The Edison Core Values

GENERAL DEFINITION. The core values are a set of principles which guide Edison Community College in creating its educational programs and environment. They will be reflected in every aspect of the College. Students' educational experiences will incorporate the core values at all levels, so that a student who completes a degree program at Edison Community College will not only have been introduced to each value, but will have had them reinforced and refined at every opportunity.

COMMUNICATION. Communication, a skill basic to all college students, involves listening, speaking and writing for the purpose of understanding and of being understood. A lifetime process, communication also involves the ability to use appropriate and reasonable language and dialects, acknowledging that audiences are diverse.

ETHICS. The ethics core value is defined in terms of decision making. A distinction is made between values and ethics. Values are either "good" or "bad." Ethics either exist or don't exist. They are decisions and behaviors that are based on values. Thus, the faculty will endeavor to present material across the curriculum in a manner that will cause student s to consider the decision-making process in terms of ethics.

CRITICAL THINKING. Critical thinking is the ability to apply internalized standards of thought: clarity, relevance, analysis, organization, recognition, evaluation, accuracy, depth, and breadth. Critical thinking requires detachment, the ability to examine critically one's own ideas and thoughts, as well as examining the ideas and thoughts of others.

Possessing the fundamentals of critical thinking enables an individual to reason across a variety of disciplines and domains and to critique one's own thinking from many perspectives. The development and sue of critical thinking is a lifelong activity which enables us to continually improve our thought and the consequent products of our thought in our lives and society.

HUMAN DIVERSITY. Diversity describes the coexistence of many cultures in society. By making the broadest range of human differences acceptable to the largest number of people, multiculturalism, as a function of cultural diversity, seeks to overcome racism, sexism, and other forms of discrimination. Historically marginalized groups within society include but are lot limited to, Native Americans, African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanic Americans, Appalachian Americans, physically/mentally challenged, women, and people with alternative life-styles.

INQUIRY/RESPECT FOR LEARNING. Inquiry is the information gathering process though which the learner formulates essential questions, locates appropriate resources, and evaluates the applicability of the data for a particular situation. Students at Edison will learn how to apply these learning processes in each field of study.

INTERPERSONAL SKILLS/TEAMWORK. Interpersonal skills promote personal effectiveness when interacting with others, whether the interaction is one-on-one, in a small group, in an organization, or with an audience. To be skilled interpersonally, a person must first assess any situation to determine the expectations of others involved, and then adapt to those expectations.