Approved by Social Sciences Department 3/28/96
Revised 5/16/96 and 10/22/96
Revised 12/23/96
The mission of the Department of Social Sciences is fourfold:
to broaden and enhance undergraduate science and engineering education
to provide undergraduate, degree granting programs in history, the social sciences, and science & technology studies (STS)
to offer high quality graduate programs in areas related to the university's focus on science, technology, and the environment and the department's focus on science and technology studies, broadly defined
to serve as a community of professionally active scholars who contribute to the growth of knowledge
I. Undergraduate Majors
The Department of Social Sciences offers three undergraduate degrees to a relatively small number of students (presently 25 30 majors).
B.S. Social Sciences: General Option
B.S. Social Sciences: Science, Technology, & Society Option
B.A. Liberal Arts: History Option
We believe these programs provide students with a broad based education and with writing and analytical skills useful in the pursuit of further education or entrance into career path jobs.
Goals
The goals of our undergraduate programs and the assessment measures we use are outlined below. Details on assessment implementation are in the next section of this document.
(1) All graduates will have broad based knowledge in the social science
disciplines, especially in four cross disciplinary knowledge areas
previously identified by the department: institutions, social change,
diversity, and social theory.
Assessment Measures:
1. Locally prepared test administered to students on entrance into the
program and in their senior year
2. Michigan Test for Teacher Certification: Social Sciences
(2) All graduates will develop good formal reasoning and analytical skills.
Assessment Measures:
1. Portfolio developed between entrance into the program and graduation.
Submission a graduation requirement
2. Alumni survey
(3) All graduates will develop good writing skills (mechanics,
organization, flow, etc.).
Assessment Measures:
1. Portfolio developed between entrance into the program and graduation.
Submission a graduation requirement
2. Alumni survey
Implementation
Locally Prepared Assessment Test:
Faculty in each of the core areas of the social sciences will contribute
diagnostic, multiple choice questions that deal with one or more of the
four cross disciplinary knowledge areas emphasized in departmental courses:
institutions, social change, diversity, and social theory. From the test
bank created, an assessment examination will be constructed and be
administered to students near the point of their admission to the program
(in a new one credit course, see "New Courses" below) and near
their graduation from the program (in a new one credit course, see
"New Courses" below).
Portfolio:
Students will receive instructions on portfolio construction and initial
writing assignments which will be placed in the portfolio in a required
course, SS101, taken near their entrance into the department (see "New
Courses" below). Students will be expected to place in the portfolio
at minimum one written assignment per quarter or three per year. Students
will receive additional written assignments for insertion in the portfolio
in a required, senior year course (SS403, see "New Courses"
below). Completion and submission of the portfolio will be a requirement
for passing SS403. Guidelines for evaluating the portfolios to assess
department goals are provided in Appendix A.
Michigan Test for Teacher Certification:
Four times each year the state of Michigan administers standardized exams
in a variety of subject areas to measure secondary school teacher
competency. One of the subject areas for which an examination is available
is "Social Sciences." The Michigan Teacher Certification
Examination in this area tests and reports competency in ten areas of the
social sciences (e.g., economics, geography, history, political science,
sociology). All students will be required to take this exam in a new
senior year course, SS403 (see "New Courses" below), designed to
aid in outcomes assessment. This exam will give us an opportunity to
identify what specific areas within the social sciences require more
attention.
New Courses:
The curricula of all three of the department's undergraduate degree
programs have been modified to include two additional one credit courses as
graduation requirements by reducing by two credits the generous number of
free electives allowed in these curricula. The two new courses will permit
us to administer the before and after standardized test outlined above (see
"Locally Prepared Assessment Test" above), secure
before and after writing samples for the portfolios (see
"Portfolio" above), and insure that portfolio instructions and
procedures are passed on to students early.
SS103, 1 credit: To be required the term following the admission of a
student to the department. This course includes a number of assignments to
orient students to the field, but also includes a session on organizing
portfolios, administration of the locally prepared exam used as a base line
for assessing Goal 1 above, and portfolio writing assignments. These
writing assignments will be the first items included in the student
portfolios.
