describe, explain, or predict natural phenomena
  • Apply scientific methods of inquiry appropriate to the discipline to gather data and draw evidence-based conclusions
  • Distinguish between science and technology and recognize the role of science in everyday life
  • Recognize that new advances can change scientific understanding and that it is critical to constantly evaluate information from a variety of sources

Arts & Humanities

Creative Arts 

Outcomes
  • Articulate a vocabulary for expression within the study of a creative discipline.
  • Reflect critically on contexts, meanings, expressions, or values of the arts.
  • Create or reinterpret artistic works, as performer or as critic, through the development of skills of analysis and criticism.
  • Utilize existing frameworks in a creative discipline to examine the development of artifacts or evidence in that creative field.

Humanities

Outcomes
  • Consciously employ principles, terminology, or methods characteristic of a discipline in the humanities.
  • Analyze, interpret, compare, or evaluate primary texts or analogous cultural products or expressions (such as symbols, cultural practices, or constructed identities, which students “read” as if they were texts).
  • Consider social, historical, or relational context while analyzing, interpreting, or evaluating cultural expressions.

Signature Inquiries

  1. Make connections” through active, engaged, or authentic learning that applies knowledge and identifies problems that affect people or the world around us.
  2. Be interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, or cross-disciplinary in the course readings, activities, or methodologies; and/or make explicit links to other courses/disciplines in the relevant Signature Inquiry area.
  3. Search for, read/listen to, and evaluate appropriate sources of information (primary or secondary) for understanding issues or seeking solutions.
  4. Synthesize information and share ideas with others (informally or formally).

Themes:

  • Sustainability & Resilience: Courses in this area investigate how resources—whether natural, scientific, technological, ecological, creative, educational, artistic, historic, or sociocultural—have been and can be sustained, engineered, and deployed to meet the needs of current and future generations.
  • Power, Justice & Social Change: Courses in this area ask students to consider questions of cultural and linguistic diversity, equity and social justice broadly conceived, and the ways in which dynamics of ecology, power and conflict shape societies across time.
  • Creativity, Storytelling & Design: Courses in this area explore how people construct narratives or imagine possibilities, experiences, and worlds (internal or external), as ways to make meaning and identity, gain new perspectives, or devise solutions to problems.
  • Data, Technology & Society: Courses in this area investigate the myriad ways in which information, data, and technology impact societies and cultures, including influencing our understanding of “truth” and reality, among other interrelated issues critical to our world.
  • Global Health & Wellness: Courses in this area explore health as not merely the absence of disease, but as the results of biological, environmental, individual, social, political-economic, or cultural processes that yield and impact physical, mental, or social well-being.

Knowledge in Action

Miami Senior Capstone

  1. Use and apply multiple sources and types of sources.
  2. Apply knowledge to address real-world problems. Ask questions and explore solutions.
  3. Apply knowledge gained in various courses and experiences.
  4. Create artifacts/deliverables that communicate their ideas to a wider audience beyond the teacher. Be able to share ideas orally and/or in writing with audiences appropriate for the problems and ideas taken up in the course.

Experiential Learning

Experiential learning (0+) takes a variety of forms from internships to civic engagement with the key elements of understanding and employing new ideas and new knowledge from direct experience in a real world or an “out of the traditional classroom” context. Experiential learning opportunities are purposeful and result in either a written reflection or EL based project that highlights these experiences to increase knowledge, develop skills and clarify perspectives or values.

All EL-designated courses/programs must involve significant experience-based learning beyond that which typically occurs in the undergraduate classroom or class-related laboratory setting; and a level of academic rigor and educational effectiveness comparable to what is found in a typical Miami University undergraduate course.

  • evidence of an application of academic knowledge and/or skills. Does the proposal briefly describe the opportunities present in the course/program for students to apply academic ideas, concepts, theories and/or skills to practice?
  • evidence of sustained and significant mentor/student interaction: Does the proposal briefly describe the opportunities present in the course/program for students to interact meaningfully with their faculty/staff mentor(s) throughout the experience?
  • evidence of sustained student involvement or immersion: Does the proposal briefly describe the total amount of time that students will be expected to devote to this experience? Note: At minimum, the time commitment should be roughly equal to that required in a one-credit hour course.