Degree Program Assessment Reports

Upon graduating from the BA in SLS, students will:

1. Manifest the skills, understandings, and dispositions necessary to be exceptional language professionals.
2. Demonstrate critical thinking and awareness of issues within the context of their professional work and social practice.
3. Demonstrate an understanding of the value bases of their professional work.
4. Interpret the history of second and foreign language study and its contemporary issues.
5. Critically evaluate and make use of research into the learning, use, structure, and pedagogy of second languages.
6. Develop and apply sound frameworks in the assessment and evaluation of institutions and agents involved in second language instruction, planning, and policy.
7. Show an understanding of local language issues of Hawai'i and the Pacific in their professional work.
8. Be able to prepare minority language students to acquire the academic literacies that will allow them to succeed in educational institutions.
9. Improve the quality of teaching and learning second, foreign, and heritage languages, in the state of Hawai'i, domestically, and abroad.

Additional program goal: Upon graduating from the BA in SLS, students will be prepared to apply for admission to graduate programs in second language studies, applied linguistics, or related fields.

Items 5-12 have limited answers because the BA in SLS is a brand new major as of Fall 2011.  The primary activity between June 1, 2010 and September 30, 2011 was development of a proposal to establish a BA in SLS, discussions with and response to committees who reviewed the proposal (from the departmental level through the Board of Regents) and, after final approval of the proposal, operationalizing and starting implementation of the BA program. A number of assessment-related tasks were done in preparing the proposal to establish a BA in SLS, and plans are currently being identified for future assessment and evaluation. What follows are summaries of tasks that have been done or are in the planning stages:

A)      Student Learning Outcomes – Program Level.  Statements of student learning outcomes at the program level were completed as part of the proposal to establish the BA in SLS. Later, after the program was accepted and established, the SLS Department’s BA Committee revisited the SLOs and made a small but important adjustment (SLO10 originally read “[Upon graduating from the BA in SLS, students will] gain acceptance into graduate programs in second language studies, applied linguistics, or related fields.”  However, after discussion among the committee and with students, we recognized that many students did not have graduate school as an immediate goal, so this item was removed as an SLO and revised to fit as an additional goal of the program, as shown in the list of SLOs in Item 1 above.)

B)      Curriculum Map. A curriculum map for the major was completed as part of the BA proposal. After SLO 10 was removed, the BA Committee also revised the curriculum map, removing SLO 10.  The BA Committee also identified a need to revisit the curriculum map in the upcoming years, because the current map puts assessment of all SLOs in the capstone course, but it’s clear that some SLOs will be better assessed via other courses, and that other means of assessing outcomes (such as an exit survey done by the College of LLL) will also be incorporated.

C)      Assessment Plan.  As part of the proposal to establish the BA in SLS, a tentative assessment plan was developed.  What follows is a summary of that section of the proposal.

         SLS has an assessment committee whose role in the department is to direct assessment and evaluation of all SLS degree programs.

          SLS courses have assignments and projects that address course-level SLOs, with course-level assessment that provides students with feedback on their development within the SLS program. The BA program committee is tasked with designating subcommittees to review assessment evidence from SLS courses and report any patterns of note to the full committee, who decides on appropriate responses (which may include facilitation of discussion with instructional faculty and adjustments to curriculum, instruction, materials, etc.).

          At the program level, students produce a professional portfolio as part of their work in the capstone course.  This portfolio may include project work from other SLS courses that reflects students’ professional development, as well as other professional types of evidence (such as statements of teaching philosophy and CVs). The SLS assessment committee will set content and type criteria, and students provide SLS with a copy of their final portfolio.  It is planned that the assessment committee and BA program committee will meet once every two years for a one-day portfolio review session, with appropriate follow-up responses.

          Additionally, feedback is sought from students about their learning experience, their ability to achieve the program-level outcomes, any suggestions they may have for maintaining or improving the BA in SLS, and their future plans. All graduating seniors are invited to take an online anonymous survey by the Dean of the College of LLL. Aggregate results are delivered to the SLS assessment committee, who analyze the data and report to the program committee for further action.  Surveys of alumni are also conducted, to track student success in careers or graduate school, to investigate students’ hindsight perspectives about the value of their degree experiences, and to gather additional suggestions and feedback from program improvement.

          Finally, monitoring of courses and advising takes place on an ongoing basis.

D)      Resource Faculty.  For each SLS course, a member of the graduate faculty who has expertise in the area covered by the course agreed to serve as a “faculty resource person”. The faculty resource provides expertise to guide decisions about textbooks or other course materials, review SLOs, and serve as a resource for instructors of the course.

E)      Student Learning Outcomes – Course Level.  As shown in Item 4 above, less than 50% of the current syllabi include SLO statements.  One evaluation project for the upcoming year is for the BA committee to work with resource faculty to review and finalize course-level SLOs for each course, and to encourage their inclusion in all syllabi.

F)      Mandatory Advising Process.  The SLS BA committee decided to make advising mandatory every semester, with two primary areas of focus: ensuring that students are on track for graduating within a reasonable number of semesters, and helping students become aware of progress and opportunities related to their professional development. Prior to each semester’s advising session, students will complete an “Advising Preparation” survey, which serves to guide the discussion during the advising session. Based on advice from the Manoa Assessment Office, this survey was put into online format, which allows SLS to collect data for later assessment of the advising process.

G)      Opportunities for Gaining Professional Experience.  In conjunction with SLS 631 (Second Language Program Evaluation), a student in the MA/SLS program is working in Fall 2011 with the BA Coordinator to investigate possibilities for BA students to gain professional experience, including exploration of possibilities (in terms needs and feasibility) of developing a formal, semi-formal, or informal program for guiding student reflection on professional experiences.