2012-2013 Catalog 
    
    Mar 29, 2024  
2012-2013 Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

College-Wide Abilities (CWAs)


Edmonds Community College offers opportunities to integrate knowledge and skills in order to reason clearly; communicate and interact respectfully; explore critically and creatively; and act responsibly. Emphasizing these core, college-wide abilities provides a consistent educational focus that encourages students and members of the college community to develop knowledge, habits and skills for lifelong learning.

Students, who earn any of our two-year degrees or shorter-term certificates, have many opportunities across the curriculum to develop and apply college-wide abilities in preparation for their roles in an increasingly diverse, information-driven society. All course objectives in the academic catalog have been mapped to the most relevant CWA. This mapping is denoted by the inclusion of [COMMUNICATE], [ACT], [REASON], or [EXPLORE] after each objective.

Communicate and interact respectfully through critical and imaginative expression

  • Exchange or present information, thoughts, feelings, insights, and perspectives to multiple audiences through a variety of written, verbal, non-verbal, visual, symbolic, and aesthetic means
  • Communicate findings or results of analytic, quantitative, and creative models and processes
  • Demonstrate an understanding that communication involves both sending and receiving information through active reading, speaking, and listening
  • Use creative and critical processes to create common understandings, present multiple perspectives, explore divergent viewpoints and evaluate the effectiveness of one’s own and others’ communication
  • Work effectively in face-to-face and online group settings
  • Use appropriate tools, techniques, and technology to communicate effectively

Act responsibly, both individually and collaboratively, within changing environments

  • Demonstrate professional and academic integrity, responsibility, and ethics necessary for success
  • Work together toward a common end or purpose and explore differences
  • Demonstrate skills and knowledge associated with the responsible stewardship and sustainability of communities and systems
  • Apply appropriate tools, techniques, and technology to facilitate sustainable practices

Reason clearly using varied analytic and creative approaches

  • Locate, acquire, evaluate, and apply information in response to an identified need or problem
  • Analyze data by reshaping it as a quantitative model or other analytic framework in order to deepen understanding of information and to solve problems
  • Use facts or premises to form conclusions, judgments, or inferences
  • Use new observations, interpretations, and perspectives to reexamine or revise initial conclusions or to reconsider perspectives
  • Engage in imaginative and critical inquiry to explore concepts and perspectives and to construct new knowledge, insights, or models
  • Analyze, synthesize, integrate, and evaluate ideas and information from multiple perspectives in order to make complex decisions, solve problems, evaluate actions, adapt to changing situations, and plan for the future
  • Use appropriate tools, techniques, and technology to solve problems

Explore critically and creatively the diversity of cultures, ethics, values, and ways of thinking across communities

  • Recognize and evaluate one’s own and others’ values, ethics, actions, and perspectives and their potential effects on others
  • Demonstrate the ability to make and follow through with responsible commitments
  • Distinguish among personal, ethical, aesthetic, cultural, and scientific values
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the practical need for and value of respecting differences among cultures and perspectives
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the tools, techniques, and technology that facilitate cultural and aesthetic appreciation

Revised CWAs approved May 17, 2010

Find out more about the CWAs.