Develop Students' Knowledge Of Government And Politics
Build students' knowledge of government and politics, citizenship skills, and civic engagement
Objective
Develop 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 the revised grading rubric for 2012-2013. The 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) Students will demonstrate the ability to conduct a literature review utilizing at least 5 resources. (2) Students will complete a plagiarism tutorial. (3) At least 70% of literature reviews will score a 3 or above. (4) At least 70% or students will complete the plagiarism tutorial.
Finding
Develop Students' Knowledge Of Government And Politics
Using a scoring system of 1-5 to evaluate 5 random papers in our upper division offerings, faculty members evaluated 100 papers submitted by students during the fall 2012 and spring 2013 semesters. Faculty scores differed in 37 of the 100 (37%), however, the difference in scores only exceeded a single point on the 5 point rubric in one instance. The average score was 4.25 which was an improvement over the previous year's assessment of 4.09. The departments efforts to identify areas to focus in 2009-2010 have been fruitful as scores have consistently increased over the last 3 years. We exceeded our goal of over 70% scoring a 70% or higher.
The department was unsuccesful in implementing a standard assignment which included a literature review thus, there is no data on this objective. Individual faculty provided instruction on plagiarism during both semesters, however, the department faculty found a need for further student instruction regarding plagiarism.
Action
Develop Students' Knoweldge Of Government And Politics
Given the high scores on the current asssessment, the faculty will revise the rubric for 2013-2014 by creating a two separate rubrics: one for writing style to including the assessment of student's ability to conduct a literature review; the second one solely on the content and student's ability to present an argument.
Goal
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.
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.
Criterion
Acceptable Or Above
At least 70% of students will score a "3" (acceptable) or better.
Finding
Develop Student Skills
A panel of faculty who routinely teach POLS 3379 used a scoring system of 1 - 5 to perform a blind evaluation of 5 randomly selected papers from each section of POLS 3379. The resulting sample was 20 papers. Faculty scores differed in 11 out of the 20 papers sampled or in 55% of the papers. However, the difference in scores never exceeded a single point.
The average score was 3.43 which was lower that the 3.8 average from last year. The results also indicate that 70% of the papers scored a 3 (acceptable) or higher, just meeting our goal.
Although the findings indicate that we me 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. In addition, the faculty found that the department needs to measure research skills separately from writing skills.
Action
Develop Students' Skills
The rubric will be revised to focus on research related skills including assessing and analyzing resource documents, conducting a literature review, and analyzing data. The faculty teaching POLS 3379 will meet to make sections of POLS consistent.