Thanks to all those who sent in reports of standardization. Here's a
quick and sketchy run-down of the results.
* 7 schools have absolutely no standardization policies. (2 small
state colleges, 2 medium sized state colleges, 2 small private
liberal arts colleges, 1 large state college.) Of these five, one has
an informal agreement between faculty for topics in their intro psych.
* 5 schools assign textbooks (i.e., the decision is not the
individual faculty member's). One of these five assigns texts only
for adjunct instructors, and three only for intro psych. In other
words, at all but one school regular faculty teaching anything except
intro psych select their own texts.
* 5 schools provide required objectives, but two of these apply only
to intro psych. (1 comm.college, 1 small private, 2 middle sized
state - intro only, 1 large state - intro only.)
- 1 of those requiring objectives also has required methods of
outcome assessment. 1 of those requiring objectives lists learning
outcomes in addition to objectives.
* 1 small private school has standardized syllabus, text, schedule,
and final exams for intro psych only. It is explained as a general
education requirement at the school and standardized for that reason.
* 1 mid-sized state school requires courses to conform to the college
catalogue descriptions.
* 1 large state school sets required topics for intro psych only.
* 1 of the small state schools listed as having no standardization is
proposing a standard syllabus for intro psych only.
The numbers don't add up because a school might have been listed
twice (e.g., as using a standard text in intro psych and having
required objectives). A school-by-school run-down is available if
anyone should want one. (It just lists them like: "middle-sized
state, objectives/outcomes.")
(I categorized schools based on undergrad enrollments according to my
old, 1995, college handbook, where under 3000 = small, 3000-10000 =
medium, and over 10K = large.)
--> Mike O.
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Michael S. Ofsowitz
University of Maryland - European Division
http://faculty.ed.umuc.edu/~mofsowit
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