(R)Evolutionary Processes:
Assessment and Learning Community Planning

Trish Barney, Linda Moore, Mike Witmer

         When we plan a new course or revise a course that we are currently teaching, many of us begin by choosing the texts and supplemental readings we will use, the concepts we will emphasize, and the projects and assignments we will design to engage students. Only later in the planning process do we ask how we will assess student learning. However, if we recognize that assessment begins when we identify the learning outcomes for a course not when we design multiple choice or essay examinations then assessment becomes both the starting place and the driving force in the planning process.

         During the summer of 1992, we attempted to practice this philosophy as we planned a coordinated studies program, "Search for Self." Although the process was "messier" than this description will indicate, identifying and focusing on learning outcomes helped us to plan the activities and assignments for "Search for Self," and to ascertain the degree to which the coordinated studies program met department and college-wide goals.
From Clustered Courses to a Coordinated Studies Program

From Clustered Courses to a Coordinated Studies Program

         The coordinated studies program "Search for Self" evolved from two years of teaching together in a cluster entitled "Reading, 'Riting, and Rats." The 54 students in this cluster earned 13 credits in general psychology (5), developmental or college level composition (5), and college reading (3).

         The title, "Reading, 'Riting, and Rats," reflects our objectives and methods during the first two years. We focused on developing reading and writing skills in the context of the study of general psychology. While we were present during each other's classes, we typically allocated 250 minutes each week to psychology, 250 to composition, and 150 to reading in take-turns teaching. But as we worked together in the cluster, we found a focus emerging on the search for self in each of the discipline areas. We also found that we had more ideas for assignments and activities than we had hours in the quarter and that we needed time to restructure the course as a fully integrated coordinated studies program focusing on the concept of self. Thus a summer project emerged.

Brainstorming Outcomes

         We began our planning with the question, "What concepts and thinking skills do students need to demonstrate?" We reviewed our individual syllabi and course outline materials as well as the materials from the cluster we had taught, and focused on identifying outcomes (See Appendix I for a list of the outcomes we identified.).

         As we worked, we found that it was sometimes easier to talk about assignments than about learning outcomes. We would become intrigued with possible readings, group projects, field trips, and films. The question, "What do we want the students to understand and to do?," kept us coming back to the discussion of outcomes, and led naturally to the question, "What will students do to show that they understand the concepts and have developed the skills?" Once we had identified the outcomes, we discussed ways that we would assess student mastery of those concepts and skills. We talked about tests, essays, research projects, group reports.

Connecting Learning Activities to Outcomes

         With the outcomes and assessment tasks identified, we looked again at the activities and assignments we had been using in the cluster as well as those we had used in the stand-alone sections of these courses. We found it much more difficult than we had anticipated to decide which activities and assignments to include. With more ideas than we could possibly use in one quarter (maybe in one lifetime), we found it necessary to establish some criteria for selecting learning activities.

         One criterion that seemed essential was that the activity engage and challenge students. Another was that the activity provide students with opportunities to develop reading and writing skills within the context of psychology concepts. And a third was that the activity prepare students to demonstrate the abilities and understandings identified in the outcome statements.

         Stating these criteria proved much simpler than applying them. Having decided to use Walden Two as one of the primary sources for exploring learning theory, for example, we talked about also assigning Thoreau's Walden as a comparative reading. But after looking again (and again and again) at the outcomes, even the one of us who was most committed to Thoreau agreed that reading articles by other behaviorists would better prepare students to describe the principles of behaviorism: the outcome that the assignment of Walden Two addresses. Conversely, discussing assignments sometimes led us to revise outcomes. For example, rather late in the process we added outcomes related to group process and integration of ideas.

Assessing Product and Process

         Some faculty on our campus express concern that course content may somehow be diminished when the course is embedded in a coordinated studies program. Particularly if a course is part of a sequence, some of our colleagues ask whether the students really "get" the preparation that they need for the next course.

         Identifying outcomes helped us to address this question. The list of "Search for Self" outcomes includes not only the concepts and skills we thought to be essential in each of the individual courses but also skills of integration, application, and life-long learning that are college-wide general education goals at Skagit Valley College.

