EducationD2

The department does not currently expressly assess general education student learning goals as part of the major; however, many of our program goals align well with general education including:

·Know the standard technical information and be able to perform experimental techniques of general, organic, analytical and physical chemistry. 

·Be able to speak and write clearly in the language and style of the discipline. 

·Demonstrate quantitative problem-solving skills. This includes having a firm foundation in the fundamentals and applications of the necessary mathematics, physics and statistics as it applies to experimental design and data analysis. 

These goals are assessed through course grades, end-of-major portfolio, ACS standardized exams, and graduate exit surveys.  The chemistry Undergraduate Committee considers all issues related to chemistry undergraduate programs including General Education curricula.  The committee discusses and brings to the Committee of the Whole proposals related to curricula, program goals, and assessments.  The committee reviews and reports the results of program assessments including ACS standardized exams, end-of-major portfolios and alumni surveys.

January, 2008
As with most science and engineering students, written and oral communications provides one of the major challenges to our majors. With this in mind the department has adopted this extension of one of the basic general education learning goals.

Graduates will have the ability to communicate effectively. 

To this end, students in our program take a course in technical writing and have required writing and oral presentation assignments in several classes.  The assessment of this requirement is based an artifacts collected.  Specifically the major documents written for the milestones of the capstone courses and the associated status presentations.  Presently the results of this assessment show that this student learning outcome is being met.

Students will respect diversity of background, experience and belief, and will value the different perspectives that this diversity beings.

Students will achieve fluency in reading, writing, oral communication and information technology.

Although the class size is too large to assign lengthy writing 	composition papers, students are asked to read pertinent material for end-of-unit examinations.  Students are asked to write short reflection pieces on a 3-day food record assignment and a full fitness/body composition lab activity.  The course is also set up to promote information technology through the use of blackboard and wireless response pad technology.  Students are required to consistently maintain their blackboard accounts in which they can communicate with each other, hold discussion forums and complete three online quizzes.

Students are also outfitted with individual wireless remote controls with which they can respond anonymously to questions asked by the instructor.  The technology is an excellent formative assessment tool and attendance manager.  Students are regularly assessed on previous day lecture notes and spot assessments midway and at the end of a lecture.  Students “clicker” points are averaged into their attendance and participation points which make up 12.5% of their total grade.

Students will master the principles of logical, mathematical and scientific reasoning.

During the fitness and nutrition unit, students are assessed on their ability to problem solve.  They are asked to mathematically compute Target Heart Rate given the necessary variables.  Students are required to complete this exercise and submit the form in their portfolios.  They are also tested on their ability to compute THR on an end-of-unit examination.  With regard to nutrition, students are also assigned a 3-day food record assignment in which they are to log all food eaten in a three-day period.  They are then required to assess total intake of calories and compute the percentages garnered from the three energy-supplying nutrients.  This assessment is assessed in their portfolios as well as on the end-of-unit exam.

Students will develop an appreciation of the breadth and depth of scientific and humanistic knowledge.

The field of health education is comprised of may disciplines such as psychology, biology, nutrition, anatomy and physiology and sociology.  The reading material from the text, as well as featured guest speakers adds to this depth.  Students are assessed via 	wireless response pads and end-of-unit examination.

Students will develop a sense of the interconnectedness of knowledge.

Students will integrate knowledge from diverse fields of study in order to solve real-worlds problems.

Students will become aware of the manifold ways that knowledge evolves.

Students will develop a disposition to ask incisive and insightful questions.

Throughout the course, students are constantly questioned for understanding.  The format of the course is active learning based.  The question and answer dialogue that takes place is conducive to such an environment.  Informal formative feedback is constantly garnered through class whips, on the spot questioning and through whole-class discussion.  Students also involved in think-pair-share, a method in which students think about a question instigated by the instructor.  They then pair with a student to discuss and problem-solve.  Finally, they share their response to the class.

If the department incorporates general education student learning goals into assessment of students in the major, describe the assessment results.

The Physics Department does not currently assess general education student learning goals as part of the major, however many of our program goals align well with general education including:

A. Know the standard technical information and be able to perform experimental techniques used in physics,
 
B. Be able to speak and write clearly in the language and style of the discipline, and

C. Demonstrate quantitative problem-solving skills.  This includes having a firm foundation in the fundamentals and applications of the necessary mathematics.

These goals are assessed through course grades, end-of-the-major portfolio and the MFT (standardized exam).  The Physics Education Research Community has also developed several different mechanisms for assessing student learning.  Members of the Department are encouraged to implement these instruments when teaching their courses.

As mentioned previously, the Department has had no formal mechanism for enforcing these requirements, hence the development of the Assessment Committtee, the annual assessment retreat and PHYS 489 (Senior Assessment).

We don’t formally incorporate general education learning goals into the major.  Some of ours are likely compatible, but the department has not made this connection directly. Indirectly, however, we implement and assess these skills through our major courses.  All of our courses deal with critical thinking in some form or fashion, and writing is a required part of almost all of our upper-division courses.  Assessment is done primarily through the paper project in the 489 course (though we don’t really assess quantitative symbolic reasoning, except for logical arguments within the paper’s structure). As noted elsewhere, we are reasonably satisfied with the results of the papers students write, though there is variation, and they could of course all improve.
Jan. 08

(January 2008)
• The first five student learning outcomes of the psychology major have a disciplinary emphasis, but are also related to the university’s general education goals 4, 5, 7, and 8, which stress logical reasoning, scientific breadth, applied science, and ways of creating knowledge. These goals and methods of assessment may be found in the tables referred to in 2.C.2, above.

• The second five student learning outcomes of the psychology major are general education goals. They stress information and technological literacy, communication skills, sociocultural and international awareness, personal development, and career planning and development. These outcomes are related to the university’s general education goals 2 and 3, which promote diverse perspectives and communication skills, including information technology. These department goals and methods of assessment may be found in the tables referred to in 2.C.2, above.

A majority of our majors come from two populations:  transfer students from community colleges, who have A.A. degrees already; and, students at CWU who have first encountered sociology, and become enamored of the field, fairly late in their college careers.  Thus, a majority of our students decide one of our programs is their ideal match as juniors and even seniors.  Requiring any additional 100 and 200 level courses would actually impede progress towards graduation. for most of our students since such course credits would not be counted in the total hours required for graduation.  Graduation requires a minimum of 60 upper-division credit hours and a total of 120 lower-division hours of which 60-80 hours are consumed by general educational requirements.  Therefore it would be a waste of our faculty resources to offer a wide array of 100 and 200 level courses.

QUESTION: EducationD2