General Education

At VWU, we nurture learners in a community grounded in critical thinking, empathy, and civil discourse.  Faculty practice active pedagogies that help students understand how to examine issues, events, and ideas from diverse perspectives.  Faculty are committed to teaching in ways that lead students to understand the world and to find a place in it.  We want students to develop intellectual curiosity--a need to know who, how, and why.

The purpose of general education is to introduce a broad range of academic pursuits and to teach students to integrate knowledge and use multiple perspectives to inform thinking and problem solving.   Our curriculum brings students from across the university together in three seminar-style courses in which the process of liberal education is begun (Seminar I) and developed (Seminars II and III).  Seminars focus on topics chosen by the faculty and there is a wide variety of offerings each semester. 

The Wesleyan Seminars form the heart of the General Education program and cultivate intellectual growth, character development, collaboration, and community involvement. Through different topics and perspectives, the seminars highlight how conflicts in society develop, how the source of disagreements can be recognized, and how different ways of thinking and talking --when brought together--make for more creative and effective problem solving. Seminars challenge students to become deep thinkers by providing a guided path for students to question, to act, and to pursue their majors more fully prepared for earnest intellectual engagement.

The Seminars are grounded in critical thinking, empathy, and civil discourse.  The faculty practice active pedagogies that integrate students into the community by involving them in the examination of issues, events, and ideas from diverse perspectives.  The faculty are committed to teaching in ways that lead students to understand the world and to find a place in it.  Students develop intellectual curiosity--a need to know who, how, and why.  The Wesleyan Seminars are designed not simply to impart knowledge, but to help students listen to the ideas of others and to collaborate to create new ways of knowing. In the Wesleyan Seminars, students build foundational academic skills, engage a range of perspectives, and are challenged to develop a new approach to learning. Students will emerge eager to embrace the rigorous studies of their chosen major as they become a more thoughtful, responsible person seeking to build a better world.

General Education Requirements