Unit: Kawaihuelani Center for Hawaiian Language
Program: Hawaiian (BA)
Degree: Bachelor's
Date: Thu Oct 09, 2014 - 1:03:35 pm

1) Institutional Learning Objectives (ILOs) and Program Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs)

1. Speaking: Engage in conversations, provide and obtain information, express feelings and emotions, and exchange opinions on more abstract topics at an advanced level of fluency and accuracy

(1b. Specialized study in an academic field)

2. Speaking: Present information, concepts, and ideas to an audience of listeners at an advanced level of fluency and accuracy

(1b. Specialized study in an academic field, 2c. Communicate and report)

3. Listening: Understand and interpret spoken Hawaiian at an advanced level on a variety of topics beyond the immediacy of the situation

(1b. Specialized study in an academic field)

4. Reading: Comprehend and interpret a wide variety of texts written in Hawaiian that are more conceptually abstract and linguistically complex, and/or texts that focus on unfamiliar topics and situations (e.g., primary source materials like literature, poetry, newspaper articles written by native speakers of Hawaiian)

(1b. Specialized study in an academic field)

5. Writing: Present information, concepts, and ideas to an audience of readers in a variety of more lengthy written forms about a number of possible topics using advanced vocabulary, expressions, and structures

(1b. Specialized study in an academic field, 2c. Communicate and report)

6. Cultures, Comparisons, Connections, Communities: Deepen understanding of and respect for the Hawaiian culture and its people through the study of unique practices, perspectives, issues, and products of the culture that are expressed through and embedded in the Hawaiian language.

(1b. Specialized study in an academic field, 1c. Understand Hawaiian culture and history, 3b. Respect for people and cultures, in particular Hawaiian culture)

7. Cultures, Comparisons, Connections, Communities: Continue to develop insight into the nature of language and culture by comparing Hawaiian language and culture to other languages and cultures.

(1a. General education, 1b. Specialized study in an academic field, 1c. Understand Hawaiian culture and history, 2a. Think critically and creatively)

8. Cultures, Comparisons, Connections, Communities: Expand and broaden appropriate application of Hawaiian language and culture in authentic settings within and beyond the classroom in order to connect to other disciplines, contexts, and domains, access information, and interact with others in the Hawaiian language community.

(1b. Specialized study in an academic field, 1c. Understand Hawaiian culture and history, 2a. Think critically and creatively, 3b. Respect for people and cultures, in particular Hawaiian culture, 3d. Civic participation)

2) Your program's SLOs are published as follows. Please update as needed.

Department Website URL: available on Native Hawaiian Student Services website (http://manoa.hawaii.edu/nhss/academicadvising/kawaihuelani-majors/undergraduate-program-requirements/)
Student Handbook. URL, if available online: available on Native Hawaiian Student Services website (http://manoa.hawaii.edu/nhss/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Welina-Kawaihuelani_StdHndbk_Fall-2012.pdf)
Information Sheet, Flyer, or Brochure URL, if available online:
UHM Catalog. Page Number:
Course Syllabi. URL, if available online: NA
Other:
Other:

3) Select one option:

Curriculum Map File(s) from 2014:

4) For your program, the percentage of courses that have course SLOs explicitly stated on the syllabus, a website, or other publicly available document is as follows. Please update as needed.

0%
1-50%
51-80%
81-99%
100%

5) Did your program engage in any program assessment activities between June 1, 2013 and September 30, 2014? (e.g., establishing/revising outcomes, aligning the curriculum to outcomes, collecting evidence, interpreting evidence, using results, revising the assessment plan, creating surveys or tests, etc.)

Yes
No (skip to question 14)

6) For the period between June 1, 2013 and September 30, 2014: State the assessment question(s) and/or assessment goals. Include the SLOs that were targeted, if applicable.


