Program: Second Language Studies (PhD)
Degree: Doctorate
Date: Tue Sep 17, 2013 - 5:27:45 pm
1) Below are your program's student learning outcomes (SLOs). Please update as needed.
SLS knowledge base - SLS PhD graduates will develop advanced understanding in three of the four broad areas of SLS:
(a) Pedagogy
(b) Use
(c) Learning
(d) Analysis
Mastery and application of appropriate research methods in SLS
SLS PhD graduates will develop mastery of research methods appropriate to their specific area of expertise in SLS.
SLS PhD graduates will demonstrate a commitment to professional engagement and will be recognized for excellence in their selected areas of SLS:
(a) Presenting at conferences
(b) Publishing research
(c) Teaching in area of expertise
(d) Assuming a leadership role in an area of expertise
SLS PhD graduates should be prepared for a variety of academic and professional career paths, and in particular for tenure-track college positions.
2) Your program's SLOs are published as follows. Please update as needed.
Department Website URL: http://www.hawaii.edu/sls/sls/?page_id=1215 Student Handbook. URL, if available online: http://www.hawaii.edu/sls/sls/resources/additional-resources/sls-student-handbook/phd-program-in-second-language-studies/ Information Sheet, Flyer, or Brochure URL, if available online: NA
UHM Catalog. Page Number: Course Syllabi. URL, if available online: Other: Other: 3) Select one option:
- File (03/16/2020)
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) Did your program engage in any program assessment activities between June 1, 2012 and September 30, 2013? (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, 2012 to September 30, 2013: State the assessment question(s) and/or assessment goals. Include the SLOs that were targeted, if applicable.
As usual (see previous reports), we wanted to monitor our PhD students progress and satisfaction with the program as well as the accomplishments of our students, faculty, and alumni.
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.
Doctoral students’ progress in the program is monitored using course evaluation procedures primarily involving large term projects. Particularly important major assessments related to student learning outcomes (and the educational factors that contribute to them) naturally include the dissertation itself and staged work leading up to it. The dissertation assessment also includes the public presentation and defense components, as well as a formal comprehensive exam and proposal development. We interpret the dissertation for program evaluation purposes as follows:
The dissertation reflects each doctoral student’s ability to: (a) engage in thorough-going research that is relevant to the field of SLS; (b) persist in long-term scholarly projects, from inception to dissemination; and (c) produce high-quality publishable writing. This three-part analysis allows assessment to offer valuable insights into the extent to which students have achieved primary learning outcomes (notably those listed in the initial answers above). Each of these assessments involves multiple stages of proposal, research, writing, feedback, and completion.
2. Graduating student survey: In the College of LLL exit survey, questions have been generated specifically for the PhD program, and these questions target both the levels of learning in key outcomes areas and the perception of professional value of these outcomes. In addition to these department-internal questions, SLS stakeholders have advised the College of LLL on the design of general questions to ask of all graduating students in the college
3. Alumni survey and review. A listing of doctoral graduates is maintained on the website and the department tries to stay in regular contact with these students, to a greater extent than MA graduates. In particular, the employment placement of recent doctoral students is closely analyzed and provides input into curriculum and learning objectives.
4. Annual doctoral student progress report: Following an initiative of the Graduate Division, advisors of doctoral students, in consultation with doctoral students, complete an advising and progress form each semester, which includes a listing of professional presentations along with an indication of progress towards graduation. This is a formal instrument and consultation process which allows for formative evaluation of students’ achievement of learning outcomes as well as providing input into the adequacy of those outcomes.
8) State how many persons submitted evidence that was evaluated. If applicable, please include the sampling technique used.
All students and faculty in various configurations. Response rates have typically been moderate to high.
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.
The doctoral program, within the broad guidelines and learning objectives alluded to earlier, is a flexible program whose educational success substantially depends on individual relationships of a mentoring and advising nature between doctoral student and dissertation chair. A doctoral student’s advisor, normally the dissertation chair, monitors student progress and achievement of learning objectives on an ongoing, individually tailored basis and is in a position to make course corrections early on the basis of any observed inadequacies in learning. Broader problems with overall observed limitations in general achievement of learning objectives would result in suggestions for program change being brought up at graduate faculty meetings, and this was indeed the case with the recent introduction of the doctoral student progress report. Similarly, close attention has been paid to employment placements upon graduation. On the basis of several recent cases, where graduates placed outside of the normal disciplinary post-secondary sites, we are about to modify the graduate curriculum and alter the emphasis placed on one particular course.
12) State how the program used the results or plans to use the results. Please be specific.
These results will be fed into our general working arrangements consistent with past practice, to allow the continual review and where necessary modification of courses, advising, and assessment procedures, and if necessary, modification of program level outcomes.
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.
Nothing additional