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Foundations

Foundations courses are designed to introduce students to the intellectual life of LMU, guiding them to confront important issues about values, faith, justice, race, gender, sexuality, and culture, together with the development of fundamental communication and reasoning skills.

Courses in the Foundations level include:

  • First-Year Seminar, which is taken in the first year, introduces students to intellectual rigor, critical thinking, and basic writing skills while laying the foundation for a life-long commitment to learning. Click here to browse the course offerings for First-Year Seminar.

     

    FYS Learning Outcomes:

    Students will...

    • Understand and appreciate the intellectual rigor and academic excellence that defines an LMU education.
    • Engage critically and reflectively in scholarly discourse.
    • Learn to read critically and carefully.
    • Exercise critical thinking in oral discussion and writing.
    • Be able to evaluate sources for quality (e.g., by learning to differentiate between scholarly and popular sources).
    • Acquire research skills including use of the library catalog and electronic databases to retrieve books or articles, whether in print or online

  • Rhetorical Arts, which is taken in the first year, teaches an integrated set of skills, competencies, and knowledge that enables students to engage in public debate with persuasive force and stylistic excellence.

     

    Rhetorical Arts Learning Outcomes:

    Students will...

    • Understand the rhetorical tradition of the good person writing and speaking well for the public good.
    • Apply this understanding of the rhetorical tradition to different contexts of public communication.
    • Develop written and oral communication skills that enable them to express and interpret ideas – both their own and those of others – in clear language.
    • Identify, reflect upon, integrate, and apply different arguments to form good, independent judgments in public debate.
    • Conceptualize an effective research strategy and then collect, interpret, evaluate and cite evidence in written and oral communication.
    • Distinguish between types of information resources and how these resources meet the needs of different levels of scholarship and different academic disciplines.

  • Quantitative/Mathematical Reasoning, recommended to be taken during the first year, introduces students to fundamental mathematical knowledge, including an understanding of the nature of mathematics and quantitative and statistical argumentation.

     

    Quantitative/Mathematical Reasoning Learning Outcomes:

    Students will...

    • Be able to interpret mathematical models such as formulas, graphs, tables, and schematics, and draw inferences from them.
    • Be able to represent mathematical information in various ways, such as symbolically, visually, numerically, and verbally.
    • Be able to solve problems with a variety of mathematical methods, such as arithmetical, algebraic, geometric or statistical methods.
    • Be able to estimate and check answers to mathematical problems in order to, for example, determine reasonableness, identify alternatives, or select optimal results.
    • Be able to create and critique arguments using quantitative evidence.
    • Recognize the limitations of mathematical and statistical methods.

  • Theological Inquiry, Philosophical Inquiry, and Studies in American Diversity, together provide frameworks for understanding the worldview and intellectual tradition implicit in LMU’s identity as a Catholic institution located in the geographical, ethnic, and economic diversity of the greater L.A. area. Students should complete these required courses by the end of their second year at LMU.

     

    Theological Inquiry Learning Outcomes:

    Students will...

    • Identify and analyze foundational theological questions.
    • Interpret religious sources critically and creatively.
    • Connect ultimate questions to Christian faith and practice.
    • Assess diverse religious approaches and contexts.
    • o Appreciate the intrinsic value of theological inquiry and its relation to meaningful action.

     

    Philosophical Inquiry Learning Outcomes:

    • Students should demonstrate an understanding of fundamental metaphysical and epistemological issues, particularly those that concern the human person and are central to a humanistic education in the Catholic intellectual tradition.
    • Students should demonstrate an ability to interpret and analyze these questions and various proposed answers to them carefully and critically, by considering both historical context and logical cogency.
    • Students should show evidence of engagement in philosophical self-reflection.

     

    Studies in American Diversity Learning Outcomes:

    Students will...

    • Understand how systems of power and privilege affect marginalized and oppressed communities.
    • Explain critical concepts in the study of race and racism, such as racialization, ethnicity, equity, intersectionality, self-determination, liberation, decolonization, sovereignty, imperialism, settler colonialism, euro-centrism, and/or anti-racism.
    • Apply theory and knowledge produced by African American, Asian American, Latino/a American, and/or Native American scholars, writers, activists, and/or communities to understand central themes of the course.
    • Examine the intersections of race and racism with other categories of marginalization which may include, but are not limited to, gender, sexuality, class, faith, religion, ability, immigration status, language, national origin, and/or tribal citizenship.
    • Connect racial justice movements of struggle, resistance, solidarity, and/or liberation to contemporary social and structural issues.