As a basis of a Wartburg College
education, the Essential Education (Ess Ed) plan is comprised of
a series of challenges that help create liberally educated, ethically-minded
citizens for the 21st century.
EssEd:
Thinking Strategies, the Three Levels
The introductory level
IS (Inquiry Studies) Courses look at problems/ situations
with the point of modeling how educated people formulate and respond
to questions of personal and social importance. Designed as "pre-disciplinary"
courses, IS courses favor broad processes of inquiry and articulation
over narrow content and responses.
The second level
IC (Interconnected) Courses introduce students to
the unique contributions of disciplines to our understanding of
themes, issues, and fields of knowledge. These courses also connect
a unique disciplinary understanding to another discipline's perspective
(upon the same object of study), thus allowing students to experience
how varied approaches and vocabularies provide new and useful insights.
The third level
ID (Interdisciplinary Courses) require students to synthesize
knowledge. Students draw upon the work in their major(s) and experiences
in IS and IC courses as they integrate knowledge across the humanities/fine
arts, social sciences, and natural sciences. Such integration serves
the understanding of a complex social, historical, or philosophical
issue.
EssEd:
Reasoning
EssEd approaches
the challenges of thinking/expressing skills via three components: verbal reasoning (writing and speech), mathematical reasoning,
and scientific reasoning. Wartburg believes that competency
in these three areas is central to producing the cognitive outcomes
of liberal learning, which are in turn central to good citizenship
and career success.
EssEd:
Literacies
Wartburg College's EssEd plan
integrates into specific courses those literacies required of a
liberally educated person. These include information literacy
(ILAC); diversity across the curriculum (DAC), including foreign
language; oral communication across the curriculum (OCAC), and writing
across the curriculum (WAC). Such courses reinforce skills introduced
at the IS level (above) as well as in composition, scientific reasoning,
and oral communication courses.
EssEd:
Faith and Reflection
As a college of the ELCA, Wartburg College takes seriously its duty
not only to foster spiritual as well as intellectual growth, but
also to help students integrate the two. To this end, EssEd asks
students to take two religion/philosophy courses, the first in
years one or two and the second in years three or four. The
first of these courses provides students with the opportunity for
in-depth study of the Biblical tradition. The second course, chosen
among a number of options, will concern how Christian traditions
or the Western philosophical traditions have addressed ultimate
questions of Being and value in human experience.
EssEd:
Health and Wellness
Wartburg College prides itself in its nurturing of the body, mind,
and spirit of each of its students. To that end, each student is
expected to complete a half-term course concerned with promoting
life-affirming choices regarding physical health.
EssEd:
The Capstone
The capstone, the only
course required in EssEd specifically included in students' majors,
completes the process of integration. In the capstone, students
are expected to synthesize the various intellectual strategies and
forms of knowledge that they have been exposed to in their majors.
