Date: June 2008
Department : Social Sciences
Course: SS520
Curriculum or Curricula:
Note on participation: 358 students from 13 sections; faculty included both full-time (5) and part-time (5).
PART I. STUDENT LEARNING OBJECTIVES
For Part I, attach the summary report (Tables 1-4) from the QCC Course Objectives Form.
TABLE 1. EDUCATIONAL CONTEXT
This course satisfies a Social Sciences requirement or elective, Liberal Arts and Sciences elective, or Free Elective in any curriculum with such requirements/electives and also satisfies a requirement in the Nursing Curriculum.
TABLE 2. CURRICULAR OBJECTIVES
Note: Include in this table curriculum-specific objectives that meet Educational Goals 1 and 2:
Curricular objectives addressed by this course: Nursing AAS
The graduate will become a provider of care in structured health care settings using critical thinking to develop, implement, and evaluate individual plans of care to meet the self-care needs/deficits of patients throughout the life cycle.
TABLE 3. GENERAL EDUCATION OBJECTIVES
Gen Ed objective’s ID number from list (1-10)
General educational objectives addressed by this course: Select from preceding list.
2
5
Use analytical reasoning to identify issues or problems and evaluate evidence in order to make informed decisions.
Integrate knowledge and skills in their program of study.
8
Use historical or social sciences perspectives to examine formation of ideas, human behavior, social institutions, or social processes.
1

TABLE 4: COURSE OBJECTIVES AND STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES
Course objectives Learning outcomes
1. Students will read psychological text effectively. a. Students will summarize passages from assigned readings. b. Students will identify correct and incorrect statements based on assigned readings.
2. Students will critically evaluate theories and concepts in developmental psychology. a. Students will discriminate between different kinds of theories. b. Students will list key concepts from specific theories.
a. Students will identify features of different research methods. b. Students will specify testable research hypotheses.
3. Students will analyze research in developmental psychology.
4. Students will draw conclusions from scientific observations and research findings. a. Students will evaluate evidence for and against research predictions. b. Students will evaluate alternative conclusions based on research data.
5. Students will apply psychology to real-life events. a. Students will identify practical uses of psychology. b. Students will indicate areas of everyday life in which psychological applications are needed.
PART II. ASSIGNMENT DESIGN: ALIGNING OUTCOMES, ACTIVITIES, AND
ASSESSMENT TOOLS
For the assessment project, you will be designing one course assignment , which will address at least one general educational objective, one curricular objective (if applicable), and one or more of the course objectives. Please identify these in the following table:
TABLE 5: OBJECTIVES ADDRESSED IN ASSESSMENT ASSIGNMENT
Course Objective(s) selected for assessment: (select from Table 4)
Students will critically evaluate theories and concepts in developmental psychology
Students will draw conclusions from scientific observations and research findings.
Curricular Objective(s) selected for assessment: (select from Table 2)
General Education Objective(s) addressed in this assessment: (select from Table 3)
2. Use analytical reasoning to identify issues or problems and evaluate evidence in order to make informed decisions.
8. Use historical or social sciences perspectives to examine formation of ideas, human behavior, social institutions, or social processes.
2

In the first row of Table 6 that follows, describe the assignment that has been selected/designed for this project.
In writing the description, keep in mind the course objective(s), curricular objective(s) and the general education objective(s) identified above,
The assignment should be conceived as an instructional unit to be completed in one class session (such as a lab) or over several class sessions. Since any one assignment is actually a complex activity, it is likely to require that students demonstrate several types of knowledge and/or thinking processes.
Also in Table 6, please a) identify the three to four most important student learning outcomes (1-4) you expect from this assignment b) describe the types of activities (a – d) students will be involved with for the assignment, and c) list the type(s) of assessment tool(s) (A-D) you plan to use to evaluate each of the student outcomes.
(Classroom assessment tools may include paper and pencil tests, performance assessments, oral questions, portfolios, and other options.)
Note: Copies of the actual assignments (written as they will be presented to the students) should be gathered in an Assessment Portfolio for this course.
TABLE 6: ASSIGNMENT, OUTCOMES, ACTIVITIES, AND ASSESSMENT TOOLS
Briefly describe the assignment that will be assessed: An essay on the nature-nurture debate in psychology was given to students to read and digest outside of class. Within a week of their receiving the essay students were given a set of questions to answer based on their understanding of the essay. Four questions were focused on each of the two General Education Objectives; for each General Education Objective students were required to answer two multiple choice (MC) questions , one true/false (TF) question, and one constructed answer (CA) question. See attachment for the essay and questions.
Desired student learning outcomes for the assignment
(Students will…)
List in parentheses the Curricular
Objective(s) and/or General
Education Objective(s) (1-10) associated with these desired learning outcomes for the assignment.
Briefly describe the range of activities student will engage in for this assignment.
What assessment tools will be used to measure how well students have met each learning
outcome? (Note: a single assessment tool may be used to measure multiple learning outcomes; some learning outcomes may be measured using
multiple assessment tools.)
1.
and incorrect statements based on assigned readings.
2.
Students will identify correct
Students will evaluate evidence for and against research predictions.
3. Students will evaluate alternative conclusions based on research data.
a. Students will read and understand the competing positions in the naturenurture debate. b. Students will analyze the evidence for and against both positions in the naturenurture debate. c. Students will draw conclusions about the validity of both positions in the nature-nurture debate.
Paper-and-pencil questionnaire with four MC questions, two TF questions, and two CA questions.
3