During this past academic year, Kawaihuelani spent most of our time in the final stage of an assessment cycle where we developed a plan for improvement of our program. Specifically, we developed and are in the process of submitting a proposal to revise our major requirements so that they better align with all our program SLOs as well as with other language programs on campus. This plan for improvement of our major is a part of a larger effort by Hawaiʻinuiākea to establish school requirements for all undergraduate majors pursuing Bachelor’s (BA) degrees in Hawaiian (HAW) and Hawaiian Studies (HWST). Hawaiʻinuiākea is proposing to require 15 credits of coursework from both Kamakakūokalani Center for Hawaiian Studies and Kawaihuelani Center for Hawaiian Language that represent the foundation of our field of Hawaiian knowledge and also fulfill Undergraduate General Educational requirements of the university. The full proposal to establish school requirements and revise Kawaihuelani’s major requirements is in the process of being reviewed. We are hopeful that it will make it through the entire approval process in time for implementation in Fall 2015. 

7) State the type(s) of evidence gathered to answer the assessment question and/or meet the assessment goals that were given in Question #6.


Data collected and analyzed over the last several years from curriculum mapping exercises with Kawaihuelani’s faculty, review of our peer language programs on campus, and direct (Mūkīkī Wai Nā Mamo o Mānoa) and indirect (exit surveys and interviews, focus groups) student data all informed the changes we are proposing to our HAW major requirements. Similar evidence was gathered during and prior to the time period of this annual assessment from faculty, staff and students of Hawaiʻinuiākea and used to develop our proposal to establish school requirements.

Over the past five years, there have been extensive discussions and focus groups with Hawaiʻinuiākea faculty, staff and students, analysis of program assessment data, and review of similar requirements at other colleges and schools at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (UH Mānoa) that have all informed our proposal to establish school requirements. 

8) State how many persons submitted evidence that was evaluated. If applicable, please include the sampling technique used.


All faculty and staff of Hawaiʻinuiākea were engaged in the various discussions surrounding the development of school requirements that included curriculum mapping exercises, brainstorming of ideas, evaluation of student work, analysis and interpretation of student input from focus groups, and final development of the actual requirements based on all this evidence and conversations. While I will focus primarily on the latest data collected during the time period of this annual assessment, please remember that conversations and data collection around school requirements has been going on for five years.

In Fall 2013, Hawaiʻinuiākea’s School Curriculum Committee (SCC) hosted an all faculty and staff meeting to get everyone in the same room to understand the idea of creating school requirements in general, raise questions and concerns, and share specific ideas of what the school requirements might look like based in part on analysis of past program assessment data from both academic units (annual assessment activities, self-study reports and recommendations from UH Mānoa and our accrediting body WINHEC). While these faculty and staff conversations were going on as a school and in the individual units throughout the 2013-2014 academic year, we also included students in the conversations through focus groups with majors from both HAW and HWST. After collecting and considering student input, a second all faculty and staff meeting of Hawaiʻinuiākea was held at the end of the Spring 2014 semester where we: 1) shared manaʻo (ideas, thoughts) from our students gathered during the focus group sessions, 2) shared and discussed manaʻo and decisions made in our different units, and 3) addressed any lingering questions or concerns. After all discussions, it was unanimously decided that Hawaiʻinuiākea should move forward to establish school requirements for all HAW & HWST undergraduate majors; and HWST 107, 270 & HAW 100, 301 & 302 shall make up the school-required coursework.

17 Hawaiʻinuiākea majors participated in 6 focus groups conducted last academic year (Fall 2013-Spring 2014):

  • 4 HAW majors
  • 4 HWST majors
  • 3 Double majors
  • 3 Concurrent majors
  • 1 HAW minor
  • 1 MA in HAW
  • 1 MA in HWST
  • Freshman to Seniors
  • Undergraduate and graduate
  • CC transfers and Mānoa only students
  • 9 wāhine and 8 kāne
  • All majors were invited to participate via email list serves
  • We met with all students who responded to our invite

It was extremely important for us to reach out to our majors during this process as well to make sure their voices were heard and their input on this important curriculum change was taken into consideration. The focus group sessions with our HAW and HWST majors were designed and conducted by a non-instructional faculty member of Hawaiʻinuiākea and a staff member from Native Hawaiian Student Services. They consulted with the academic advisors from both Kamakakūokalani and Kawaihuelani in the initial design of the focus groups.

