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GE Learning Outcomes for Faculty

For GE patterns prior to Fall 2025 please visit the catalog GE Page

Area 1 English Communication

The courses completed for Area A requirements develop student’s communication and reasoning skills.

Students will be able to:

  • Analyze and evaluate print and online texts critically using a rhetorical approach to demonstrate an understanding that effective written communication is situated and contextual, responds to exigencies, is informed by audience, genre, and purpose, and accounts for the writer’s and reader’s ethical responsibility.
  • Reflect on ways in which interpreting and composing texts are impacted significantly by the language, culture, and status of the reader and the writer.
  • Respond to multiple rhetorical situations by generating, drafting, revising, and editing texts.
  • Distinguish between written products and processes, using revision as an essential writing practice.
  • Demonstrate intentional consideration of knowledge of conventions, linguistic structures, and usage as determined by the rhetorical situation.

Students will be able to:

  • Identify and apply the elements of sound logical reasoning to compose and critique deductive and inductive arguments.
  • Identify and critique fallacies, biases, and errors in reasoning.
  • Identify and evaluate the use of facts and opinions as evidence in the construction of arguments.
  • Identify and evaluate methods and reasoning appropriate to the discipline associated with the course.

Students will be able to:

  • Construct and deliver a variety of sustained, ordered, informative and persuasive oral messages demonstrating a rhetorical understanding of how situational elements invite and constrain verbal rhetorical responses.
  1. Identify and employ appropriate organizational structures for sustained public
    presentations, and rhetorically justify those choices.
  2. Identify and employ appropriate supporting material (including visual aids) reflecting rhetorical analysis of the context, audience, and speech content.
  3. Engage in a basic critique and analysis of supporting material.
  • Identify and apply strategies for dealing with communication apprehension.

Area 2 Mathematical Concepts and Quantitative Reasoning

Mathematically literate individuals understand the characteristic features of mathematics as forms of human knowledge and inquiry, and they are aware of how mathematics shape their material, intellectual, and cultural environments. Mathematically literate individuals are willing to engage in math-related issues and ideas as reflective citizens and they are able to draw evidence-based conclusions and make reasoned decisions concerning math-related issues in real-life contexts. Mathematical literacy includes both an individual’s knowledge of scientific and mathematical concepts and principles as well as the use of that knowledge to acquire new knowledge, to identify questions, and to explain mathematical phenomena. Achieving mathematical literacy is a life-long process that requires the development of skills, confidence and the desire to apply what has been learned to new areas and issues as they arise in the individual’s life. The definition of scientific literacy is based on: PISA 2003 Assessment Framework - Mathematics, Reading, Science and Problem Solving Knowledge and Skills (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development).

  • Students will be able to solve problems by thinking logically, making conjectures, and constructing valid mathematical arguments.
  • Students will be able to make valid inferences from numerical, graphical and symbolic information.
  • Students will be able to apply mathematical reasoning to both abstract and applied problems, and to both scientific and non-scientific problems

Students will be able to do one or more of the following:

  • Cite critical observations, underlying assumptions and limitations to explain and apply important ideas and models in one or more of the following: physical science, life science, mathematics or computer science.
  • Recognize evidence-based conclusions and form reasoned opinions about science-related matters of personal, public and ethical concern.
  • Discuss historical or philosophical perspectives pertaining to the practice of science or mathematics.

Area 3 Arts and Humanities

The courses completed for Area C requirements develop student’s understanding of the arts and humanities.

The learning objectives associated with 3A should focus on artistic processes and how works of art reflect the cultural contexts in which they were produced. Specifically, students completing the 3A requirements should be able to:

A. Think conceptually and critically about medium, performance or presentation, and production for at least one art form.

B. Demonstrate knowledge of artistic production, aesthetic properties, and the way creative work is shaped by artistic and cultural forces.

C. Have an acquaintance with a broad understanding of artistic forms, genres, and cultural sources.

D. Be able to develop and defend informed judgments about creative work.

E. Demonstrate knowledge of the conventions of at least one of the disciplines in the arts.

The learning objectives associated with 3B should focus on the human condition. Specifically, students completing 3B requirements should be able to:

A. Demonstrate knowledge of the conventions and methods of the study of the humanities.

B. Investigate, describe, and analyze the roles and effects of human culture and understanding in the development of human societies.

