University-wide General Education

University-wide General Education Courses to Foster Continuous Learning

Sophia University’s general education courses are more than basic liberal arts courses to prepare for specialized education. All students take univeristy-wide general education courses throughout four years, taking steps from the Introductory to Inquiry/Synthesis levels. They are offered across academic disciplines and also connected with specialized and language courses. They constitute an integral part of foundation for autonomous and continuous learning.

Learning how to Learn

“Learning How to Learn” is a pre-enrollment course to overview learning at univeristy. The course consists of eleven synchronous lectures. The aim of the course is for new students to start thinking about how learning at university may differ from secondary education, characteristics of learning at Sophia, and meaning and goals of learning.

Integral Understanding of Humanity

In this subject area, students are expected to proactively explore “what it means to be human” from various perspectives. The area consists of two subject categories: Studies in Christian Humanism” and “Embodied Wisdom.”

Foundations of Thinking

In this subject area, students will acquire the skills, mindsets, and habits for continuous learning through assessing, comprehending, and expressing various information such as texts, numerical and visual data. The area consists of two subejct categories: “The Art of Thinking and Expression” and “Data Science.

Knowledge Development and Exploration

The “Knowledge Development and Exploration” Subject Area constitutes of four categories. Each category is uniquely organized to provide liberal arts education to cultivate problem-solving skills, creativity, and a rich sense of humanity.

Issues, Perspectives and Positionality

The category is for a first-year compulsory course that looks at specific issues, such as the environment, by exploring not only the issues themeselves from various academic approaches but also effects of our own positionality and perspectives.

Current Social Issues and the Future Prospects

The category includes courses that look at specific issues, their future prospects and often approaches toward solving them. Environment, Sustainability, Gender, Diversity, International Peace and Cooperation, Inclusiveness are some of the issues that these courses focus on.

Disciplinary Perspectives

These courses provide students with opportunities to study a wide range of academic approaches in humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, and other fields outside of their department. Students may acquire new academic perspectives and methodologies that contribute to their own specialized studies or to explore multi-disciplinary approaches.

Experiential Learning

Leaning also happens outside classrooms. Students may gain hands-on knowledge and competencies through study abroad, service learning, career development and internship courses provided as “Experiential Learning” courses.

Sophia University

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