As for the changes we are proposing to our HAW major requirements, we are in the final stage of our assessment cycle (developing a plan to improve the program and student learning), so we used the indirect data from the student focus groups conducted last academic year but mainly used data collected prior to this current annual assessment period. Please see past annual Assessment reports for information about how many students provided direct direct evidence in past years from Mūkīkī Wai Nā Mamo o Mānoa.

9) Who interpreted or analyzed the evidence that was collected? (Check all that apply.)

Course instructor(s)
Faculty committee
Ad hoc faculty group
Department chairperson
Persons or organization outside the university
Faculty advisor
Advisors (in student support services)
Students (graduate or undergraduate)
Dean/Director
Other:

10) How did they evaluate, analyze, or interpret the evidence? (Check all that apply.)

Used a rubric or scoring guide
Scored exams/tests/quizzes
Used professional judgment (no rubric or scoring guide used)
Compiled survey results
Used qualitative methods on interview, focus group, open-ended response data
External organization/person analyzed data (e.g., external organization administered and scored the nursing licensing exam)
Other: analysis of curriculum maps, review of peer programs and colleges at UH Mānoa

11) For the assessment question(s) and/or assessment goal(s) stated in Question #6:
Summarize the actual results.


After all focus groups were complete, the two who conducted the sessions complied and analyzed the data they collected. They then shared it in the Spring 2014 all faculty and staff meeting of Hawaiʻinuiākea so everyone could help interpret the results. Here is a list of the main take-a-ways from these focus group sessions with our students:

  • ALL students we talked to support the idea of creating school requirements.
  • They are interested in developing a Hawaiʻinuiākea identity as students and saw the creation of school requirements as a first, doable step to achieving this.
  • They want more overlap between ʻike and ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian studies and language).
  • They want and look forward to more interaction among Hawaiʻinuiākea students and faculty as a consequence of requiring a common core for both majors.
  • They look forward to more collaboration between the academic advisors from Kamakakūokalani and Kawaihuelani and see this curriculum change as a possible catalyst for this increased collaboration.
  • They hope that requiring students from both majors to take the same set of courses will lead to the further alignment of HAW & HWST class schedules every semester.
  • The knowledge areas they identified as representing the foundation of our field/discipline are genealogy, language, history, and research.

During the years our faculty discussed the idea of creating school requirements, one of the first things we looked into was the existence of similar school or college requirements at UH Mānoa. Through our research we discovered that there are at least 4 other schools or colleges on campus that require a specific set of coursework that is common to all their majors in their school or college. We also discovered in our analysis of the actual credits required by each of these schools or colleges that the majority are made up of courses that represent the foundation of the field or discipline as well as fulfill many of the General Education requirements of the university. In fact, most of the descriptions in the UH Mānoa catalog articulate this explicitly. This dual purpose served by existing school and college requirements found at UH Mānoa in providing a foundation in the field while also fulfilling Undergraduate General Educational requirements of the university aligns exactly with what we are proposing for Hawaiʻinuiākea. The new school requirements (HWST 107, 270, HAW 100, 301 & 302) along with their prerequisites (HAW 101-202) serve to guide our majors in making decisions about what courses to take that not only support their major-specific work but also fulfill nearly half of the General Education requirements they need to graduate.

During the process of discussing and developing school requirements for Hawaiʻinuiākea, Kawaihuelani’s faculty saw an opportunity to also revise our major requirements that had not been revisited in over 15 years. After going through Mānoa’s annual assessment process in recent years and then conducting a comprehensive self-study of our school for UHM Program Review and WINHEC accreditation in 2013, Kawaihuelani’s faculty realized that changes needed to be made to our major requirements. Most importantly, we needed to revise our core course listing to reflect more directly the goals and objectives we have for our majors as expressed in our program SLOs. After going through a curriculum mapping exercise we realized we did not currently require our majors to take any courses that provide students focused practice in the areas of speaking, writing, or listening comprehension, three areas that are reflected in program SLOs and are essential to language revitalization. Therefore, the faculty identified three courses from their current curriculum that focus on these areas and moved them into the major core (HAW 321 Hawaiian Conversation, HAW 331 Hawaiian Composition, and HAW 332 Listening Comprehension and Transcription).

