In accord with the mission of North Seattle Community College (NSCC), the college community affirms the place of general education in all programs. General education provides the non-specialized portion of students' education, emphasizing attitudes necessary to function as a citizen and life-long learner, skills required for college level inquiry and competence, and knowledge that demonstrates awareness of the complex world in which we live.

To help students achieve the outcomes of general education, certain attitudes should pervade the entire culture of NSCC and encourage faculty, staff and students to:

1. Recognize the value of intellectual inquiry, personal responsibility, and ethical behavior.
2. Discover the interdisciplinary nature of knowledge.
3. Demonstrate a willingness to learn from many cultures, persons, methods, and viewpoints.
4. Be actively involved in the community.
5. Find joy in the process of self-discovery, in expressing oneself creatively, and in lifelong learning.

General education will provide introduction and practice in the ability to think critically, to use quantitative reasoning, to write, to demonstrate information literacy, to use computer skills, to work in groups, and to deal with diversity.

Outcome 1: Think critically in reading and writing.

1. To develop the attitudes that support problem solving and the reasoning process.
   1. To recognize the roles of truth versus personal bias.
   2. To recognize the value of divergent views.
   3. To tolerate ambiguity.
   4. To develop intellectual skepticism.
   5. To demonstrate intellectual honesty.
2. To apply thinking skills.
   1. To use intuition and imagination.
   2. To compare and contrast.
   3. To use deductive and inductive reasoning.
   4. To recognize assumptions, inferences, and biases.
   5. To distinguish between knowledge and beliefs.
   6. To generalize, classify, and interpret.
   7. To recognize reasoning fallacies.
   8. To relate cause and effect.
   9. To analyze and synthesize.

Outcome 2: Use quantitative reasoning processes to understand, analyze, interpret, and solve quantitative problems.

1. To realize that quantitative reasoning is based on axiomatic principles, definitions, and theorems and to demonstrate ability to distinguish the differences among these.
2. To attach meaning to abstract symbols and know when to use which symbol.
3. To formulate patterns based on specific examples.
4. To recognize and describe, with mathematics and in English, the appropriate mathematical model for a given concept or phenomenon.
5. To recognize and to apply the appropriate mathematical skill or process in arithmetic, algebra, and geometry required in various contexts.
6. To translate data to graphical representation.
7. To interpret and make inferences from graphical and numerical data.
8. To determine if conclusions or solutions are reasonable.

Outcome 3: Discover, develop, and communicate one's own creative and critical ideas in writing and to respond in effective writing to the spoken, written, and visual ideas of others.

1. To perform a variety of writing tasks, including some, but not necessarily all, of the following:
   1. To inform.
   2. To explain.
   3. To analyze and synthesize information.
   4. To present and support a thesis.
   5. To record events and phenomena.
   6. To interpret texts.
   7. To discover, integrate, and properly document sources.
2. To recognize and develop the qualities of writing appropriate to the audience and purpose.
   1. To control a central purpose.
   2. To develop a text with sufficient detail, example, argument, etc.
   3. To give necessary form and structure to a text.
   4. To write sentences and paragraphs which flow smoothly and clearly from one to the other.
   5. To use words and sentences effectively.

Outcome 4: Access, evaluate, and apply information from a variety of sources and a variety of contexts.

1. To understand information structures in different sources and different contexts.
2. To develop successful search strategies.
3. To retrieve, organize, store, and manipulate information using a variety of technologies.
4. To critically analyze information.
5. To recognize that accurate and complete information is the basis for intelligent decision making.
6. To recognize public policy issues relating to information.

Outcome 5: Apply computer competency appropriate to general education and occupational goals.

1. To select and use the appropriate software for producing a variety of written and graphic materials.
2. To select and use the appropriate software for storing, retrieving, and analyzing data for any desired subject area.

Outcome 6: Work and communicate effectively in groups.

1. To demonstrate effective listening skills.
2. To demonstrate effective speaking skills.
3. To facilitate a group effectively.

Outcome 7: Deal constructively with information, ideas, and emotions associated with such issues of diversity and conflict as culture, ethnicity, race, gender, religion, age, sexual orientation, and abilities.

In an environment that promotes the attitudes and skills listed above, AA and AA S degree students will be introduced to knowledge that will help them to:

Outcome 8: Understand major ideas, values, beliefs, and experiences that have shaped human history and cultures.

1. To understand the role of religions in different cultures.
2. To understand gender as a factor and a force in human communities.
3. To understand the nature and value of work in human communities

Outcome 9: Understand artistic expression as an essential human and cultural phenomenon.

1. To understand the role of such arts as literature, theater, painting, and music in expressing and reflecting all aspects of human experience.
2. To recognize contemporary and enduring works of literature, theater, music, and art in world civilizations.
3. Develop individual creativity.

Outcome 10: Identify and understand fundamental concepts of the physical and life sciences and the effects that the uses of these concepts and resulting technologies have on the individual, on society and on the biosphere.

1. To understand the working principles with which we build models in the physical and life sciences.
2. To understand the evolving scientific process used in creating new images of natural phenomena.
3. To understand the effects of human activities within the biosphere.
4. To understand the power and limitations of mathematical language used in developing models of the natural world.

Outcome 11: Understand the nature of the individual and of the relationship between the self and the community.

1. To understand moral and ethical principles and theories that are integral to personal and interpersonal development.
2. To understand how human beliefs and behaviors shape the individual and the community.
3. To understand the roll of the individual in responding to the needs of the broader community.
4. To understand the need to maintain physical and mental well-being.

Outcome 12: Understand the United States as a multicultural society.

1. To understand the United States today in terms of its diverse historical and cultural roots.
2. To understand that U.S. culture continues to emerge and be shaped by the interaction of people with different views, i.e., multiple origins, experiences, and world views.
3. To understand that one's own attitudes, perspectives, and beliefs are shaped by one's own cultural, ethnic, and racial heritage, by gender, by age, by sexual orientation, and by abilities.

Outcome 13: Understand the elements of a global society.

1. To attain knowledge of the cultures of the world, understanding their uniqueness and commonalities.
2. To deepen the understanding of another culture through the study of its language.
3. To understand how technology shapes the global society.
4. To understand global events, trends, and issues and their relation to international inequality.
5. To understand the interconnections among the individual, the local community the nation-state, and the global society.