Develop students' analytic, writing, speaking, and professional skills
Objective
Develop Students' Skills
Throughout their enrollment, students must complete extensive writing assignments that require the following abilities: analyze scholarly writing, interpret empirical data, understand argumentation, express well thought out opinions, and write clearly and correctly.
Indicator
Faculty Committee Review Of Pol Sci 379 Research And Writing Papers
Faculty members teaching POL 379 Research and Writing will randomly select 5 papers from each course. All papers will be reviewed by the faculty members who teaching Research and Writing. Faculty members will evaluate the papers using a grading rubric designed and agreed said faculty. Papers will be scored on a scale of 1 - 5 with 5 being the highest.
Criterion
Develop Students' Skills
We expect that: (1) Faculty scores will not vary in the vast majority of cases and when there is a difference in scores the difference will not be greater than a single point. If faculty scores do differ beyond a single point, faculty will be asked to review the grading rubric and discuss its application. (2) At least 70% of the papers will score a 3 or above.
Finding
Develop Students' Skills
Our findings indicate that scores did not deviate by more than a single point. In addition, 70% sampled were scored at 3 or better meeting our expectations.
Although we met our expectations, faculty members concluded that written work can be improved. For example, students still demonstrate difficulty in grasping the conceptual difference between a hypothesis and a theory. In addition faculty reviewers concluded that there is still a need to work with students in the area of grammar and stylistic issues.
Action
Develop Students' Skills
Papers from the Research and Writing courses will be scored by faculty teaching POL 379. Papers will be scored on a scale of 1 - 5.
In an effort to improve students' writing skills and their ability to grasp basic concepts associated with research and research design, we will ask faculty members teaching Research and Writing to expand their syllabi section addressing theory development and hypotheses. We believe paying greater attention to the items will increase students' knowledge.
In an effort to improve students' writing skills, we will implement a pilot program in two of our research and writing courses. The pilot program will consist of a writing assignment that will require multiple drafts of paper. We believe this will allow the professor to offer students more detailed feedback. This feedback should improve students' writing skills. If the pilot program is successful, we will begin to consider ways to implement the program into all of our POL 379 courses. We will also encourage students to take their written assignments to the SHSU Writing Center to address grammar and stylistic issues prior to submission.
Goal
Develop Students' Knowledge Of Government And Politics
Build students' knowledge of government and politics, citizenship skills, and civic engagement
Objective
Development Students' Knowledge Of Government And Politics
Throughout their enrollment, students will explore the following themes in a national and international context: the structure and operation of various forms of government, political philosophies, informal and formal political organizations and actors, public policies, and political behavior.
Indicator
Faculty Committee Review Of Upper Division Papers
Each field of study will be assigned a team of 2 faculty members who have expertise in the particular field. Each semester the individual teams will receive and review 5 randomly selected papers from an upper division course in their respective fields. Faculty members from each subfield will evaluate the papers using a grading rubric designed and agreed upon by faculty in each subfield. Papers will be scored on a scale of 1 - 5 with 5 being the highest.
Criterion
Develop Students' Knowledge of Government and Politics
We expect that: (1) Faculty scores will not vary in the vast majority of cases and when there is a difference in scores the difference will not be greater than a single point. If faculty scores do differ beyond a single point, faculty will be asked to review the grading rubric and discuss its application. (2) At least 70% of the papers will score a 3 or above.
Finding
Develop Students' Knowledge Of Government And Politics
Over 80% of the papers were scored at 3 or better. In addition, our findings indicate that scores did not deviate by more than a single point (see attached file). Although we exceeded our expectations, faculty members concluded that students' written work can be improved. For example, while students demonstrate an understanding and knowledge of basic theoretical concepts, they have difficulty grasping subtle relationships between concepts and theories as well as applying theoretical understanding to real world experience. In addition there is still a need to work with students in the area of grammar and stylistic issues.
Action
Develop Students' Knowledge Of Government And Politics
Each field of study will be assigned a team of 2 faculty members who have expertise in the particular field. Each semester the individual teams will receive and review 5 randomly selected papers from an upper division course in their respective fields. Papers will be scored on a scale of 1 - 5. In an effort to improve students' writing skills and theoretical/conceptual reasoning, we will implement a pilot program in three of upper division courses. The pilot program will consist of a writing assignment that will require multiple drafts of paper. We believe this will allow the professor to offer students more detailed feedback. This feedback should improve students' writing skills and their conceptual/theoretical reasoning. If the pilot program is successful, we will begin to implement consider ways to implement the program into all of our upper division courses. We will also encourage students to take their written assignments to the SHSU Writing Center to address grammar and stylistic issues prior to submission.
Goal
Develop Students' Professional Experience
We will increase students' exposure to the professional world.
Objective
Develop Students' Professional Experience
We will increase students' exposure to the professional world.
Indicator
Internships And Intern/Supervisor Surveys
The department offers a POL 495 Directed Studies and Internship course. We will focus on the number and quality of internships we offer each year as well as internships' performances. This performance will be twofold: first, from the students' perspective and second, from the supervisors' perspective.
All interns will be required to complete a survey. We will use item 23 (Overall, I enjoyed my internship experience) and item 24 (Overall, this internship contributed to intern's career objectives) as indicators of the quality of our internships. Items are measured on a five point likert scale (strongly agree, agree, not sure, disagree, strongly disagree).
All supervisors evaluate interns performance using a survey. The general assessment section of the survey will be used to assess interns' performance. We will use items 3 (overall performance) and 4 (career potential) as a means of assessing interns' performances. Items 3 and 4 in the general assessment section are measured on a five point likert scale (excellent, above average, average, needs improvement, unacceptable).
Criterion
Develop Students' Professional Experience
In terms of the number of internships, we will expect to offer at least 20 internships per year.
We will expect that at least 70% of our interns will provide a positive answer (strongly agree or agree) to item 23 (overall, I enjoyed my intership) and to item 24 (overall, this internship contributed intern's career objectives).
We will expect that at least 70% of the supervisors will provide a positive answer (excellent or above average) to item 3 (overall performance) and to item 4 (career potential).
Finding
Develop Students' Professional Experience
The department offered 21 internships, which exceeded the expected number by one.
100% of the interns offered a positive answer (strongly agree or agree) to item #23 (overall, I enjoyed my intership) and to item #24 (overall, this internship contributed intern's career objectives). A more detailed review of the survey findings show that on item #23, 15 students answered strongly agree and 6 answered agree. On item #24, 13 answered strongly agree and 8 answered agree. Conversations between the interns and the intern director indicate that students want to have a greater variety of internship positions to select from.
100% of the supervisors provided a positive response (excellent or above average) to item #3 (overall performance) and item #4 (career potential) when assessing interns' performances. A more detailed review of the survey findings show that on item #3, 11 supervisors answered excellent and 10 answered above average. On item #4, 14 supervisors answered excellent and 7 answered above average. Conversations between supervisors and the intern director indicate that supervisors felt some interns were not a good match for the internship position. This was due in part to the selection process process. Interns were selected on a first come first serve basis.
Action
Develop Students' Professional Experience
The department will continue to offer at least 20 internships per year. Beginning in fall 2009 we will seek to diversify our internship offerings. This should improve student satisfaction. Beginning in fall 2009 the intern director will encourage supervisors to replace the o first come first serve selection process with a more effective process, specifically one designed to create a better fit between interns and their internships.