Program: Philosophy (BA)
Degree: Bachelor's
Date: Wed Nov 04, 2020 - 2:59:59 pm
1) Program Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) and Institutional Learning Objectives (ILOs)
1. Students acquire the skills of careful reading and interpretation of philosophical texts
(1b. Specialized study in an academic field, 2a. Think critically and creatively, 2b. Conduct research, 3a. Continuous learning and personal growth)
2. Students acquire the skills of writing clear, succinct, and well-argued papers
(1a. General education, 2c. Communicate and report, 3a. Continuous learning and personal growth)
3. Students acquire the skills of responding critically to the ideas advanced by others
(1a. General education, 1c. Understand Hawaiian culture and history, 2a. Think critically and creatively, 2c. Communicate and report, 3a. Continuous learning and personal growth, 3b. Respect for people and cultures, in particular Hawaiian culture, 3c. Stewardship of the natural environment, 3d. Civic participation)
4. Students acquire the skills of expressing ideas logically and coherently.
(1a. General education, 2c. Communicate and report, 3a. Continuous learning and personal growth, 3d. Civic participation)
5. Students acquire a basic knowledge of the history of Western Philosophy.
(1a. General education, 1b. Specialized study in an academic field)
6. Students are acquainted with at least one non-Western philosophical tradition.
(1a. General education, 1b. Specialized study in an academic field, 3b. Respect for people and cultures, in particular Hawaiian culture)
7. Students are acquainted with at least one major field in contemporary philosophy.
(1b. Specialized study in an academic field, 3c. Stewardship of the natural environment)
8. Students demonstrate the ability to write a paper on a philosophical topic on which they have conducted independent research.
(1b. Specialized study in an academic field, 2a. Think critically and creatively, 2b. Conduct research, 2c. Communicate and report)
2) Your program's SLOs are published as follows. Please update as needed.
Department Website URL: 
Student Handbook. URL, if available online: Information Sheet, Flyer, or Brochure URL, if available online: UHM Catalog. Page Number: Course Syllabi. URL, if available online: Other: 3) Please review, add, replace, or delete the existing curriculum map.
- File (10/16/2020)
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) Does the program have learning achievement results for its program SLOs? (Example of achievement results: "80% of students met expectations on SLO 1.")(check one):
No Yes, on some(1-50%) of the program SLOs Yes, on most(51-99%) of the program SLOs Yes, on all(100%) of the program SLOs6) Did your program engage in any program learning assessment activities between November 1, 2018 and October 31, 2020?
Yes No (skip to question 17)7) What best describes the program-level learning assessment activities that took place for the period November 1, 2018 and October 31, 2020? (Check all that apply.)
Create/modify/discuss program learning assessment procedures (e.g., SLOs, curriculum map, mechanism to collect student work, rubric, survey) Collect/evaluate student work/performance to determine SLO achievement Collect/analyze student self-reports of SLO achievement via surveys, interviews, or focus groups Use assessment results to make programmatic decisions (e.g., change course content or pedagogy, design new course, hiring) Investigate other pressing issue related to student learning achievement for the program (explain in question 8) Other: The UG Chair did an internal Departmental Assessment of both Minor and Major degree infrastructure8) Briefly explain the assessment activities that took place since November 2018.
- In every course offered, the instructor evaluates/assesses student performance before assigning a final grade to the student in question.
- Students majoring in philosophy also engage in self-assessment both of their own work and also of the department's offerings just before they graduate. This comes in the form of an Exit Statement that is submitted to the Department at the time the students are preparing to submit their goldenrod forms.
- Every year, the UG committee also supervises the administers the David Hall Award; this is an essay competition for the best UG essay.
- In the Fall of 2019, Professors Odin, Perkins, and Smith designed PHIL 222 Existentialism: Being, Freedom, Death to address a gap in the Department's offerings in the recent history of European Philosophy. This course was accepted and will be offered for the first time in Spring '21 by Professor Perkins.
