There is a large literature on individual course, as well as program assessments in the ¨hard¨ sciences¨literatures and in the education science literature. For whatever reason, our friend Hake does make a good point in challenging us as psychologists to seriously approach such assessments.
I have been increasingly interested in this area of research over the past two or so years, primarily because of the lack of such. Perhaps it behooves us, who are at least interested in our teaching enough to subscribe to such list discussion services to take a leadership role in development of outcomes assessments. I am on vacation right now (ha, ha, here I am reading my emails and responding to them) but when I get back next week I¨m game to start serious communication with other interested parties. My interest has nothing to do with satisfying accreditation bodies, or reappointment, rank and tenure committees but wiht a true interest in knowing what works best and how to best approach the whole enterprise of teaching psychology. Incidentally, as an AP reader for 3 years now I¨m not so sure I could agree that even the essay test in a truly meaningful way tests for application or transfer of memorized conceptual knowledge...... Annette Mensaje citado por Robert Grossman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > "Annette Taylor, Ph. D." wrote: > > > I don't know of any studies; we may be reduced to anecdotal evidence: > which > > might be better than no evidence. I'd love to see some outcome work. > > I would like to see more of this available in all of our courses. I am > especially interested in seeing outcome measures that test for higher level > understanding (e.g., application of concepts) rather than just for recall. > I think it would be useful to build on the work of the Psychologists who > developed and grade the AP exams as well as the ETS Major Field Test in > Psychology. It might be especially useful to have the textbook companies > pool > their resources to develop a unified, good set of test bank questions. Our > students are paying serious fees for the texts and it would seem only fair > that > some of those funds be spent on developing sophisticated assessment tools. > As we develop such instruments we could then make even better attempts > to > test out various teaching techniques to improve the quality of education > throughout the discipline. Work along these lines in other disciplines have > indicated that some instructional methods have led to higher rates of deep > conceptual learning. It would be interesting to see if we founds similar > results. > In this age, where educational outcomes are becoming more and more a > political issue, it is also important to get ahead of the curve so > politicians > can't legislate for standards that require only superficial levels of > learning > (as they have done in some K-12 areas). > > Bob Grossman > Kalamazoo College > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Annette Kujawski Taylor, Ph. D. Department of Psychology University of San Diego 5998 Alcala Park San Diego, CA 92110 [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [email protected] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