C. Compare and analyze various conceptions of humankind.

D. Demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the historical development of cultures and civilizations, including their animating ideas and values.

Area 4 Social and Behavioral Sciences

All courses in Area 4, unless granted an exception as provided in paragraph three below, shall be infused with content, materials, readings, examples or assignments intended to develop an understanding and appreciation of the diversity of the human community and of the contributions and perspectives of women and of ethnic, religious, and other minorities.

The course syllabus and/or justification submitted to the G.E. Course Review Committee for initial G.E. listing of the course, or, in the case of periodic review, continued G.E. listing, shall indicate how this requirement is met. Specifically, the course syllabus/justification shall identify how the diversity of the human community and the perspectives of women and of ethnic, religious or other minorities are included in the course, provide a rationale for the appropriateness of the methods/means of inclusion and specify the methods/means for evaluating the achievement of the objective of developing an understanding and appreciation for the contributions and perspectives of diverse human groups and of women, ethnic and religious or other minorities.

Requests for exception to the requirement specified in paragraph one above shall be submitted to the G.E. Course Review Committee which shall determine whether the justification provided warrants an exception.

Area 4 Learning Outcomes

  1. Describe and evaluate ethical and social values in their historical and cultural contexts.
  2. Explain and apply the principles and methods of academic disciplines to the study of social and individual behavior.
  3. Demonstrate an understanding of the role of human diversity in human society, for example, race, ethnicity, class, age, ability/disability, sexual identity, gender and gender expression.
  4. Explain and critically examine social dynamics and issues in their historical and cultural contexts.

Area 5 Physical and Biological Sciences

Scientifically literate individuals understand the characteristic features of science and mathematics as forms of human knowledge and inquiry, and they are aware of how science and mathematics shape their material, intellectual, and cultural environments. Scientifically literate individuals are willing to engage in science related issues and ideas as reflective citizens and they are able to draw evidence-based conclusions and make reasoned decisions concerning science related issues in real-life contexts. Scientific literacy includes both an individual’s knowledge of scientific concepts and principles as well as the use of that knowledge to acquire new knowledge, to identify questions, and to explain scientific phenomena. Achieving scientific literacy is a life-long process that requires the development of skills, confidence and the desire to apply what has been learned to new areas and issues as they arise in the individual’s life. The definition of scientific literacy is based on: PISA 2003 Assessment Framework - Mathematics, Reading, Science and Problem Solving Knowledge and Skills (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development).

Drawing upon one or more of the physical sciences, students will be able to:

  • Explain and apply core ideas and models concerning physical systems and mechanisms, citing critical observations, underlying assumptions and limitations.
  • Describe how scientists create explanations of natural phenomena based on the systematic collection of empirical evidence subjected to rigorous testing and/or experimentation.
  • Access and evaluate scientific information, including interpreting tables, graphs and equations.
  • Recognize evidence-based conclusions and form reasoned opinions about science-related matters of personal, public and ethical concern.

Drawing upon one or more of the life sciences, students will be able to:

  • Explain and apply core ideas and models concerning living systems and life forms, citing critical observations, underlying assumptions and limitations.
  • Describe how scientists create explanations of natural phenomena based on the systematic collection of empirical evidence subjected to rigorous testing and/or experimentation.
  • Access and evaluate scientific information, including interpreting tables, graphs and equations.
  • Recognize evidence-based conclusions and form reasoned opinions about science-related matters of personal, public and ethical concern.

  • Students will be able to use their senses and scientific instruments to gather, organize, and display empirical data.
  • Students will be able to identify patterns in data and use these to hypothesize underlying relationships.
  • Students will be able to explain and apply scientific techniques for coping with complexity and variability in the natural world.

Students will be able to do one or more of the following:

  • Cite critical observations, underlying assumptions and limitations to explain and apply important ideas and models in one or more of the following: physical science, life science, mathematics or computer science.
  • Recognize evidence-based conclusions and form reasoned opinions about science-related matters of personal, public and ethical concern.
  • Discuss historical or philosophical perspectives pertaining to the practice of science or mathematics.

