Common Learning Goals

Lenoir-Rhyne University’s Learning Goals rest upon three foundations developed from the university’s mission statement:

• Integrated Learning To be a fully developed person, one must know that each of the three broad categories of learning defined in the common learning goals - care and responsibility, knowledge and understanding, and communication and rhetoric - must work together simultaneously.
• World Engagement A full understanding of the world and a spirit of openness will yield a call to service and action as we work in communities at every level.
• Christian Perspective To fulfill our mission as a Christian institution, the university shall foster caring for others, humility, fellowship, a sense of vocation and faith.

The common learning goals, when implemented across the entire curriculum, will yield a discerning, curious and effective thinker, responsive to the needs of others.

Care and Responsibility

Lenoir-Rhyne graduates will demonstrate a sense of personal integrity and an awareness of their responsibilities as stewards and citizens of the world. Furthermore, they will exhibit a commitment to morality and to lives of service. They will demonstrate:

• care and concern for personal wellbeing.
• care and concern for others.
• care and concern for learning.
• awareness of the world beyond the self in an open and intercultural way.
• rigorous ethical understanding.
• dedication to vocation.
• realization of these goals in action and service.

Knowledge and Understanding

Lenoir-Rhyne graduates will interpret the world using appropriate tools drawn from relevant bodies of knowledge both to grapple with and to attempt answers to enduring questions. They will:

• engage the knowledge, the modes of inquiry and the enduring questions of the liberal arts and sciences.
• engage the unknown and solve problems creatively.
• understand the ways in which the various bodies of knowledge connect and overlap.
• understand the limits of these bodies of knowledge.

Communication and Rhetoric

Lenoir-Rhyne graduates will be discerning readers and listeners as well as persuasive writers and speakers, practiced and skillful at grasping and creating meaning. They will:

• read and listen for information, understanding and argument, moving beyond memorization to discernment.
• write and speak informatively and persuasively to different audiences and make effective use of qualitative and quantitative reasoning, evidence and exhortation.
• use writing and speaking as tools for understanding and solving problems.
• effectively locate, critically assess and use information.