SS403, 1 credit: Required in senior year. As part of course requirements, students will take the Michigan Examination for Teacher Certification and have results submitted to us (see "Michigan Test for Teacher Certification" above). Other requirements will include taking the locally prepared standardized exam for outcomes assessment (see above), writing assignments to be entered into the student portfolio, and submitting a completed portfolio.
Alumni Questionnaire:
Although admittedly an indirect measure of assessing outcomes, the alumni
survey will provide us with some measure of whether or not we are meeting
our goals through the retrospective opinions of alumni. The survey will be
designed to: (a) ascertain current career and
educational attainments of our graduates; (b) determine the role that
the writing and analytical skills imparted during their college years may
have played in later attainments; and (c) solicit views
about past academic experiences and changes they retrospectively might
desire in our academic offerings. The alumni survey will be administered
every five years.
II. University General Education
One of the Department of Social Sciences' major missions in the
university is to contribute to the "intellectual vitality" of MTU
engineering and science graduates through its role in general education, in
particular contributing to their awareness of the "social, economic,
and cultural contexts of their work" (MTU Mission Statement). Because
the bulk of our teaching is in support of a general education mission,
rather than to our own majors, we have added a modest general education
assessment unit to our outcomes assessment plan. The university will be
undertaking a broader measure of general education.
Because most MTU students take only a few social sciences courses,
we do not believe
broad mastery of the social sciences is an appropriate goal. Thus, for
general education, we must seek to measure learning in individual courses.
Our expectation is that students taking our core courses will increase
their knowledge in particular areas of the social sciences, add to their
college level thinking and
interpretative skills, and increase their appreciation for social science
materials.
Goals
(1) Students should improve their knowledge of social science concepts and
analysis during any given course.
Assessment Measure:
1. Course embedded, before and after testing in 100 and 200 level courses.
(2) A majority of students should leave courses offered by this department
with a more positive inclination toward the social sciences or history than
when they entered the course.
Assessment Measure:
1. Course embedded, before and after question.
Implementation
Course Embedded Testing:
Instructors will, according to the schedule laid down below, give their
classes a short quiz or special section of an exam designed to assess
learning outcomes near the beginning of a class and near or at the end.
The quiz or exam section may be short essay or a set of multiple choice
questions, but it should measure learning of
underlying concepts (concept based reasoning and interpretation) and not
simply
terminology and other superficial results of passing through the course.
The quiz or exam section will be "embedded" in the course that
is, at least the second iteration
will be used as a graded item (for example, in a final exam).
The before and after, course embedded assessment question(s) will be administered using the following schedule:
Year 1: SS111, SS120, SS173
Year 2: SS131, SS230
Year 3: SS151, SS161
All instructors teaching the courses above will administer a before and after quiz and/or section of an exam to at least one section of that course in the prescribed year. Results will be submitted to the Department Coordinator, who will tabulate the results and present the totals to the chair of the Curriculum Committee at the end of the year. This method keeps individual course and instructor data completely anonymous.
Attitude Question:
To measure changes in students attitudes towards the social sciences,
instructors, following the schedule outlined above, will administer to
students an ungraded, single question designed to measure greater
appreciation for social science and history subject matter. The question
will be administered at the beginning and near the end of the course.
Example of question (SS151: World Cultural Diversity): If you saw that a documentary was to appear on "The Learning Channel" on tribes living in the Amazonian rain forest, how likely would you be to watch it?: (A) Not at all, (B) Very unlikely, but a slim possibility, (C) unlikely, (D) might, (E) would definitely. This would be scored on a 0 1 2 3 4 basis.
As with the course embedded quiz/exam section outlined above, the results will be submitted to the Department Coordinator for tabulation and submission of cumulative totals to the chair of the department's Curriculum Committee.
III. Undergraduate Programs and General Education Implementation And
Administration (General)
The assessment program will be supervised by the department chair and the Curriculum Committee.
The Curriculum Committee is the body ultimately mandated to review
assessment data and propose
reforms to the department as a whole.
After the learning assessment program has been in operation for two years,
the Curriculum Committee will report to the entire
Department on assessment findings to date and make recommendations if
needed. The Committee may also make briefer reports
to individual groups of faculty when appropriate, e.g., to the core course
groups.