  1. Students will demonstrate an understanding of academic content knowledge regarding selfdevelopment as a physiological, social and/or psychological being.
  2. Students will critically examine prior or current experiences or behaviors from their own lives in response to real world physiological, social and/or psychological contexts (may be evident in selfassessment, reflection or creative work).
  3. Students will apply skills and knowledge regarding development of the self to differing situations, such as real world challenges, and/or to make connections across perspectives.

  1. Students will be able to identify their own perspective and make connections/comparisons across perspectives.
  2. Students will be able to plan, monitor, and assess their own learning.
  3. Students will be able to set personal and/or professional goals.

Area 6 Ethnic Studies

Area 6 Learning Outcomes

This 3 semester unit requirement fulfills Education Code Section 89032. The requirement to take an approved 3 semester unit lower or upper division course in Area F shall not be waived or substituted.

The purpose of the Area 6 Ethnic Studies requirement is to implement the above cited law which was created by the passage of AB 1460, in accordance with CSU GE Breadth Requirement. The policy, commencing with students with catalogue rights starting with 2021-22 academic year, adopts as an undergraduate graduation requirement, the completion of, at minimum, one 3-unit course in Ethnic Studies, as specified. Ethnic Studies programs came about from students of color demanding them. On November 6, 1968, a coalition of student groups at San Francisco State University demanded that the university institute an Ethnic Studies program. Ethnic Studies is an interdisciplinary and comparative study of race and ethnicity with special focus on four historically defined racialized core groups: Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, and Chicanxs/Latinxs.

To be approved for this requirement, courses shall have the Ethnic Studies prefix ETHN. Courses that are approved to meet this requirement shall meet at least 3 of the 5 following core competencies.

  1. Analyze and articulate concepts such as race and racism, racialization, ethnicity, equity, ethno-centrism, eurocentrism, white supremacy, self-determination, liberation, decolonization, sovereignty, imperialism, settler colonialism, and anti-racism as analyzed in any one or more of the following: Native American Studies, Pan African Studies, Asian American Studies, and Chicanx/Latinx Studies.
  2. Apply theory and knowledge produced by Native American, Pan African, Asian American, and/or Chicanx/Latinx communities to describe the critical events, histories, cultures, intellectual traditions, contributions, lived-experiences and social struggles of those groups with a particular emphasis on agency and group-affirmation.
  3. Critically analyze the intersection of race and racism as they relate to class, gender, sexuality, religion, spirituality, national origin, immigration status, ability, tribal citizenship, sovereignty, language, and/or age in Native American, Pan African, Asian American, and/or Chicanx/Latinx communities.
  4. Critically review how struggle, resistance, racial and social justice, solidarity, and liberation, as experienced and enacted by Native American, Pan African, Asian American and/or Chicanx/Latinx communities are relevant to current and structural issues such as communal, national, international, and transnational politics as, for example, in immigration, reparations, settler-colonialism, multiculturalism, language policies.
  5. Describe and actively engage with anti-racist and anti-colonial issues and the practices and movements in Native American, Pan African, Asian American and/or Chicanx/Latinx communities and a just and equitable society.

American Institutions

Students will be able to:

  • Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of the historical continuity of the American experience that covers at least a 100 year time span.
  • Describe and analyze the roles and contributions of, and relationships among, major ethnic/social groups and movements to US history.
  • Explain and analyze the causes and consequences of significant events in the US historical context relating to political, economic, geographic, and social change.
  • Explain and evaluate the historical development of US institutions and ideals in relation to the Constitution and American democracy.
  • Analyze and evaluate the United States in its global context, with particular attention to its historical derivation from other cultures and its incorporation of immigrants into American society.
  • Identify and apply primary sources (direct or firsthand evidence about an event, object, person) and secondary sources (descriptions, interpretations, commentaries, evaluations, analyses of direct or firsthand evidence) to their understanding of US history.

Students will be able to:

Explain the political philosophies of the framers of the US Constitution, including the fundamental ideas of the Declaration of Independence; the Federalism-Anti-Federalism debate; ideas about representative democracy; checks and balances; and the foundations of the Bill of Rights and a limited Constitution.

