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
Upon completing the course students will be able to evaluate forms of government, discuss political philosophies, analyze political behavior, evaluate public policies, and discuss political organizations and actors.
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. . However, previous analysis indicated that although scores were consistently over a 3, students were losing a point related to analytical and theoretical development.
Finding
Students' Knowledge
Using a scoring system of 1-5 to evaluate 5 random papers in our upper division offerings, faculty members evaluated 45 papers. Faculty scores differed in 11 of the 45 (24%), however, the difference in scores never exceeded a single point on the 5 point rubric. The average score was 4.09, a higher average than last year's 3.3. The departments efforts to identify areas to focus in 2009-2010 have been fruitful as scores have consistently increased over the last 3 years.
Faculty found a need for further student instruction regarding plagiarism.
Action
Develop Students' Knowledge
The faculty agreed to revise the assessment rubric for 2012-2013 to focus more on the content, including instruction on plagiarism, and devise alternative writing assignments that focus on the content rather than grammar and formatting.
Students will be able to conduct a literature review utilizing at least 5 resources. The students will complete a plagiarism tutorial.
Goal
Develop Students' Skills
Develop students' analytic, writing, speaking, and professional skills
Objective
Develop Students' Skills
All political science majors are required to successfully complete POLS 3379. Upon completing the course students will be able to analyze scholarly writing, interpret empirical data, discuss argumentation, and write clearly and correctly.
Indicator
Faculty Committee Review Of POLS 3379 Research And Writing Papers
Faculty members teaching POLS 3379 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 by said faculty. Papers will be scored on a scale of 1 - 5 with 5 being the highest.
Criterion
Acceptable Or Above
At least 70% of students will score a "3" (acceptable) or better.
Finding
Develop Students' Skills
Faculty teaching POLS 3379 used a scoring system of 1 - 5 to evaluate 5 randomly selected papers from each section of POLS 3379. Faculty scores differed in 9 out of the 10 papers sampled. However, the difference in scores never exceeded a single point. The average score was 3.8, a higher average than last's year's average. Although the findings indicate that we exceed our expectations for this particular goal, faculty teaching POLS 3379 courses believe students would benefit in the long run if faculty discussed ways to make the course content more consistent across all sections of POLS 3379 regardless of who is teaching the course.
The findings indicate we exceed our expectation. However, in scoring the papers the low scores were in the area of writing. Thus faculty concluded that more emphasis needs to be placed on students’ writing skills.
Action
Develop Students' Skills
During Summer 2012 faculty responsible for teaching POLS 3379 will develop a syllabus template for the course to be adopted in spring 2013. In addition, curing summer and spring 2012, faculty teaching POLS 3379 will develop and adopt new pedagogical strategies designed to improved students’ writing skills. These strategies will be implemented in spring 2013.