History: Student Learning Outcomes

Graduates with a history major will:

Read and comprehend complete and/or excerpted primary historical documents, based on a demonstrated ability to

• summarize the essential content of the document
• identify key themes
• explain the background and historical context of the document (time, place, cultural conditions, links to other course readings and topics).

Comprehend works of secondary historical scholarship, based on a demonstrated ability to

• identify the key themes in the text
• use examples of supporting data and specific detail
• describe the relationship between the themes and the supporting data (indicate how the details of the historical text contribute to and support the identified themes)

Understand, on a basic level, the essential nature of history as a complex, dynamic process of story-telling and interpretation of past events, based on a demonstrated ability to

• recognize a sequence of chronology in a text
• use examples to explain the interconnection among events (i.e. how one event or series of events/developments leads or contributes to another
• explain the concept of historical periods as post-facto chronological divisions devised to facilitate understanding of the characteristics of a designated era.

All history majors are expected to demonstrate SLO #1, #2, and #3 and the following:

Produce coherent essays on historical topics by applying the historical method which incorporates the following skills:

• analyzing historical sources
• constructing an argument
• organizing supporting evidence