  • Explain the characteristics, operation, and interaction of institutions in the US Constitution.
  1. Congress: Legislative process, operation and structure, and elections.
  2. Executive: Electoral College, unitary executive, exercise of executive power, and the functioning of the bureaucracy.
  3. Judicial: Judicial review, decision making, and selection.
  • Explain the rights and obligations of citizens under the US Constitution, including the Bill of Rights, and the incorporation of rights via the 14th Amendment.
  • Explain and analyze the history and legacy of civil rights and civil rights movements in relation to the US Constitution and legislation.
  • Explain and evaluate the function, role, and impact of campaigns and elections, interest groups, political parties, mass media, social movements, and public opinion on democracy in the United States.
  • Explain the relationship between state, local, and federal government, including enumerated, reserved, and concurrent powers under the US Constitution over time.

Students will be able to:

  • Explain the structure and functions of California’s constitution, including plural executive, legislative and judicial branches, local governments, and the function and history of direct democracy in California politics and government.
  • Describe the historical development of California’s political institutions, including California’s finance and budgetary processes, as well as its electoral system.
  • Explain the contributions of diverse groups to California’s political evolution.

College Composition II

COLLEGE COMPOSITION II LEARNING OUTCOMES

The students in College Composition II courses focus on how to compose texts for a variety of purposes including exposition, argumentation, inquiry, and research. College Composition II courses further develop college-level reading and writing, emphasizing how disciplinary values influence how a writer approaches topics, identifies audiences, develops a persona, and articulates a purpose for writing. College Composition II courses include analysis of texts from a range of disciplines, marshalling evidence through research and committing a well-reasoned argument to text.

Upon completion of a Composition II course, students will be able to

  1. Demonstrate awareness of how disciplinary values influence how a writer approaches a topic, identifies audiences, develops a persona, and articulates a purpose for writing.
  2. Develop an understanding of the ways texts are written, researched, organized, and disseminated in multiple disciplines.
  3. Synthesize and analyze credible and relevant evidence and/or sources to support ideas for specific rhetorical purposes appropriate to a variety of disciplines.
  4. Demonstrate use of conventions relative to a variety of disciplines to develop organization, content, presentation, and style.
  5. Construct texts in a variety of discipline-specific genres and media that communicate a controlling idea with clarity and fluency.
  6. Demonstrate consistent control of written language in response to disciplinary conventions

In addition to meeting the above learning outcomes, all courses shall maintain best practices1 and:

  1. Engage in scholarly dialogue in multiple disciplines in an effort to generate new ideas and participate in on-going academic conversations.
  2. Emphasize writing as a socially situated process in which students are required to craft multiple drafts for each project.
  3. Require guided opportunities for students to reflect on their writing processes and their rhetorical choices.
  4. Employ both formative and summative assessment2.

[1] National Council of Teachers of English recommends a student-faculty ratio of 20:1 (see National Council of Teachers of English Statement of Principles and Standards for the Postsecondary Teaching of Writing http://www2.ncte.org/statement/postsecondarywriting/)

2 “Direct assessment in the classroom should provide response that serves formative purposes, helping writers develop and shape ideas, as well as organize, craft sentences, and edit” (see College of Composition and Communication’s Writing Assessment: A Position Statement http://www.ncte.org/cccc/resources/positions/writingassessment)

Race and Ethnicity in American Society

In addition to meeting the criteria set forth in the General Education Policy, courses that qualify for the Race and Ethnicity requirement must incorporate at least one criterion within each of the six Race and Ethnicity learning outcomes. These learning outcomes center traditionally underrepresented groups, and people of color: Asian American/Pacific Islander, Chicanx/Latinx, Native American, and African American/Black, while also recognizing that their lived experiences always, already intersect with other categories of difference.

Understand how race and ethnicity intersect with other aspects of identity and cultural experiences, including but not limited to women of color, gender identity, sexuality, age, class, caste, immigration, and disability.

Students will be able to:

  1. (Knowledge) Articulate the complexity and multidimensionality of race and ethnicity by learning about intersectional privilege and oppression.
  2. (Attitudes) Demonstrate understanding of one's identities and biases, as well as racial and ethnic identities and experiences that differ from one’s own, especially as they interconnect with other aspects of identity; and/or
  3. (Skills) Critically examine the role of race and ethnicity, as it intersects with other aspects of difference such as gender in shaping, individual, collective and national identities.

Examine the relationships between individuals and a pluralistic society.

