History Teaching (Minor)

Program Summary

The History program is committed to preparing undergraduate students to understand their historical and cultural heritage. It supports the University’s mission by emphasizing excellence in teaching with courses grounded in the liberal arts and sciences tradition, a curriculum designed to foster knowledge of human cultures and instill intellectual and practical skills involving inquiry and analysis, critical thinking, written and oral communication, teamwork, and problem solving. The history discipline supports the General Education program at the University. In cooperation with the College of Education and Human Development, the department prepares students for teaching careers in elementary and secondary schools, and it works to qualify majors for graduate study and advanced administrative specialization. In keeping with the University’s mission, the program emphasizes personal and social responsibility by requiring students to complete projects involving civic engagement, experiential learning, and service learning that elevate students’ civic knowledge, intercultural competence, and ethical reasoning, experiences that together provide foundations for engaged citizens and lifelong learning.

Program Learning Outcomes

• Students will possess factual and critical knowledge about past historical events, institutions, movements, figures, and societies and have the ability to identify key events that express change over time in a particular place or region, identify how change occurs over time, and explain historical continuity and change.
• Students will understand, describe, and critically assess historical theories, principles, and concepts and possess the ability to apply historical theories, principles, and concepts.
• Students will demonstrate effective oral and/or written communication skills.
• Students will demonstrate the ability to apply historical methods and research protocols to formulate historical questions, obtain data from primary and secondary sources, critically assess primary and secondary sources, and follow scholarly conventions of the discipline.
• Students will possess and demonstrate critical and analytical thinking and reasoning skills and demonstrate the ability to construct well-organized historical arguments that utilize historic data in support of a thesis.

Program Information

• No more than 12 credits of lower-division history classes may be counted toward the credit requirement of the minor.  
• A history minor may emphasize either European or United States history, but must complete at least one upper division course in an area of history other than that of specialization.