KEY CAPABILITIES

1 March 2005

Click on "read more" to see a more detailed description of how each capability can be integrated into particular courses. A single document with all ten of these detailed descriptions can be found at http://www.wesleyan.edu/capabilities/capabilities_criteria.pdf.

Writing
The ability to write coherently and effectively.  This skill implies the ability to reflect on the writing process and to choose a style, tone, and method of argumentation appropriate to the intended audience.
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Speaking
The ability to speak clearly and effectively.  This skill involves the ability to articulate and advocate for ideas, to listen, to express in words the nature and import of artistic works, and to participate effectively in public forums, choosing the level of discourse appropriate to the occasion.
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Interpretation
The ability to understand, evaluate, and contextualize meaningful forms, including written texts, objects, practices, performances, and sites.  This includes (but is not limited to) qualitative responses to subjects, whether in language or in a non-verbal artistic or scientific medium.
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Quantitative Reasoning
The ability to understand and use numerical ideas and methods to describe and analyze quantifiable properties of the world.  Quantitative reasoning involves skills such as making reliable measurements, using statistical reasoning, modeling empirical data, formulating mathematical descriptions and theories, and using mathematical techniques to explain data and predict outcomes.
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Logical Reasoning
The ability to make, recognize, and assess logical arguments.  This skill involves extracting or extending knowledge on the basis of existing knowledge through deductive inference and inductive reasoning.
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Designing, Creating, and Realizing
The ability to design, create, and build.  This skill might be demonstrated through scientific experimentation to realize a research endeavor, a theater or dance production, or creation of works such as a painting, a film, or a musical composition.
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Ethical Reasoning
The ability to reflect on moral issues in the abstract and in historical narratives within particular traditions.  Ethical reasoning is the ability to identify, assess, and develop ethical arguments from a variety of ethical positions.
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Intercultural Literacy
The ability to understand diverse cultural formations in relation to their wider historical and social contexts and environments.  Intercultural literacy also implies the ability to understand and respect another point of view.  Study of a language not one's own, contemporary or classical, is central to this skill.  The study of a language embedded in a different cultural context, whether in North America or abroad, may also contribute to this ability. 
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Information Literacy
The ability to locate, evaluate, and effectively use various sources of information for a specific purpose.  Information literacy implies the ability to judge the relevance and reliability of information sources as well as to present a line of investigation in an appropriate format.
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Effective Citizenship
The ability to analyze and develop informed opinions on the political and social life of one's local community, one's country, and the global community, and to engage in constructive action if appropriate.  As with Intercultural Literacy, study abroad or in a different cultural context within North America may contribute to a firm grasp of this ability.
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