Students will be able to:

  1. (Knowledge) Demonstrate an understanding of the contributions of various racial and ethnic groups to the American experience.
  2. (Attitudes) Critically examine the values of the United States as a pluralistic society and identify the values/perspectives of diverse communities.
  3. (Skills) Demonstrate effective communication with people from different cultural backgrounds. This would involve expression of empathy, sensitivity, perspective-taking, and socially conscious acknowledgment.

Demonstrate a multi-level understanding of oppression, historically and currently in the United States of America.

Students will be able to:

  1. (Knowledge) Articulate multiple examples of power and privilege of advantaged groups in the context of race/racism, ethnicity/ethnocentrism and intersectional forms of such power and privilege.
  2. (Attitudes) Reflect on one’s their own privileges and disadvantages associated with their own intersectional identities.
  3. (Skills) Apply critical thinking to compare diverse perspectives regarding the theoretical, empirical, and practical knowledge in the course content.

Demonstrate a historical and contemporary understanding and analysis of the institutions and practices that create inequities for communities of color in the U.S with particular attention to the construction of race, racism and other intersectional framings within race and ethnicity.

Students will be able to:

  1. (Knowledge) Identify these inequities at the individual, interpersonal, community or group-level, and structurally (e.g., in institutions, policies, laws). Inequalities can be understood in terms of social life, sexuality, mental health, economic struggles, etc.
  2. (Attitudes) Consider the ways in which one’s own ethnic and/or racial groups has been situated in these institutions and practices.
  3. (Skills) Evaluate judicial systems and their social justice implications for diverse ethnic groups and their intersectional experiences.

Identify and describe the qualities involved in individual and community anti-racist struggles for empowerment and liberation.

Students will be able to:

  1. (Knowledge) Identify one’s values as an ally to marginalized and disenfranchised communities.
  2. (Attitudes) Identify the ways in which one (the student) is or can be allied to ethnic or racial groups and intersectional identities, different than one’s own.
  3. (Skills) Evaluate the context and processes by which marginalized individuals or communities become empowered and/or liberated

Explain and analyze the history of and modern U.S. reliance on Eurocentric heteropatriarchy, colonization of the Americas and territories, as well as reliance on forced removal and migration, immigration, and diaspora.

Students will be able to:

  1. (Knowledge) Identify the ensuing political, economic, interpersonal, psychosocial effects, including historical trauma and intergenerational stress.
  2. (Attitudes) Consider the position(s) of one’s own racial and/or ethnic group in the process of colonization, slavery, or other examples of exploitation or cultural imperialism
  3. (Skills) Critically evaluate the contributions made by various diasporic ethnic groups of color to the modern nation state.

Upper Division Writing Criteria for All Upper Division GE Courses

Writing Criteria For All Upper Division GE Areas

Includes a writing component described on course syllabus.

The course requires a minimum of 1500 words of formal, graded writing. [Preferably there should be more than one formal writing assignment and each writing assignment (e.g. periodic lab reports, exams which include essay questions, a research/term paper etc.) should be due in stages throughout the semester to allow the writer to revise after receiving feedback from the instructor. Include an indication of how writing is to be evaluated and entered into course grade determination.]

Students will:

Produce 1500 words of formal, graded writing related to course content.

Writing Intensive Course Requirements

Courses designated as Writing Intensive build on the basic skills and knowledge acquired by students in their foundation courses in General Education or the major. These courses are to expand students' knowledge by examining complex issues and they are to advance students' abilities to reason logically and to write clearly in prose.

  1. The course must build on the basic skills and knowledge acquired by students in their foundation courses in General Education or the Major
  2. The course must expand students’ knowledge by examining complex issues.
  3. The course must expand students’ abilities to reason logically and to write clearly in prose.
  4. Students must be required to write not less than 5,000 words of clear and logical prose (not to include simple narrative or diary writing).
  5. Instructors must work actively with students to sharpen analytical abilities and to improve their writing styles
  6. Writing assignments must be spread over the entire semester (with at least 3000 of the 5,000 words due before the last two weeks of instruction.
  7. Instructors must provide timely responses and evaluation of each writing assignment, and evaluations and.

  1. Utilize and build on the basic skills and knowledge acquired in their foundation courses in GE or the major.
  2. Examine complex issues.
  3. Write 5,000 words of clear and logical prose (not to include simple narrative or diary writing)