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/academics/core-curriculum

Core Curriculum

Living Responsibly in an Interdependent World

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One of the central goals of the University’s Mission Statement is to "teach students to live responsibly in a diverse and interdependent world." Marywood’s undergraduate Core Curriculum plays an essential role in providing a foundation in the Catholic intellectual tradition. Students will be empowered 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 learn to adapt disciplinary knowledge and approaches 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—to identify areas of strength and struggle. These common teaching practices are interwoven throughout all Core courses and serve to increase students' capacity for self-awareness, agency, and life-learning.

The Core requirements are 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.

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*These Core Requirements only apply to students that have matriculated Fall 2024* 

See Core Curriculum Records for requirements prior to Fall 2024

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 pre-requisites 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 must address at least one designated student learning outcome. 

Core Categories

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The Liberal Arts core is organized into five categories:

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. 

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. 

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. 

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.  

Category 5: Values, Ethics, & Perspectives

Perspectives courses deepen students’ understanding of complex 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. 

Core Attribute Courses

Core Attributes are 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:

Information & Digital Literacy (IDL)

Courses with a IL 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. 

Marywood Missions Attribute

The Marywood Mission attribute is intended to ensure that all students are exposed to concepts, theories, and practices aimed at supporting the university’s mission to be “global citizens” who “live responsibly in an interdependent world.” Courses will build a sense of belonging within students–a basic emotional need that involves having a perception or feeling that one is part of a larger community while creating a social and emotional connectedness to something that is greater than oneself.

In order to receive the designation, a course needs to accomplish the following outcomes:

  • Students will investigate and reflect on their own identities and discuss how people with various identities have different experiences in order to foster empathy amongst students.
  • Students will identify and evaluate cultural, political, and economic conditions that exist that influence social outcomes

Courses should include at least one substantial reflective or critical thinking-oriented assignment that emphasizes the outcomes listed above.

As a result of their courses in the core curriculum, students will be able to:

  1. Demonstrate an awareness of and respect for the religious, spiritual, and moral dimensions of life;
  2. Develop a critical awareness of the whole self, as well as an understanding of the complexities of human persons in historical and social contexts;
  3. Develop and evaluate thinking through quantitative, qualitative, and scientific reasoning; problem solving; and research;
  4. Respond justly and with empathy to social inequity – local, regional, and global;
  5. Demonstrate effective communication skills, including skills in a second language at an appropriate level;
  6. Develop an aesthetic appreciation and critical understanding of the visual and performing arts and their cultural importance.

The Core Curriculum provides opportunities for students to gain proficiency in foundational competencies and skills that also reflect Marywood's comprehensive education. It prepares all students with an intellectual, cultural, and values-based skill set that is broadly applicable and essential to success across disciplines and professional fields. Each required Core course helps students develop one or more Core Learning Outcomes. 

Core Curriculum Student Learning Outcomes

  • Written Communication: Students will develop and express one's ideas in writing for a variety of purposes, audiences, and across a multitude of genres, styles, and modalities.

  • Oral Communication: Students will create and deliver, purposeful, spoken communication that increases knowledge, fosters understanding, or promotes change in listeners’ attitudes, values, beliefs, or behaviors.

  • Intercultural & Global Competency: Students will demonstrate effective and considerate engagement, interaction, and exchange of ideas across cultural and social contexts beyond one’s own.

  • Interfaith Literacy: Students will identify, examine, and articulate one’s own values and beliefs, and engage in respectful cooperation and dialogue with others who may hold values and beliefs different from one's own.  

  • Ethical Reasoning: Students will recognize, understand, and/or describe ethical problems and arguments, formulate one’s own perspectives about moral human conduct, and apply ethical decision-making skills to real-world dilemmas.

  • Scientific Reasoning: Students will apply scientific methods to understand the natural world, identify scientific aspects of daily life, and evaluate the quality of scientific information on the basis of its source and the methods used.

  • Quantitative Reasoning: Students apply reasoning and solve quantitative problems in both theoretical contexts and everyday life situations, support arguments using quantitative evidence, and communicate data effectively using visual formats such as tables, graphs, etc.

  • Aesthetic Appreciation & Expression: Students will identify and explain the theories, values, concepts, and terms to interpret and evaluate works of art, and apply them to one’s own creative work and/or the work of others.

  • Critical Reading: Students will employ critical strategies and processes such as interpretation, decoding, rhetorical analysis, etc. in order to understand and construct meaning from historical, primary, written, and other texts.

  • Inquiry & Analysis: Students will systematically explore an issue, object, or work through a specific disciplinary lens, break down complex topics, and use available evidence to draw conclusions or judgements.

  • Information Literacy: Students will identify information needs, locate/obtain information, critically evaluate information sources, authors, and products, and incorporate, use, and share information ethically and accurately.

  • Marywood Mission: Students will investigate, reflect upon, and discuss the concepts, theories, and practices that support the university’s mission, and apply them to the study of cultural, political, and economic conditions that influence social outcomes and diverse perspectives. 

The Core Learning Outcomes are aligned with the AAC&U's LEAP Essential Learning Outcomes and meet the general education standards of The Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE) and requirements of the PA Department of Education. 

Student achievement of Core Outcomes is assessed annually by the Undergraduate Core Curriculum Committee.

2016-2024 Core Curriculum Requirements 

Please see the Undergraduate Catalog for specific program requirements.

Questions?

If you have any questions about the core curriculum, please reach out to your advisor or email core@marywood.edu.