- Professor Smith was appointed UG Chair in July of 2020 and did an internal assessment of the UG Degree programs. Professor Smith recommended an expansion of the Department's 'Core Areas' in the major program and the addition of a new minor concentration. These proposals were accepted by the Department and will be implemented in Spring '21.
9) What types of evidence did the program use as part of the assessment activities checked in question 7? (Check all that apply.)
Artistic exhibition/performance Assignment/exam/paper completed as part of regular coursework and used for program-level assessment Capstone work product (e.g., written project or non-thesis paper) Exam created by an external organization (e.g., professional association for licensure) Exit exam created by the program IRB approval of research Oral performance (oral defense, oral presentation, conference presentation) Portfolio of student work Publication or grant proposal Qualifying exam or comprehensive exam for program-level assessment in addition to individual student evaluation (graduate level only) Supervisor or employer evaluation of student performance outside the classroom (internship, clinical, practicum) Thesis or dissertation used for program-level assessment in addition to individual student evaluation Alumni survey that contains self-reports of SLO achievement Employer meetings/discussions/survey/interview of student SLO achievement Interviews or focus groups that contain self-reports of SLO achievement Student reflective writing assignment (essay, journal entry, self-assessment) on their SLO achievement. Student surveys that contain self-reports of SLO achievement Assessment-related such as assessment plan, SLOs, curriculum map, etc. Program or course materials (syllabi, assignments, requirements, etc.) Other 1: Other 2: 10) State the number of students (or persons) who submitted evidence that was evaluated. If applicable, please include the sampling technique used.
At this time, we have approximately 42 majors in the program. The Capstone seminar currently has 15 students enrolled. At the conclusion of every fall, the Capstone essays are graded by the instructor (Professor Tsai). Exit statements are also collected by all outgoing majors at the end of every term.
11) 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: 12) 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: 13) Summarize the results from the evaluation, analysis, interpretation of evidence (checked in question 12). For example, report the percentage of students who achieved each SLO.
- 80-90% of our students achieved their SLOs.
- Every Fall term the Department conducts a Capstone Seminar for graduating majors. The Captstone seminar students write a final research paper for the course. They present their work to each other and then vote on what they thought were the best 3 presentations. Those 3 presenters then present their work to the entire Department at the conclusion of the Fall term. Both graduate students and faculty members assess the oral presentations and written feedback is made available to those students. The is a whole-Department event and the students spend a good amount of time preparing their work.
14) What best describes how the program used the results? (Check all that apply.)
Assessment procedure changes (SLOs, curriculum map, rubrics, evidence collected, sampling, communications with faculty, etc.) Course changes (course content, pedagogy, courses offered, new course, pre-requisites, requirements) Personnel or resource allocation changes Program policy changes (e.g., admissions requirements, student probation policies, common course evaluation form) Students' out-of-course experience changes (advising, co-curricular experiences, program website, program handbook, brown-bag lunches, workshops) Celebration of student success! Results indicated no action needed because students met expectations Use is pending (typical reasons: insufficient number of students in population, evidence not evaluated or interpreted yet, faculty discussions continue) Other: 15) Please briefly describe how the program used its findings/results.
As mentioned above, a new course was added (PHIL 222), and changes were made to the major and minor degrees. Three coures (302, 402, and 436) were added to the 'Core Areas' component of the major and a new minor concetrantion was added to the previously existing pool of minor concentrations. A number of new courses were also proposed this current academic year. More details will be provided in the next report if and when these courses are approved.
16) Beyond the results, were there additional conclusions or discoveries? This can include insights about assessment procedures, teaching and learning, and great achievements regarding program assessment in this reporting period.
As mentioned above, it was determined that the Department needs to expand it's course offerings. To that end, a number of new course proposals have been submitted to the College for approval.
17) If the program did not engage in assessment activities, please justify.
It did.