Unit: Theatre & Dance
Program: Dance (MA, MFA)
Degree: Master's
Date: Tue Nov 27, 2012 - 9:14:16 pm

1) Below are your program's student learning outcomes (SLOs). Please update as needed.

MA Plan A Option I Dance Ethnology

Student Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the MA Plan A dance ethnology focus degree students should have gained, developed, and refined essential knowledge, skills, and experiences necessary to successfully reach the following learning outcomes:

SLO 1:kinesthetic proficiency and conceptual understanding of various kinds of dance from diverse geographic regions, including understanding how dance is embedded in the belief systems of the people who create it, and how dance forms change and why;

SLO 2: effective oral and communication skills that demonstrate critical thinking ability and understanding of scholarly dance research concepts and related topics;

SLO 3: the ability to critically evaluate sources and clearly differentiate between one’s ideas and the ideas of others, particularly those of indigenous practitioners and scholars, and to respect divergent perspectives;

SLO 4: knowledge of the history, practices, and concepts of dance ethnology, including related published literature and current developments in the field;

SLO 5: ability to conduct and report on scholarly dance ethnology research in oral, written, and other forms;

SLO 6: ability to define individual goals and to choose appropriate pathways to achieve these goals.

MA Plan B Dance Education

Student Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of the MA Plan B dance education focus degree students should have gained, developed and refined essential knowledge, skills and experiences necessary to successfully reach the following learning outcomes.

SLO 1: kinesthetic proficiency and conceptual understanding of various kinds of dance from diverse geographic regions;

SLO 2: comprehensive knowledge of educational theories, best practices, related published literature and current developments in the field;

SLO 3: effective oral and written communication skills that demonstrate critical thinking ability and understanding of dance education concepts and related topics;

SLO 4: ability to critically evaluate sources and clearly differentiate between one’s ideas and the ideas of others;

SLO 5: ability to design curriculum that demonstrates understanding of appropriate sequential development, multiple learning modalities, content organization and effective assessment strategies

SLO 6: ability to asses one’s own teaching and the development of one’s students as related to Hawaii State and National educational standards;  

SLO 7: ability to define individual goals and choose appropriate pathways to achieve those goals.

MFA DANCE

Student Learning Outcomes:

Upon completion of the MFA Plan A degree students should have gained, developed and refined essential knowledge, skills and experiences necessary to successfully reach the following learning outcomes.

SLO 1: Kinesthetic proficiency and conceptual understanding of various kinds of dance from diverse geographic regions

SLO 2: Effective oral and written communication skills that demonstrate critical thinking ability and understanding of dance concepts and related topics.

SLO 3: Ability to critically evaluate sources and clearly differentiate between one’s ideas and the ideas of others

SLO 4: Knowledge of the meanings, practice, theory, history and production of dance; the ability to apply, respond, reference, relate and synthesize that knowledge; the ability to draw on this knowledge and prior experience in new settings/contexts.

SLO 5: Familiarity with dance styles from diverse geographic regions

SLO 6: Development of choreographic skills and a personal style that demonstrate original works, knowledge of compositional techniques, choreographic range and effective conceptualization and conveyance of intent.

SLO 7: Ability to define individual goals and choose appropriate pathways to achieve those goals  

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

Department Website URL: http://manoa.hawaii.edu/dance/
Student Handbook. URL, if available online: Dance Graduate Student Handbook
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 2012:

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, 2011 and September 30, 2012? (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 June 1, 2011 to September 30, 2012: State the assessment question(s) and/or assessment goals. Include the SLOs that were targeted, if applicable.

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.

Ongoing Annual Assessments: 

Formative Evidence: 
  • Annual Student Placement Class
    • this class is faculty organized and led 
    • faculty observe students based on level criteria
    • faculty discuss observations and determine appropriate placement for each new and returning dance student
    • students are informed of their placement and encouraged to meet with faculty to discuss 
  • Bi-Annual Concert Auditions
    • three plus concert auditions are held per year 
    • all faculty members attend auditions to observe and give feedback 
    • faculty convene after the audition to discuss student abilities 
    • faculty members are assigned individual students to mentor
      • mentoring involves meeting with the students to give feedback and formally observing them in the creative process    
  • Bi-Annual Annual Concert Performances
    • Faculty Led Concerts
      • faculty meet with select students multiple times a week over a six to nine month period to prepare for the concert. Throughout that time students are given constant feedback on their performance progress.
      • concerts are formally reviewed by the public and local dance critics
      • a concert post-mortem is held with all of the students to evaluate the  the concert outcomes
      • students receive a final performance grade from concert Director  
    • Student Led Concerts
      • each student participating in a concert is assigned a faculty mentor who oversees the length of their creative project
      • student concerts host a public "talk back" session where fellow students, faculty and community members share their feedback and questions with the student performers, choreographers, designers, etc.
      • students meet with faculty members to have post-concert discussion
    • Directed Choreography
      • MFA students are required to developed original choreography under direct faculty advisement 
    • MFA Thesis qualifier
      • MFA students are required to publicly perform original choreography for faculty review before being approved to move on to their thesis work

Summative Evidence: 

  • MFA Thesis Project 
  • MA Written Thesis or Capstone Project
  • MFA and MA Ed. comprehensive exam and oral defense
  • Degree Exit Interviews
    • All graduating students are required to attend an exit interview. The entire dance faculty is present at the exit interview. Students answer a series of faculty questions. Open discussion time is also allowed for students to share feedback about their program experiences.  
  • Degree Exit Survey
    • Students are required to complete an exit survey where they identify how well they feel they achieved intended degree outcomes goals and what aspects of the program most supported their success. Students are also asked to give feedback on program improvement. 

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

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:

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

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

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.

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.

For the next assessment cycle our program will continue to focus our efforts in the following areas: 

- seek more schoalrship and research opportunities for graduate students 

- implementation of our new technology to document student outcomes 

- complete the "student works/outcomes" page on our website as well a bios and research descriptions of all grad students

- continue to increase the involvement of our local dance community  in our program events and begin to discuss how they can participate in the design and implementation of our assessment activities