Timeline:
1996 97
Test bank prepared for locally prepared learning assessment exam for majors
New course proposals prepared and submitted for SS103 and SS403
Arrangements for portfolio coding, organization, procedures, etc. made in
conjunction with staff who will oversee portfolio storage
Alumni survey prepared and mailed
Collect pilot data in winter and spring terms
1997 98
SS103 offered for first time to incoming students; these students are
given entrance assessment exam, instructions on portfolio construction, and
initial portfolio assignments. Course will be offered regularly
hereafter
Analysis of alumni survey
Course embedded testing for general education courses begins and continues along schedule outlined above (p. 4); results submitted to Curriculum Commit
tee for analysis.
Administration of before and after question designed to determine
improvement of attitude towards social sciences and history begins and
continues along schedule outlined above (p. 4); results submitted to
Curriculum Committee for analysis.
1998 99
SS403 offered for first time to graduating students; these students are
given the locally developed assessment exam, take the Michigan Teacher
Certification Test in the Social Sciences, submit assignments to complete
their portfolios, and submit their completed portfolios.
Coded portfolios first assessed by faculty
Curriculum Committee gives first required general report to faculty on
learning assessment, with recommendations for changes to assessment plan
and/or curriculum.
IV. Graduate Programs
The Department of Social Sciences operates two graduate programs:
M.S., Environmental Policy
M.S., Industrial Archaeology
The M.S. in Industrial Archaeology has been in operation since May 1992; the M.S. in Environmental Policy is in its first year of operation.
Goals
We have identified several areas of achievement that our faculty agree are essential for student and program success. We should be graduating students with research and writing skills, subject area knowledge, oral presentation skills, and professional orientation.
Research and Writing Skills: Research performance and competent written communication are absolutely necessary for success in Industrial Archaeology or Environmental Policy. Undergraduates enter our interdisciplinary programs from a variety of backgrounds and rarely possess highly developed skills in these areas, so we work intensively to improve them. Virtually all graduate courses require a significant amount of writing, both on a weekly basis and a cumulative, term project basis.
We do not allow a course work option for the Master's degree. All students
must produce a written project or thesis that goes through multiple drafts
and, in some cases, external review by a funding agency. This means that
all students produce a substantial piece of written work as a primary
product of their graduate school experience.
Assessment Measures:
1. Writing evaluation instrument used in first term in program and at
other times [Appendix B]
2. Quarterly evaluations of student circulated by directors of graduate
programs to faculty teaching each graduate student [Appendix E]
3. Evaluation of student's final thesis or report [Appendix B]
Subject Area Knowledge: The accumulation of substantive subject area
knowledge is an important component of graduate education. Because our
programs are interdisciplinary, single unified measures are not
appropriate, so we do not administer comprehensive examinations. Instead,
we incorporate assessment of subject area knowledge in our research and
writing evaluations, administered at various points during the student's
program of study. For example, our form for assessing writing [Appendix B]
includes elements (research design, primary and second sources, analysis,
synthesis, conclusions) which simultaneously serve as a measure of subject
area knowledge, as does our form to assess performance on students' thesis
proposals [Appendix C].
Assessment Measures:
1. Writing evaluation instrument used in first term in program [Appendix
B]
2. Evaluation of thesis proposal presentation [Appendix C]
3. Evaluation of student's final thesis or report [Appendix B]
Oral Presentation Skills: Ability to orally present research results is a
valued outcome of our graduate program. Students will generally make
several oral presentations in class, and all students are required to
orally present their thesis proposal and their thesis results to
assemblages of faculty and fellow students.
Assessment Measures:
1. Evaluation of thesis proposal presentation [Appendix C]
2. Evaluation of student's final thesis or report presentation [Appendix
C]
3. Quarterly evaluations of student circulated by directors of graduate
programs to faculty teaching each graduate student [Appendix E]
Professionalism: It is essential to introduce professional values to
students in order to prepare them for professional practice. While there
is no explicit course work for this purpose, there are numerous settings
where appropriate attitudes and behaviors are presented and reinforced. We
have developed an assessment instrument to be completed at the end of the
student's program that examines the degree to which important values and
attitudes have been adopted and expressed. See Appendix D
Assessment Measures:
1. Professional development evaluation form [Appendix D]
2. Quarterly evaluations of student circulated by directors of graduate
programs to faculty teaching each graduate student [Appendix E]
Implementation
The Directors of each of the graduate programs will oversee the assessment program in each of their areas. The graduate committees for each of the programs will review and analyze the results of the assessments and recommend appropriate program modifications.
