Intellectual Foundations

Learning Outcomes | (Download PDF)

SUNY Guidelines for Social Sciences

Learning Outcomes

Students will demonstrate:

1.  understanding of the methods social scientists use to explore social phenomena, including observation, hypothesis development, measurement and data collection, experimentation, evaluation of evidence, and employment of mathematical and interpretive analysis; and
2.  knowledge of major concepts, models and issues of at least one discipline in the social sciences.

Guidelines

More than some other broadly defined discipline areas, the boundaries of the social sciences may vary significantly from campus to campus. In order to be approved for the social science category, submitted information should demonstrate clearly that the course provides a substantial introduction to an acknowledged social science discipline. For inter- or multi-disciplinary courses (e.g., women’s studies, or the social science portions of integrated curricula), or courses that otherwise fall outside the envelope of traditional social science disciplines, submitted course information should demonstrate clearly:

1.  how they teach understanding of social science methodologies;
2.  a rationale for which discipline(s) in the social sciences they draw on for concepts and models;
3.  that the majority of the texts used fall clearly within the social sciences.