King’s Common-Curriculum

The common curriculum, sometimes referred to as general education requirements, is meant to shape the experience of all King's students to include the following learning outcomes.

Students of the King's University will:

Develop ways of thinking well 

•​Understand that humans bring meaning to their lives through story and that understanding the way people tell stories is key to understanding people.

•​Articulate the biblical and Christian stories as narratives within human history that reveal the truth of God's reality and the ways people succeed and fail to live into this reality.

•​Fit their story into the larger biblical and human stories.

•​Develop the skill and passion to ask good questions and understand that questions are at the heart of finding wisdom as opposed to an accumulation of knowledge.

Articulate how ideas shape our world 

•​Describe the fundamentals of a Christian worldview as well as other worldviews operative in human societies.

•​Evaluate how different worldviews relate to different ways of knowing, articulating how assumptions about what are valid methodologies for understanding reality shape worldviews, promote or limit discussion, and ultimately shape the reality in which we live.

•​Evaluate the efficacy of different worldviews for illuminating the structures, forces and relationships of our physical and social reality.

•​Develop a habit of reflecting on their worldview and discerning ways in which their beliefs affect their actions.

•​Identify where worldviews influence disciplinary ideas, theories, and actions.

Act to bring flourishing to our world 

•​Use language, art, and science to critique and tell the stories that form our worldviews and provide a framework for our lives as individuals, communities and societies.

•​Critically assess answers that are given to questions, identifying the biases, assumptions, worldviews and beliefs behind the answers people give.

•​Develop a deeper relationship to the physical creation built on an appreciation for the unique role humanity has for the flourishing of our world.

•​Claim responsibility for and involvement in the structures and relationships of society, continually searching for ways to bring flourishing and reconciliation.

•​Live their lives in ways that are consistent with the worldviews and beliefs they articulate and the education that they have been gifted with.

•​Participate in physical communities as a working out of their faith and learning, recognizing that the education they have been given must be shared with people with whom they are in relationship.

To enable students to achieve these outcomes, all students in undergraduate degree programs other than the Bachelor of Education must register in courses in the following categories:

Notes:

•​An individual course can only meet one of the common curriculum requirements. These courses may also meet concentration, major, second concentration, minor, or cognate requirements.

•​The first four courses under Learning to Think Well should normally be completed in the first year of study. In addition, ENGL215 from Deepening our Roots should also normally be completed in the first year.

•​Some programs make more specific requirements in some categories. Please see the individual program descriptions below for details.

•​Students entering King's with transfer credit will need to take note of the following as they seek to fulfill the common curriculum requirements.

•​Reading Our Story may be fulfilled by any writing or English literature course taught by an English department. If this is being fulfilled by a writing course, then ENGL215 must be taken for Deepening Our Roots.

•​Framing Our Context may be fulfilled by any university history course taught by a History department.

•​Considering Our Place may be fulfilled by any university philosophy course taught by a philosophy department excluding courses in logic.

•​Our Place in Redemptive history may be fulfilled by any introductory Christian Theology course. Biblical studies courses covering the breadth of the old and new testaments may be considered in combination to meet this requirement.

•​Because of the conference-based nature of Interdisciplinary studies, transfer students may need to use a directed studies course (INST499) to make up the required credits. Typically this is 1 credit in a 4 year program, or 2 credits in a 3-year program.

Interdisciplinary Studies Conferences

Part of the Common Curriculum is participation in our Interdisciplinary Studies (I.S.) program. The purpose of the I.S. program is to examine worldviews, the interrelation between academic disciplines and cultural issues, and to discover how all of creation works together to the glory of God the Creator. The I.S. program is designed to introduce students to foundational issues, including the nature of scholarship at a Christian liberal arts university such as King's, the unity of created reality, the ambivalent relationship Christians have with our society, and to cultivate students' consideration of complex issues.

The I.S. program is a journey that students engage with at all levels of their undergraduate degree. In Y1, students are introduced to vocational ways of thinking and explore ideas such as, “what kind of person do I want to be?” and “in what ways am I called to act in the world?”. In Y2 and Y3, students engage in small cohort learning experiences, that challenge them to further explore the interdisciplinary aspects of their King’s education. At their capstone event, students reflect on their individual and shared journeys, and the role of communities shaping who they are and are becoming. Common to each phase of the I.S. program is the Big Think lecture, a time when the whole campus can pause, come together, and engage with contemporary issues.

The I.S. program will be delivered according to the following structure: