SOCIAL SCIENCES MAJOR ASSESSMENT
1. Assessment
of the discipline as a whole:
a. Who is the person responsible for program assessment, data gathering
and analysis in your discipline?
Division of Social Sciences Vice-Chair also serves as the
Social Sciences Major discipline coordinator, currently Jeffrey Ratliff-Crain
b. What are the stated goals of your discipline?
The Social Sciences Major is an
interdisciplinary major housed within the Division of Social Sciences. The stated objectives of the major are
for students to understand how each social science discipline structures and
advances knowledge, raises and answers analytical questions, and deals with
competing theories and the changing nature of the field. Students develop an
area of concentration in a single discipline or an interdisciplinary social
science area.
With
few exceptions, students pursuing the Social Sciences Major are also completing
the Secondary Education licensure program. Therefore, the major is structured around the needs of
future Social Studies teachers as specified in Minnesota Rule 8710.4800
Teachers of Social Studies, as interpreted in consultation with the Secondary
Education coordinator at UMM.
c. How do you assess whether your discipline is achieving its goals?
As an interdisciplinary
major, we rely on input from individual disciplines as to the appropriate
course or courses that fulfill the stated objective of understanding how each
social science discipline ěstructures and advances knowledge, raises and
answers analytical questions, and deals with competing theories and the
changing nature of the field.î
Predominantly, the decision has been to use the introductory or survey
courses to gain the needed breadth.
With regard to meeting the needs of students pursuing secondary
education licensure for Social Studies, success rates for students meeting the
licensure requirements is our best available measure.
d. Has
your discipline modified its curriculum and/or teaching as a result of your assessment
results, and if so, how?
With the shift to semesters,
beginning Fall, 2000, the Social Sciences Major needed to reevaluate the credit
demands and course structure, as did all other programs at the University. Through consultation with Secondary
Education staff and Social Sciences Discipline faculty, it was clear that the
area of concentration had heretofore been overly vague in its structure. Specifically, the earlier criteria that
such a concentration needed to be ědeveloped in consultation with a social
sciences adviser and usually entail[ed] 12-20 credits beyond the minimumî
opened the door for over-emphasis on introductory level courses and resulted in
confusion for students. Beginning
with the 2003-2005 catalog, the area of concentration was revised to reflect a
given disciplineís minor program. The change was intended to make the
intent behind the major clearer and assure that students would receive an
appropriate complement of courses within their designated area of
concentration. Flexibility was
still allowed for students to devise their own appropriate area of
concentration, but the minimum expectations were clarified. Also, timing for submitting a program
plan was stated explicitly, limiting possible confusion.
Revision
of appropriate courses to include for all majors (e.g., which introductory
course in Economics) has occurred through consultation and feedback from
Discipline coordinators.
Continued
consultation with the Secondary Education coordinator has clarified for which courses
substitutes may or may not be applied (e.g., through CLEP, AP exams, or
introductory courses in another area of the field) because of studentsí
licensure or employment needs. For
example, U.S. History should be taken as a college-level course because of the
extent this area is expected for Social Studies teachers.
2. Assessment
of your upper level seminar/capstone project or course:
The Social Sciences Major
does not, itself, require a capstone for our students. Previous to semester conversion,
program plans included a weakly defined capstone that was unevenly applied
across areas of concentration. By
the time of conversion, only one discipline routinely required the capstone for
these students. Because of the
practicum experience required of Secondary Education students, a capstone
specific to the Social Sciences major seemed redundant and unnecessary. This has left a gap for the occasional
student who elects to complete a Social Sciences Major and not pursue licensure in
Secondary Education, or is unsuccessful achieving that latter goal. It is advisable that students either
successfully achieve licensure or complete a capstone experience in order to
receive a UMM degree with a Social Sciences major. The structure and implementation for such a capstone will
require some thought and discussion with colleagues (should it be focused
within the area of concentration?
Should it reflect cross-disciplinary understanding?) Developing this requirement will be a
priority for the next scheduled catalog revision.
Submitted by: Jeffrey
Ratliff-Crain, June 14, 2005