Goals for Religious Studies Graduates & Student Learning Outcomes

Graduates of the CSU, Chico Department of Religious Studies will:

G1. Possess essential knowledge of the historical emergence, cultural contexts, scriptural and oral traditions, teachings, practices, and contemporary expressions of the world's major religious traditions in global and U.S. contexts.

SLO1a. Students can identify the historical and cultural sources and describe the basic beliefs and practices of at least two major world religious traditions.

SLO1b. Students can describe the particular expressions of at least two major world religions in the U.S. context.

G2. Comprehend the component forms of religious life, including ritual, myth, doctrine, philosophy, ethics, and material culture.

SLO2. Students can illustrate the concepts of ritual, myth, doctrine, ethics, philosophy, and material religious culture by describing and comparing examples of each from at least three religious traditions.

G3. Understand how religion informs and is informed by other dimensions of human experience and knowledge, such as gender, ethnicity, social organization, politics, economics, and science; and how religions are used both to support and to critique social structures and institutions.

SLO3. Students can explain how religion shapes and is shaped by other cultural systems by describing in detail both the supportive and critical functions of religion in at least two significant areas of human interaction.

G4. achieve competence in the interdisciplinary, comparative approach to the study of religion, which employs the tools and perspectives of such disciplines as anthropology, sociology, philosophy, theology, ethics, history, psychology, and literary theory.

SLO4a. Students can demonstrate understanding of texts on religion (including primary texts) from at least three different disciplinary fields.
SLO4b. Students can demonstrate the ability to think comparatively about religious studies methodologies.

G5. Acquire the skills of critical reading, listening, and reasoning that foster conversation and enrich civil and academic discourse about religion.

SLO5. Students can engage in reasoned dialogue about religion.

G6. Develop the ability to communicate effectively in speech and writing in a variety of formats.

SLO6. Students can make clear, well organized, and substantive oral and written presentations.

G7. Master the research skills and methods appropriate to the contemporary study of religion, including library, Internet, and field research.

SLO7. Students can produce a research paper or presentation that demonstrates facility with traditional and electronic religious studies resources, and usage of appropriate scholarly style and citation formats.

G8. Cultivate both respect and critical engagement in responding to diverse religious and non-religious identities present in a pluralistic society.

SLO8a. Students will have observed and analyzed a community religious event.

SLO8b. Students will have attended at least one public forum on a religious issue and can submit a report demonstrating respect for and critical engagement with at least two different perspectives on that issue.

Return to the Preface or Peruse Student Resources