         In fact, rather than viewing our courses embedded in the learning community as somehow diminished or diluted, we each see our courses as expanded. Students in "Search for Self" read and write much more than do students in stand-alone general psychology courses, writing courses, or college reading courses. The whole seems more than the sum of the parts.

         As the three of us have worked together, our understanding of and respect for all three disciplines have also expanded. Mike has observed that good science and good writing have many parallel elements: both are based on observation, both are public and systematic, both are open to peer review. Linda has noted the parallels in content between reading and psychology, particularly in the areas of learning theory, memory, and perception. Trish has experienced an increased appreciation both of psychology as a science and of the place of the scientific method in the process of making meaning out of experience.

         By the end of the summer, we had the product that we needed: syllabus and outline materials that included learning outcomes, readings, projects, and writing assignments for "Search for Self." But we found that the experience of working on this product was at least as valuable as the resulting reams of paper. During our final meeting, we each recorded our thoughts about the summer's project:

         Mike's other summer activities provided us with a metaphor for our experience. During the two months that we worked on "Search for Self," Mike was also building a boat and motor. Week-by-week we watched him invest intense time and energy: "sourcing" parts houses for Olds-Berkeley U-joints, installing cam bearings, plastigaging the crank, hot-tanking the block. Then, just days after the boat was finally in the water, he casually mentioned selling it. In response to our disbelief, he said, "But . . . it's the process."

         For some of us, that is a revolutionary thought.

Appendix I

Outcomes for the Coordinated Studies Program, "Search for Self"

Skagit Valley College
Trish Barney, Linda Moore, Mike Witmer

"Search for Self" is a coordinated studies program in which students develop reading and writing skills as they investigate the questions about self asked by psychologists as well as by writers of fiction and non-fiction. At the end of this quarter-long coordinated studies program, students will have earned 13 credits:

Unit One - At the end of this unit, students will be able to:

·       Show an awareness of the history of thought about the self as well as an awareness of the impact of history on an individual's development.

·       Explain the steps in the scientific method.

·       Apply the principles and procedures of the scientific method to the essay writing process.

·       Identify main ideas and supporting details in text, in writing of other students, and in their own writing. Evaluate supporting details for accuracy and adequacy.

·       Explain the connection between behavior and the functions of nerves, the brain, the endocrine glands, and the major sense organs.

·       Apply inferential thinking skills in assigned readings, in library research for the group project, and in reading their own discovery writing in preparation for individual essays.

·       Increase flexibility and rate in reading.

·       Implement a writing process that includes a conscious use of prewriting, planning, writing, and revising.

Unit Two - During this unit students will:

·       Apply principles of learning, the three factored theory of memory, theories of forgetting, and limitations on thinking and problem solving to their own experiences and the experiences of others.

·       Apply theories of the development and function of social motives, biological drives, and emotions to behavior.

·       Apply study-reading strategies to a variety of materials and for a variety of purposes.

·       Consider purpose and audience as well as content in making decisions about structure, language, and style within their own writing and in response to the writing of others.

·       Understand the various levels of language and apply that understanding in their own writing and in response to the writing of their peers.

·       Consider perception and motivation as well as other factors that contribute to the complexity of questions about behavior in their discussion and their writing.

·       Explore difficult and unfamiliar aspects of topics within their writing, including apparent contradictions.

Unit Three - At the end of their study of this unit, students will be able to:

·       Describe basic principles of personality theories: psychoanalysis, behaviorism, humanistic personality theory.

·       Apply the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSMIII) system of categorizing abnormal behavior.

·       Describe the similarities or differences among psychoanalysis/behavioristic/humanistic therapies.

·       Distinguish between three types of social influence: traditional conformity, group think, obedience.

·       Apply principles of attitude formation, especially the importance of stereotyping as an attitude, to behavior.

·       Recognize and avoid language that reflects stereotypical attitudes.

·       Apply the skills of critical thinking and analysis to the revising and editing of their own writing and the writing of their peers.

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