How do scholars view the world?

Kay Sagmiller, DirectorCenter for Teaching and Learning

Oregon State University

Which perspective do you prefer?

The 3 Perspectives of General Education

Social Sciences: Why do individuals and groups of people behave as they do?

The Sciences: What forces create and influence the natural world?

The Arts and Humanities: Why do we exist?

Why are you…who you are today?

Ask the Social Sciences

AnthropologyPsychologyEducationEconomicsPolitical ScienceHistoryGender and Women’s studiesCriminology and Criminal JusticeBusinessHealth and Physical Education

In what way does where you grow up influence who you are?

Where do you belong?

Whose history was told?

Whose history was not told?

How will your history shift who you are?

Why are you…who you are today?

Ask the Sciences• Biology• Chemistry• Physics• Environmental Studies: Geology,

Geography• Computer Science

Was it genetics?

Was it chance?

What data can be trusted?

Why are certain patterns repeated in the natural world?

What discoveries resulted from a scientists’ mistake?

What problems can science solve?

What problems have science and technology caused?

Why are you…who you are today?

Ask the Arts and Humanities

• Art• Philosophy• Literature• Writing... Writing... Writing...Writing• Communication

• Foreign Languages• Theatre Arts• Music

Were you divinely inspired to be who you are?

How do you communicate who you are?

What does the music I listen to, say about me?

Why do people create?

What is a good life?

What makes a book worth reading?

What stories are universal?

Our Bacc Core…• Helps us form critical questions• Provides insights to difficult and

complex problems• Enables multiple perspectives• Invites empathy for others• Illustrates the connections between

people, ideas, and places• Invigorates and sustains our democracy

You learn…as you…• Read• Discuss• Write• Contemplate• Solve problems• Collaborate• Innovate

Who will you become?• An artist who paints endangered

species?• A criminologist who writes murder

mysteries?• A biologist who creates mosaics

representing flora and fauna?• A business person who volunteers at

a women’s shelter?

The Sciences

Social Sciences

Place shapes people.

How does our past influence our

present?