Culture and worldview is also the focus of three of our program SLOs that do not have a specific course required in the major core so Kawaihuelani’s faculty decided to add a list of mele (poetry, song, dance, chant) courses from the existing curriculum where students choose one. It is common knowledge in our field that one of the highest forms of Hawaiian cultural expression is through mele where language is expertly woven together and given voice as a way of connecting to our kūpuna (ancestors) in all their many forms as well as each other and other indigenous people. By enrolling in one of these mele classes, students engage in the analysis, composition, and performance of traditional and contemporary mele, which our faculty agreed are important skills all HAW majors should graduate with. With these additions to the HAW core requirements (15 to 24 credits), adjustments had to be made to the number of elective credits required (15 to 9). These adjustments were informed by our research of other language majors at UH Mānoa. In the end, the faculty worked to align the HAW major more closely with other language majors on campus by increasing the total number of credits for the HAW major from 30 to 33 (7 of the 10 other language majors require 33 or more credits). 

12) State how the program used the results or plans to use the results. Please be specific.

After careful consideration of faculty and student input, analysis of program assessment data, and review of the UH Mānoa context in which we are situated, Hawaiʻinuiākea submitted a proposal this semester to require 15 credits of coursework from both Kamakakūokalani and Kawaihuelani (HWST 107, 270; HAW 100, 301, 302) that represent the foundation of our field of Hawaiian knowledge and also fulfill Undergraduate General Educational requirements of the university. Included in this proposal is a revision of Kawaihuelani’s HAW undergraduate major requirements that better align with our Program SLOs and other peer language programs at UH Mānoa. We are confident that creating school requirements for all undergraduate HAW and HWST majors will have the following positive impacts on our students and our program:

  • send a message to our students and stakeholders that we are ONE school made up of two academic units that represent the depth and breadth of Hawaiian knowledge at UH Mānoa
  • send a message to our students and community that ʻike and ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi (Hawaiian studies and language) are integrally linked and essential to success in both majors/fields.
  • reflect how we think about Hawaiian knowledge as a discipline by communicating clearly to our students which foundational skills and areas of knowledge ALL Hawaiʻinuiākea majors need to know and be competent in by the time they graduate, in other words, what it means to be a Hawai‘inuiākea major.
  • encourage more collaboration among Hawaiʻinuiākea faculty across the two academic units of the school in terms of research and curriculum development.
  • allow us to better support our students in terms of:
    • encouraging HAW & HWST majors to develop their own community that supports one another because the more courses and learning experiences our students engage in together, which will be a consequence of creating a common set of required coursework, the more opportunities they will have to develop their own learning community;
    • guiding students to take certain HAW & HWST courses that also fulfill UH Mānoa Core & Graduation requirements, thus making General Education more applicable and meaningful to our field and discipline; and
    • eliminating the remnant “double-dipping” policy for HAW 301 & 302 that affects double majors.

There are many reasons that these proposed changes make sense for our school, our faculty, and our students, but ultimately, we see these curriculum changes as communicating clearly to our students which foundational skills and areas of knowledge they need to know and be competent in by the time they graduate so that they can help us fulfill our school’s mission to pursue, perpetuate, research, and revitalize all areas and forms of Hawaiian knowledge for the benefit of the Hawaiian community and the larger community of Hawaiʻi. The hope is that our proposal will be approved in time for implementation in Fall 2015.

13) Beyond the results, were there additional conclusions or discoveries?
This can include insights about assessment procedures, teaching and learning, program aspects and so on.


MŪKĪKĪ WAI NĀ MAMO O MĀNOA

The faculty member who was in charge of running this competition/showcase for our HAW undergraduate and graduate students recently left our department. The budget crisis at Mānoa has also hampered our ability to run Mūkīkī Wai Nā Mamo o Mānoa in recent years. But, in Spring 2014, discussions began among a new committee of faculty at Kawaihuelani who is interested in reviving this valuable event. I shared with them the rubrics, score sheets, and overall assessment process we used in past years so they can revisit them and make revisions for a new era of Mūkīkī Wai Nā Mamo o Mānoa. I also plan to share with them the results of our rubric assessments from past years as they may be able to use these results to refine the assessment materials and process.


14) If the program did not engage in assessment activities, please explain.
Or, if the program did engage in assessment activities, please add any other important information here.