Degree Program Assessment Reports : View Reports

Unit: Political Science
Program: Political Science (BA)
Degree: Bachelor's
Date: Thu Nov 19, 2020 - 5:43:33 pm

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

1. 1. Students will be able to think critically and historically about power and the political. Students identify and analyze power dynamics in a range of social contexts and processes, including but not limited to language, government, images of the future and civil society institutions. Students will be able to pose and explore relevant, open-ended questions about authority and legitimacy.

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

2. 2. Students will be able to craft and defend evidence-based arguments. This argumentative capacity is built upon their ability to rigorously and respectfully weigh competing views, synthesize multiple sources and critically reflection their own and others assumptions. Students should be able to make arguments in both written and oral forms of communication.

3. 3. Students will be able to communicate effectively in public settings, with attention to and appreciation of diverse cultural contexts. Students are equipped for productive, civic participation in their communities, able to synthesize critical thinking, empathic, collaborative and argumentative capacities, and futures thinking with an audience in mind.

4. 4. Students will be able to cogently explain the interconnectedness of local and global dynamics of power within the context of the political and cultural specificities of Hawai`i nei.

(1a. General education, 1c. Understand Hawaiian culture and history, 2a. Think critically and creatively, 2b. Conduct research, 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)

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

Department Website URL: https://politicalscience.manoa.hawaii.edu/undergraduate-slos/

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.

Curriculum Map File(s) from 2020:

File (11/20/2020)

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.

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):

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 SLOs

6) 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:

8) Briefly explain the assessment activities that took place since November 2018.

Questions 6 through 12.

First, we present a general policy on our assessment practices.

Political Science SLOs are assessed as part of capstone experience, class performance, student evaluation of instructional activities as well as periodic surveys of undergraduate students. At the undergraduate levels, our assessment programs are written into our disciplinary major. Each major is expected to complete a capstone experience, and we have several from which students choose. While this diversity does not permit a simple comparison of outcomes (i.e., some students write a thesis, some take a senior seminar, while others teach an undergraduate course), it does provide us with some interesting data on how students see their own work progressing and it does provide several groups of similarly situated seniors whose work can be analyzed for familiarity with the discipline. Since political science is never or only infrequently taught prior to the university, we assume little or no theoretical knowledge for beginning majors. The few students who have completed a thesis in our department often reveal remarkable facility with theoretical models and empirical work, but this is not surprising as this is an option that our best students seem to choose. Senior seminars provide a more directly comparative subset of students, and for the most part these students still reveal some difficulties with writing that has encouraged us to sponsor more writing intensive courses in political science. We create aggregate data at the end of each year.

In-class assessment takes place through examinations, class reports, presentations, and written work. Faculty performs assessment tasks while keeping in mind the SLOs. Student evaluations are mandatory and results examined by the department chair in consultation with the faculty. Following the consultation process, specific instructional development programs are designed and implemented as necessary. Last, we run surveys among undergraduate students with questions that aim to measure both qualitative and quantitative data. The qualitative data strive to capture if and how political and critical thinking are or not facilitated in the classes. Whether students feel they were given opportunities to develop skills for making a good argument and communicating it effectively. At the quantitative side, the survey is designed to assess overall perception of performance.

This semester, the Department administered a survey to our undergraduate majors in an effort to receive “self-reports” on the department’s effectiveness in achieving our SLOs. We received 41 responses. The survey had four multiple choice and three open ended questions aiming to elicit/measure student assessments of the SLOs. First, I will present the first four questions and the aggregate data below. These questions are instructive because they allow students to report whether or not the Department was successful in its SLO objectives/claims. The data will show that the Department meets and exceeds the expectations on SLOs.

1- Students are able to think critically and historically about power and the political. Students identify and analyze power dynamics in a range of social contexts and processes, including but not limited to language, government, images of the future and civil society institutions. Students are able to pose and explore relevant, open-ended questions about authority and legitimacy.

Agree/Strongly Agree: 85.4%

Neutral : 12.%

Disagree/Strongly Disagree: 2.4% Agree/Strongly Agree/Neutral: 97.8%

2- Students are able to craft and defend evidence-based arguments. This argumentative capacity is built upon their ability to rigorously and respectfully weigh competing views, synthesize multiple sources and critically reflection their own and others assumptions. Students are able to make arguments in both written and oral forms of communication.

Agree/Strongly Agree: 65.8%

Neutral : 19.5.%

Disagree/Strongly Disagree:14.7% Agree/Strongly Agree/Neutral: 85.3%

3-Students are able to communicate effectively in public settings, with attention to and appreciation of diverse cultural contexts. Students are equipped for productive, civic participation in their communities, able to synthesize critical thinking, empathic, collaborative and argumentative capacities, and futures thinking with an audience in mind.

Agree/Strongly Agree: 62.5%

Neutral: 32.5.%

Disagree/Strongly Disagree: 5% Agree/Strongly Agree/Neutral: 95%

4-Students are able to cogently explain the interconnectedness of local and global dynamics of power within the context of the political and cultural specificities of Hawai`i nei.

Agree/Strongly Agree: 58.5%

Neutral: 26.8%

Disagree/Strongly Disagree: 14.6% Agree/Strongly Agree/Neutral: 85.4%

The following are open ended questions and representative responses:

Question: What are some of the best practices in Political Science courses? (24 responses)

-I enjoy scenario based out of the box thinking and problem-solving activities.

