psychology

In the last 6 months, the Department of Psychology has initiated a new plan that is expected to provide useful information that will eventually assess our Psychology Undergraduate Program. This new Undergraduate Assessment Plan (UAP) emerged from training in Assessment Leadership Institute at UHM, which highlighted major principles and strategies to assess academic programs. With this training knowledge, an undergraduate curriculum map was developed with faculty input that incorporates the most recent Student Learning Objectives (SLOs) from the American Psychological Association (APA). These SLOs that graduating psychology majors should know include: psychological knowledge of key concepts; scientific inquiry and critical thinking using scientific reasoning to interpret psychological phenomenon; ethical and social responsibility in diverse settings; communication development for effective writing and oral presentation; and professional development for meaningful direction after graduation. The curriculum map is important in describing specific SLOs associated with each Psychology undergraduate course taught at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Effective Fall 2014, all instructors will include SLOs in their syllabus that reflects their course content. Another feature of the UAP in development is the incorporation of a rubric to assess student writing. To do so, a rubric for writing to meet the APA communication SLO was obtained from the American Association of Schools & Universities and modified to assess the writing occurring in our Psychology W courses. Pilot work is being conducted to determine the feasibility and reliability of a rubric to assess student writing in a small sample of student papers. On the basis of this study, the scoring and assessment method of papers may require modifications before presenting a working rubric to the department faculty for discussion. The UAP is to eventually require a final paper written in Psychology W courses to be assessed by the instructor using a rubric accepted by the Psychology faculty.

Department of Psychology Undergraduate Assessment Plan

In the last 6 months, the Department of Psychology has initiated a new plan that is expected to …

The Department of Psychology has adopted the learning goals and outcomes proposed by the American Psychological Association Task Force. We selected five major goals and outcomes to be assessed with surveys distributed to our undergraduates at the time they declare their major in psychology and again when graduating with their B.A. degree. The surveys serve as a means to determine whether the Student Learning Outcomes in our Psychology courses were achieved. The five major goals that are assessed include: 1) knowledge about psychological concepts and theory; 2) knowledge of basic research methods; 3) use of critical and creative thinking skills in solving problems; 4) understanding of how psychological concepts are used in everyday life; and 5) developing communication skills including writing, interpersonal and oral communication. Student rate the extent to which these goals were achieved at the time of graduation and their ratings are statistically compare to their earlier scores made at the time of major declaration. Analysis made of the rating scores obtained in the Fall 2008 to Spring 2009 academic year indicated significant improvement in attaining goals 1 and 2 (p

Principles That Guide Assessment

The Department of Psychology has adopted the learning goals and outcomes proposed by the American Psychological Association Task …