SS510 PSYCHOLOGY May 2011 Queensborough Community College/CUNY
Department of Social Sciences
Individual Course Assessment Report
Date Submitted: May 2011
Course No./Title: SS510 Psychology
Course Description (from QCC Catalog):
Introduction to the scientific study of behavior and mental processes. Topics include research
methods, biological bases of brain and mind, sensation-perception, sleep and states of
consciousness, learning-memory, development, cognition-intelligence, motivation-emotion,
personality, abnormal psychology-therapy, and social psychology. Research findings and
principles related to everyday life.
General Education Objectives (GEO) Assessed:
GEO2. Use analytical reasoning to identify issues or problems and evaluate evidence in order to
make informed decisions
GEO5 Integrate knowledge and skills in their program of study
GEO8 Use historical or social sciences perspectives to examine formation of ideas, human
behavior, social institutions, or social processes
Individual Course Objectives (ICO) Assessed:
ICO1. Students will read psychological text effectively.
ICO2. Students will critically evaluate theories and concepts in psychology.
ICO3. Students will analyze research in psychology.
ICO4. Students will draw conclusions from scientific observations and research findings.
ICO5. Students will apply psychology to real-life events.
Curricular Objectives (CO) Assessed: None
1 SS510 PSYCHOLOGY May 2011 Participants
No. Sections Assessed: 41
No. Students Assessed: 875
Course Assessment Method
See Appendix A for SS510 Psychology Outcomes Survey.
Course Assessment Results: Narrative Summary
Forty-one sections of SS 510 (Psychology) representing a total of 875 students completed
a course evaluation in fall, 2010. The survey asked the respondents to indicate whether they
agreed with each of ten statements designed to measure either a General Education objective, an
Individual Course objective, or both. For ease of scoring, all 10 items were keyed so that
“agree” signified that the objective was met.
As shown in the General Education Objectives Results Table below, analysis of the
results indicated strong agreement for nine of the statements. Agreement ranged from 57-89%
across the 10 statements with statement #6, “This class helped me to apply psychological
perspectives to the understanding of human behavior,” receiving the highest agreement, and
statement #7, “This class helped me to read psychological text (e.g., books, articles) effectively,”
receiving the lowest agreement.
A comparison of results in the General Education vs. Individual Course Objectives
Tables indicates that overall students agreed more with the statements representing General
Education Objectives (mean agreement of 83.8%) than with statements representing Individual
Course Objectives (mean agreement of 71.6%.) With the exception of statement #6 that
2 SS510 PSYCHOLOGY May 2011 represents both General Education Objective 8 and Individual Course Objective 5, every
statement of Individual Course Objectives received lower agreement than any statement on
General Education Objectives.
I. General Education Objectives (GEO) Results
Gen Ed Objectives Results Summary Table
Gen Ed
Objective
Survey
Question
Q1
GEO2
Q2
GEO2
Mean
Q3
GEO5
Q4
GEO5
Mean
Q5
GEO8
Q6
GEO8
Mean
GEO2,5,8
Overall Mean
3 Agree
N (%)
84
87
85.5
87
69
78
87
89
88
83.8
SS510 PSYCHOLOGY May 2011 II. Individual Course Objectives (ICO) Results
Individual Course Objectives (ICO) Results Summary Table
Individual
Course
Survey
Objective Question
ICO1
Q7
ICO2
Q8
ICO3
Q9
ICO4
Q10
ICO5
Q6
ICO1-5 Mean
Agree
N (%)
57
71
70
71
89
71.6
Conclusions
How then did SS510 fare with regard to its helping students achieve the General
Education and Individual Course Objectives? If we apply the grading standards of QCC in
translating numerical grades to letter grades, we can rank the grades for each objective as
follows:
1) 87% (B+) for General Education Objective 8: Use historical or social sciences perspectives
to examine formation of ideas, human behavior, social institutions, or social processes;
and for Individual Course Objective 5: Students will apply psychology to real-life events.