Writing Evaluation Instrument [Appendix B]: At minimum the writing evaluation instrument will be used on two occasions during the course of a student's graduate study.
(1) It will be used to evaluate students' writing and subject area knowledge during their first quarter of enrollment in the program.
(2) It will be used to evaluate students' final written work (their report or thesis).
At least one person in addition to a student's instructors (first term) or advisor (final report or thesis) will carry out the evaluation. Results will be submitted to the appropriate program director.
Evaluation of Oral Thesis Proposal or Defense Presentation [Appendix C]: Student's skills an oral presentations will be evaluated by at least three faculty using the form in Appendix C at both their thesis proposal defense (typically given at the end of their first year or near the beginning of their second year of work) and at their final defense. Results will be submitted to the appropriate program director.
Professional Development Evaluation Form [Appendix D]: This form will be completed at or near the end of a student's enrollment in the program by all faculty who have been closely associated with the student in the program. Results will be submitted to the appropriate program director.
Quarterly Student Evaluations [Appendix E]: At the end of every quarter, the directors of the two graduate programs will continue to circulate and collect open ended, quarterly student evaluation forms to all faculty in their respective programs who have interacted with graduate students during the preceding quarter. Comments usually deal with students research, writing, and oral presentation skills, but sometimes include comments relating to professionalism.
Timeline:
1996 97
Continue present practice of quarterly student evaluation
Pilot tests of evaluation form for writing (research paper, thesis), oral
presentations, and professionalism
1997 98
All elements of graduate outcomes assessment program put into regular
practice
1998 1999
Graduate committees review data and recommend changes (if needed) in their
respective curricula
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Appendix A
PORTFOLIO ASSESSMENT
Creating/Generating Portfolios.
Portfolio coding, storage, and maintenance will be the responsibility of
the department's secretarial staff. The portfolios will be kept anonymous.
There will be no indication of the student's name or the classes for which
the written work was prepared. To do this, staff will assign each student
a code number; that code number will be the only identification on the
portfolio. Similarly, the work in the portfolio will only contain the code
number. All references to the student's name, class, and/or instructor
will be omitted or concealed. Only the secretarial staff will have lists
linking student names to code numbers.
With the exception of work submitted in the two classes especially designed for assessment (SS103 and 403, see p. 2 above), students will be responsible for submitting work for inclusion in the portfolios in either ungraded form or revised after being graded form. We generally expect students to submit at least one item per term or three items per year for inclusion. Students will submit portfolio material to the secretarial staff, who will place that material in the appropriate portfolio in chronological order.
What Will Be Assessed
Our focus is quality. While different disciplines might have different
opinions about what constitutes a high quality essay, they would all agree
that the quality of an essay is a function of both its form (writing style,
Goal 3) and content (formal reasoning and analytical skills, Goal 2). Form
refers to the techniques or mechanics of writing (Goal 3) ranging from
grammar, punctuation, and sentence construction to consistency of focus,
logic of exposition, and depth of discussion. While grammar and sentence
construction are important, our primary concerns should be focus and
exposition. Content refers to the accuracy of the ideas, concepts, or
other material discussed in the essay (Goal 2).
How Traits Will be Assessed
The traits we will assess to measure form are consistency of focus, logical
organization, and completeness of answer. The traits we will assess to
determine acceptable content are comprehension of terms and concepts, use
of evidence, and the formation of conclusions. These traits will be
evaluated using a scale from 0 to 2, where 0 indicates a failure to
demonstrate a trait; 1, a partial demonstration; and 2, a
satisfactory demonstration.
Using the "Sample Assessment Sheet" (next page), the department chair and one additional faculty member will independently assess each portfolio on completion and independently submit the results to the Departmental Coordinator, who will forward all results to the chair of the Curriculum Committee. The most useful information about individuals will be gained by examining trends in trait scores across various essays, assuming that these essays are scored in a chronological order. The most important information for the department will be the average scores on individual traits from all portfolios examined. High average scores would indicate success in developing certain traits in our students while lower scores would indicate a need to re examine and reappraise our teaching methods.