Click on department name for a copy
of each department's final report
- English / Bryn
Mawr. Given
the departmental goal of developing majors' ability to "write
persuasively and thoughtfully about a topic of her own choosing", the
project assessed the value added by the capstone sequence, English
398-399 (click here for the department's statement of
learning goals). The project involved developing a rubric
that was then used by two independent evaluators in assessing a
junior-level piece of writing (pretest) and the senior thesis itself
(posttest). The department gauged the extent to which student scores
improved from pretest to posttest.
- English
/ Swarthmore. The
project focused on
improvement in writing about literature during first-year introductory
seminars
in literature, using a pre-test and post-test
design with embedded course assignments. Papers written early and late
in the semester
in 12 introductory course sections were scored using a rubric (see pp.
2-3), and the results
showed that student writing improved from pretest to posttest, with
different patterns of strength emerging across the rubric dimensions.
Student self-ratings (see p. 3), collected separately, also reflected
improvement, but not always in a way that closely
correlated with instructor ratings on the rubric.
- History / Haverford. Student
mastery of disciplinary research skills is among the History
Department student
learning goals, and this project evaluated how this learning goal
is integrated across the
curriculum and in the two-semester Senior Thesis. The Department
developed a rubric
to articulate evaluation
criteria for the senior thesis. Majors were surveyed
through the senior
year about the
effectiveness of specific assignments and activities in
developing their research and writing skills. The rubric facilitated
standardization of grading procedures and identified areas in need of
improvement within the curriculum which, combined with analysis and
discussion
of the indirect measures, led to a proposal to modify the senior thesis
curriculum as well as to develop independent research skills earlier in
the major.
Click on department name for a copy
of each department's final report
- Chemistry
/ Haverford. The project probed
one of the department's key learning
goals -- empowering students to be successful
in research environments. The department developed a rubric for
the senior research experience, administered a standardized test on
the main pillars of
chemistry (inorganic, organic, physical, instrumental analysis and
biochemistry), and conducted an alumni survey which related specific
curricular components to the various career stages of professional
chemists. Utilizing the rubric encouraged
formative assessment of student performance in weekly mentoring
sessions and
enhanced student/faculty communication. Both
the standardized test of current students and the survey
of alumni emphasized
the importance of Superlab and other research experiences in the
formation of
chemists. The test results also
confirmed the appropriateness of initial departmental chemistry course
placements.
- Computer
Science / Swarthmore.
The
Department's overarching goal is to increase students' proficiency in
computational thinking and practice in a liberal arts context. This
goal includes
skills such as algorithmic problem solving, abstraction, top-down
design,
analysis, and testing. The assessment project focused on introductory
courses, where the
primary aim is to teach students the skill of algorithmic problem
solving. A
performance task (see p. 2), administered at the beginning (pretest)
and end (posttest) of the course and scored with a simple rubric (see
p. 2), was used to investigate whether students’ problem
solving skills improved during the semester.
- Geology / Bryn
Mawr. The project focused on three of the seven fundamental
concepts of Geology as defined in the department's
statement of learning goals: plate
tectonics, the geologic time scale, global climate change. Student
knowledge in these three areas was measured at the beginning of three
relevant introductory courses designed to teach to these learning
goals, and again at the conclusion of the course(s), using a
multiple-choice exam developed by the department (20 questions devoted
to each learning goal, 60 questions total). Contact the department of
Geology (aweil@brynmawr.edu)
for a copy of the test, which is still in use.
Click on department name for a copy
of each department's final report
- Educational Studies / Swarthmore.
The
department developed a rubric
to evaluate the two-credit thesis -- one of the
culminating experience options in the interdisciplinary special major
-- for
students’ abilities to select, implement, and provide a rationale for
research
methods employed. An external reviewer used the rubric to evaluate
samples of student work. This information was supplemented by
retrospective feedback by thesis advisors about the students'
development during the experience, and by student feedback, both based
on the framework of the rubric. The
department is using what it has learned to inform curricular planning,
and the rubric
has since been adapted for use by other departments at Swarthmore
(e.g., Sociology and Anthropology) and has been shared with other
Departments of
Educational Studies through the Consortium for Excellence in Teacher
Education
schools.
- Psychology
/ Haverford.
The Psychology project
assessed the departmental
learning goal
of research skill mastery. Majors completed a diagnostic assessment at
the beginning of the senior year to
determine proficiency in research design issues and data analysis
techniques. Based on the results of this assessment, senior thesis
students spent extra time with faculty mentors on the portions of their
projects related to the skill areas that the assessment identified as
being weakest (data analysis, using appropriate tests). This
assessment process was repeated with the next group of Senior
Psychology Majors
in the fall of 2011, and represents a sustainable practice for the
future. Since the department also has information
about the specific classes taken by each student, the additional
diagnostic
test data will feed into a larger programmatic assessment of the
sequence of
courses taken in preparation for the senior project.
- Sociology / Bryn Mawr. After
developing a comprehensive statement of department-level
learning goals, the project focused on assessing four of these in
the context of the junior writing seminar (Sociology 303). These
included, responsible
generalization, pursuing a research question through systematic
sociological analysis, reading and comprehending research methods, and
making effective presentations. The
department developed a rubric to
assess the written junior essay along these dimensions.