2) 85.5% (B) for General Education Objective 2: Use analytical reasoning to identify issues or
problems and evaluate evidence in order to make informed decisions
3) 78% (C+) for General Education Objective 5: Integrate knowledge and skills in their
program of study
4 SS510 PSYCHOLOGY May 2011 4) 71, 70, and 71 (C-) for Individual Course Objectives 2, 3, and 4, respectively:
ICO2: Students will critically evaluate theories and concepts in psychology.
ICO3: Students will analyze research in psychology.
ICO4: Students will draw conclusions from scientific observations and research findings.
5) 57% (F) for Individual Course Objective 1: Students will read psychological text effectively.
The low percentage (57%) of students who agreed with statement #7 “This class helped
me to read psychological text (e.g., books, articles) effectively”, while still a majority, is
considerably lower than the number agreeing with the rest of the survey. One possible
explanation for this somewhat atypical result is that the students may have interpreted the word
“read” to indicate the process of decoding the written symbols corresponding to speech rather
than its intended meaning “to understand.” Some instructors assign or recommend
supplementary readings (e.g., books, articles, etc.) in addition to the required text. Others do not.
Thus, those students of the latter group who might have misinterpreted “read” would not agree
with statement #7 as there were no additional reading assignments in their course.
Interestingly, there were higher levels of agreement with the statements measuring the
General Education objectives than for those reflecting Individual Course objectives . This
outcome might be expected if the entire Psychology faculty were mindful of the General
Education objectives but emphasized different Individual Course objective in their specific
class(es). That is, some might emphasize empirical work, others clinical. Nonetheless, it was
particularly gratifying to note that statement 6, “This class helped me to apply psychological
perspectives to the understanding of human behavior” which satisfies both General Education
and Individual Course objectives produced the highest level of agreement of all ten statements.
5 SS510 PSYCHOLOGY May 2011 Action Plan
Description of action plan for addressing issues raised by course assessment project.
Timetable for action plan implementation
As the data indicate, there was stronger agreement for attainment of the General
Education objectives than for the Individual Course objectives. In order to increase the latter the
following suggestions are offered:
1.
Psychology faculty could list on their syllabus what objectives the course aims to fulfill
to inform the students as to what will be emphasized. Then, as the semester progresses, when a
specific instance of a course objective emerges, the students can be alerted to it.
2.
Psychology faculty could rank their priorities from a complete list of acceptable
individual course objectives. In addition, the faculty could be asked to briefly describe how they
(could/would) achieve these goals. From this, a list of the (3, 4, 5, ?) most valued course
objectives along with their accompanying examples could be distributed to all Psychology
faculty to use as a guide when developing future syllabi, reading lists, assignments, etc.
3.
The wording of Individual Course Objective #1 should be revised to clarify its intended
meaning. It should state: Students will understand psychological text effectively.
6 SS510 PSYCHOLOGY May 2011 4.
Psychology faculty should discuss among themselves ways of integrating activities,
readings, and/or assignments into SS510 to better help students achieve the Individual Course
Objectives 1-4. To this end an Ad Hoc Committee of psychology faculty can be formed to
address this issue.
7 SS510 PSYCHOLOGY May 2011 APPENDIX A
SS-510
Psychology
Outcomes Survey
Please indicate whether you agree or disagree with these statements by marking the Scantron
form in the following way:
A = You agree with the statement.
B = You are neutral about the statement. (You do not agree or disagree.)
C = You disagree with the statement.
1. This class helped me to discuss theories, concepts, and debates in psychology.
2. This class helped me to analyze theories of human psychology.
3. This class helped me to understand of the role of psychological processes in everyday life.
4. This class helped me to discuss applications of theory and research in psychology and other
fields.
5. This class helped me to understand how psychological concepts can be applied to social
problems.
6. This class helped me to apply psychological perspectives to the understanding of human
behavior.
7. This class helped me to read psychological text (e.g., books, articles) effectively.
8. This class helped me to critically evaluate theories and concepts in psychology.
9. This class helped me to analyze research in psychology
10. This class helped me to draw conclusions from scientific observations and research findings.
8