Coordinator: Dr. Sarah Brooks

Madison Foundations bring together the basic skills in reasoning, writing, and oral communication. Since ancient times, these skills have been recognized as the fundamental skills of educated persons and responsible citizens. Madison Foundations specifically emphasize the critical knowledge and skills that students learn through the study of human discourse, argumentation, reasoning, and persuasion. As students examine issues they gain insight and understanding that knowledge rarely develops in isolation but within a larger interactive, and often complex, context. Madison Foundations also respond to the contemporary need for effective information literacy within diverse contexts of human communication and decision making.

REQUIREMENTS

The Madison Foundations area consists of nine credits satisfying three requirements: Critical Thinking, Human Communication, and Writing. Students complete one course for each requirement and the courses may be taken in any order. All three of these courses need to be completed within a student's first year at JMU.

Information Literacy skills are foundational to your university coursework and as such are also included in Madison Foundations. The Information Literacy requirement was, prior to fall 2022, satisfied by passing the MREST. Now, Information Literacy is satisfied through learning modules and quizzes embedded within SCOM 121/122/123: Fundamental Human Communication. 

The Madison Foundations area is designed for first-year students (mainly freshmen). If any students seek to re-take any Madison Foundations course for repeat-forgive (having earned a D- or higher) or to take a second Critical Thinking class, they must have permission from the Madison Foundations coordinator. If you are an upperclassman needing a permission into a Madison Foundations course for Spring or Summer please contact madisonfoundations@jmu.edu. Upperclassmen will not receive a permission to enroll in a Madison Foundations class in the fall unless there is an available seat during open enrollment in September. 

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After completing a Critical Thinking course, students should be able to:

• Identify the basic components of arguments, including premises, supporting evidences, assumptions, conclusions and implications.
• Evaluate claims and sources for clarity, credibility, reliability, accuracy and relevance.
• Evaluate arguments for soundness, strength and completeness.
• Demonstrate an intellectual disposition to be fair-minded in considering evidence, arguments and alternative points of view.

COURSE OPTIONS (complete one of the following)

• BUS 160: Business Decision Making in a Modern Society
• EDUC 102E: Critical Questions in Education (experimental course)
• HIST 150: Critical Issues in Recent Global History
• ISAT 160: Problem Solving Approaches in Science and Technology
• PHIL 120: Critical Thinking
• PHIL 150: Ethical Reasoning
• SMAD 150: Mediated Communication: Issues and Skills
• UNST 300 & other Integrative options (for students who have 49+ credits)

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After completing a Human Communication course, students should be able to:

• Explain the fundamental processes that significantly influence communication.
• Construct messages consistent with the diversity of communication purpose, audience, context, and ethics.
• Respond to messages consistent with the diversity of communication purpose, audience, context, and ethics.
• Utilize information literacy skills expected of ethical communicators.

COURSE OPTIONS (complete one of the following)

• SCOM 121: Fundamental Human Communication: Presentations
• SCOM 122: Fundamental Human Communication: Individual Presentations
• SCOM 123: Fundamental Human Communication: Group Presentations

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

After completing the Writing course, students should be able to:

• Demonstrate an awareness of rhetorical knowledge, which includes the ability to analyze and act on understandings of audiences, purposes, and contexts in creating and comprehending texts;
• Employ critical thinking, which includes the ability, through reading, research, and writing, to analyze a situation or text and make thoughtful decisions based on that analysis;
• Employ writing processes, which include prewriting, drafting, engaging with feedback, and revising;
• Recognize the many characteristics of effective messages and how these may vary according to genres, situations, and audiences;
• Show flexibility in composition strategies by applying information literacy and other modern literacies.

COURSE OPTIONS (complete the following)

• WRTC 103: Rhetorical Reading and Writing

As noted above, the Information Literacy requirement was, prior to fall 2022, satisfied by passing the MREST. Now, information literacy competencies and the learning objectives below are addressed within SCOM 121/122/123: Fundamental Human Communication. 

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

• Recognize the components of scholarly work and that scholarship can take many forms.
• Demonstrate persistence and employ multiple strategies in research and discovery.
• Identify gaps in their own knowledge and formulate appropriate questions for investigation in academic settings.
• Evaluate the quality of information and acknowledge expertise.
• Use information effectively in their own work and make contextually appropriate choices for sharing their scholarship.
• Use information legally and ethically.