Debates

-Discussions and how we are able to connect concepts from POLS to other classes as well like SOC or HAW courses

-Stay up to date with readings & reread assigned readings multiple times for better understanding.

- Having different assignments.

-Good teachers/professors who are understanding, caring, and empathetic with their students, and are lenient when it comes to times of uncertainty like now, and dedicate their time and knowledge to the course and its students!

-There is really not much to go off of as our professor failed to teach anything of significance.

special speakers, excursions to places affected by politics, personal engagement

-Lots of room for discussion in courses, rather than just straight lecturing. The course material in one class can be applied to other POLS courses as well.

-Democratic method of instruction, Socratic seminar style classes, flexible and affable profs

-Discussions, feedback from professors, engaging with important topics

-easy homework

-I was able to learn how politics, institutions, and political theories can be applied to explain the events that occur in our lives. I also enjoyed learning how to conduct academic research to better understand policies and political theories/concepts.

-Open discussions

-A helpful practice in POL SCI courses has been open discussions with classmates and professor. -This opportunity incorporates class materials with real world experiences.

-I like doing projects in my political science classes, because then I gain a greater understanding of specific things within each class. It is also great that we take such a diversity of Political –

-Science courses, because it allows us to be more holistically-thinking students and have information on a variety of perspectives that will come up again in our lives.

-Flexibility from professors to meet student needs have been extremely helpful.

Question: What recommendations do you have for improving Political Science courses? (22 responses)

-Discussion posts only go so far so more interactive stuff is more important

-Maybe having a separate set of Courses that have different focuses for students, like those who are pre law

-Keep asynchronous online courses for schedule flexibility.

-Have an even wider range of POLS classes.

-It is necessary for more WI classes for POLS to please become available, as soon as possible. I am applying for graduate programs which begin this fall, but I will not be able to join one of those programs if I am unable to fulfill both my POLS and WI requirements during the spring as summer terms. If only more options were made available, this would be a simple task to accomplish! :)

-I recommend incorporating classes from each of the other PS fields: Public Policy, Urban Planning, Alternative Futures, Indigenous Politics, International Relations, etc. so that students can have a blend of Political Science backgrounds that could help them to choose a better focused curriculum.

-I would like to see more POLS courses geared towards conducting research, similar to the POLS 390 course. If possible, I would like to see more variety of POLS courses in different areas of political science, such as Comparative Politics and Political Theory.

-In general, the teaching staff needs help operating within an online course format. From the Provost forum a few weeks ago, it sounds as if the University leadership is very proud of the tools that have been provided to the teaching staff – frankly that opinion is divorced from reality. It is common to spend 10 minutes per class simply watching the professor struggle with the technology in one form or another.

-This is a Political Science program and there should not be a stigma against discussing current events in the class, however faculty members should make a greater effort to divorce their political opinions from fact. Also, would it really be too much to ask for the professors to spend a little bit of time voicing the other side of the issue (i.e. “although I disagree with their assessment here is what the opposition has to say”). We are here to learn how to think, not to be told what to think – if the students are never exposed to a dissenting opinion then how can we expect them to be able to think critically on the issue.

Question: Other observations and suggestions? (16 responses)

-There needs to be more interactive platforms with more active participation from other students.

-No comment!

-I’m really enjoying POLS337 right now, it’s a perfect workload and the Professor is great!

-Again, not complaining; I enjoy studying in this field, but to say the things mentioned in the multiple course questions is a reach for this major.

-Teach of the Hawaiian Islands' current political status as a nation-state under prolonged, belligerent occupation.

-Especially for online classes, I think communication between teachers and students definitely needs improvement.

-Students should be encouraged and incentivized to engage in experiential learning outside the classroom.

-Have more activities in general to help students bond in the College of Social Sciences

-The multiple choice questions all ask about “students,” so I am making the assumption that the intent is for us to provide not only a self-assessment, but also an assessment of our peers. With that in mind . . . I have been surprised by the extraordinary lack of student participation in class. Without ever hearing any of my classmates talk it is very difficult to assess their ability to think critically, craft and defend arguments, communicate effectively, or explain interconnectedness. I am guessing the lack of student participation has to do with the Zoom format, however professors could do more to encourage student participation (not sure what ever happened to the practice of calling on someone and having them explain a point in the reading or give an opinion)

OVERALL, as expected, responses indicate that the Department is doing a lot of things right in instructional activities as they relate to the SLOs. On the whole, students feel that they are given opportunities to develop skills for thinking critically and historically about power and for making a good argument and communicating it effectively. Students’ “critical” feedback generally focuses on classroom logistics such as: challenges of technology, issues of participation in online classes in the era of Covid-19 Pandemic as well as limited availability of writing intensive and other such classes. Issues relating to teaching pedagogy are also occasionally highlighted. The department will review the survey results along with other assessment activities to come, as listed above, and will adjust its instructional practices and activities. (We are in the process of collecting information on Capstone classes as well as individual faculty feedback on their respective student mentees.) The survey demonstrates the Department meets and exceeds the expectations regarding the SLOs.

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.

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.

See the resposne to question # 8.

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.

Use pending

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.

Pending further departmental deliberations in for the next cyle.

17) If the program did not engage in assessment activities, please justify.

Further Clarification: Covid-19 Pandemic disrupted efforts to engage explicit program assessment activities as the POLS administration and faculty mobilized to shift to online teaching. The current undergraduate chair took up his position In Fall 2020.