Date: January 5, 2011
Contact: Carol Connelly, Director, Media & Communication Services, ext. 5267, cconnelly@pnc.edu

PNC Faculty Adopt Essential Learning Outcomes

Westville –The Purdue University North Central Faculty Senate has adopted the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) Essential Learning Outcomes for its general education curriculum. PNC is the first university in Indiana to adopt the Essential Learning Outcomes.

This indicates that PNC will take on the highest national standards for general education. These outcomes prepare students for increasingly complex workplaces. AAC&U surveyed employers and found that 91% say that they are asking employees to take on more responsibilities and to use a broader set of skills than in the past. Adopting the highest national outcomes for general education also should facilitate transfer of credits between PNC and other colleges and universities.

One of the purposes of the Essential Learning Outcomes is to “make excellence inclusive” so that all students receive the best and most powerful preparation for work, life, and citizenship.

The Essential Learning Outcomes prepare students for 21st century challenges by gaining knowledge of human cultures and the physical and natural world through study in the sciences and mathematics, social sciences, humanities, histories, languages and the arts; intellectual and practical skills, including inquiry and analysis, critical and creative thinking, written and oral communication, quantitative literacy, information literacy, teamwork and problem solving; personal and social responsibility, including local and global civic knowledge and engagement; intercultural knowledge and competence; ethical reasoning and the foundations and skills necessary for lifelong learning anchored through active involvement with diverse communities and real-world challenges along with integrative and applied learning, demonstrated through the application of knowledge, skills and responsibilities to new settings.

Dr. S. Rex Morrow, PNC dean of the College of Liberal Arts notes that the inherit qualities of leadership and career success lie with in the development of critical and creative thinking and problem solving skills, which are core values of a strong general education program for college students.

“Today, many Fortune 500 corporations continue to maintain that excellent skills of critical thinking, problem solving, communication and literacy are as important for a new employee as a specific college major,” said Morrow. “The AACU's Essential Learning Outcomes will refocus and re-emphasize a university's general education program in developing essential competencies for educated and informed citizens for the state, the nation and the world in the 21 st century.”

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