Annette and Marc raise two interesting perceptions of the role of psychologists in the work on assessment.
In some institutions, psychologists and psychology departments take a leadership role, modeling good assessment practices and providing consultation to other departments on the development of assessments and interpretation of findings. In other institutions, psychologists and psychology departments are identified as highly resistant. I attended one assessment conference in which I made the comment that assessment made sense to me because it seemed to be an application of my skills in research and cognition. The workshop facilitator's response was that at her institution, cognitive psychologists were the most difficult people to deal with because they were so demanding for methodological "purity" (control groups, high levels of reliability and validity for assessment instruments) I'm curious about the situation at your institution. Where would you place the participation of your department on this continuum? What do you perceive to be the drivers for why your department participates (or resists)? Respond directly to me off list if you prefer. ([email protected]) This may be a topic of specialized and limited interest. My biases on this issue are obvious from my current job title. J But I am curious about learning more about the rationale underlying faculty decisions about assessment. I'll post a summary later for interested parties. Claudia J. Stanny, Ph.D. Director, Center for University Teaching, Learning, and Assessment Associate Professor, Psychology University of West Florida Pensacola, FL 32514 - 5751 Phone: (850) 857-6355 or 473-7435 e-mail: [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> CUTLA Web Site: http://uwf.edu/cutla/ <http://uwf.edu/cutla/> Personal Web Pages: http://uwf.edu/cstanny/website/index.htm <http://uwf.edu/cstanny/website/index.htm> --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
