Diverse Perspectives

Foundation 

• 3 credits from Diverse Perspectives – Foundation list

Essential Practice           

• 3 credits from Diverse Perspectives – Essential Practice list     

Program-Integrated Practice

• 1 course, defined by program, that integrates diverse perspectives in the context of the major                                                                              

Foundation Courses

• Should be taught by content area experts.
• Exposing students to diverse perspectives should be a primary focus of the course.
• All Foundational experiences should involve exposure to others’ perspectives and reflection on one’s own. This level should address both the “Recognize” and “Know” levels from the original DP ISLO text, so the student needs to acknowledge and think about their own perspective/worldview while also gathering factual information about others’.
• These courses must expose students to Diverse Perspectives for intellectual reasons: to keep students from seeing the world from just one perspective, to help them understand identity (both their own and those of others), how we construct it and how it effects how we relate to others, to defend against provincialism, etc.

Essential Practice Courses

• Should be taught by content area experts.
• Requiring students to learn about and explore diverse perspectives should be a primary focus of the course.
• All Practicing level experiences should require students to synthesize knowledge and practice. This level should address both the “Know” and “Understand” levels in the original DP ISLO text, so students are not only gaining factual knowledge about others’ perspectives, they’re using that knowledge to draw connections and a larger understanding about the ways that different perspectives affect peoples’ actions in the world (their own and those of others).
• This course should require students to gather factual information about DP in different ways and bring them together in a cohesive manner to demonstrate their understanding. Exposure to theory should occur at this level as well, so that students are able to write and talk about Diverse Perspectives using common, explicable terminology.

Program-Integrated Practice Courses

• Through the experience of this final level, all students should come to an understanding of how diverse perspectives impact their field and profession. This level should address the “Apply” level in the original DP ISLO text, so students should be applying their knowledge of DP to their program courses and beyond, toward their future professional lives.
• For all potential learning experiences at this level, there should be a professionally-relevant experiential element, but the student should also be required to produce an artifact in response to this experience.
• This level should be tied both to the program/major and to “real-world” experience. When possible, it should explicitly expose students to outside events/experiences that are related to issues that they’ll be required to deal with as part of the workforce in their chosen field.