PART III. ASSESSMENT STANDARDS (RUBRICS)
Before the assignment is given, prepare a description of the standards by which students’ performance will be measured. This could be a checklist, a descriptive holistic scale, or another form. The rubric (or a version of it) may be given to the students with the assignment so they will know what the instructor’s expectations are for this assignment.
Please note that while individual student performance is being measured, the assessment project is collecting performance data ONLY for the student groups as a whole.
TABLE 7: ASSESSMENT STANDARDS (RUBRICS)
Brief description of assignment: (C opy from Table 6 above )
Desired student learning outcomes from the assignment: ( Copy from
Column 1, Table 6 above; include Curricular and /or
General Education Objectives
addressed)
Assessment measures for each learning outcome:
(Copy from Column 3,Table 6 above)
1. Students will identify correct and incorrect statements based on assigned readings. (Gen.
Ed. Objective 2 and 8)
2. Students will evaluate evidence for and against research predictions.
(Gen. Ed. Objective 2)
3. Students will evaluate alternative conclusions based on research data.
(Gen. Ed. Objective 8)
1. Paper-and-pencil
questionnaire a. MC Questions 1 and 3;
TF Question 2 (Gen
Ed Obj #2) b. MC Questions 5 and
7; TF Question 6
(Gen Ed Obj #8)
2. Paper-and-pencil questionnaire
CA Question 4
3. Paper-and-pencil questionnaire
CA Question 8
Standards for student performance:

Describe the standards or rubrics for measuring student achievement of each outcome in the assignment.
 Give the percentage of the class that is expected to meet these outcomes
 If needed, attach copy(s) of rubrics.
1.a. Students will be considered to have achieved these objectives if a
60% or higher level of correct responses is obtained.
1.b. Students will be considered to have achieved these objectives if a
60% or higher level of correct responses (score=1) is obtained.
2. Students will be considered to have achieved these objectives if a 60% or higher level of correct responses
(score = 1 or 2) is obtained.
3. Students will be considered to have achieved these objectives if a 60% or higher level of correct responses
(score = 1 or 2) is obtained.
4

PART IV. ASSESSMENT RESULTS
TABLE 8: SUMMARY OF ASSESSMENT RESULTS
Use the following table to report the student results on the assessment. If you prefer, you may report outcomes using the rubric(s), or other graphical representation. Include a comparison of the outcomes you expected (from
Table 7, Column 3) with the actual results. NOTE: A number of the pilot assessments did not include expected success rates so there is no comparison of expected and actual outcomes in some of the examples below. However, projecting outcomes is an important part of the assessment process; comparison between expected and actual outcomes helps set benchmarks for student performance.
TABLE 8.A. SUMMARY OF ASSESSMENT RESULTS
Student achievement: Describe the group achievement of each Desired student learning outcomes:
(Copy from, Column 1,Table 6 above; include Curricular and/or General
Education Objectives addressed) desired outcome and the knowledge and cognitive processes demonstrated.
1. Students will identify correct and incorrect statements based on assigned readings. (Gen. Ed.
Objective 2 and 8)
1.A. Gen. Ed. Objective #2/Student Learning Outcome #1:
On Questions 1-3 77.3% of students scored correctly, thus surpassing the 60% achievement criterion.
1.B. Gen. Ed. Objective #8/Student Learning Outcome #1:
On Questions 5-7 54.6% of students scored correctly, thus not surpassing the 60% achievement criterion.
2.
Students will evaluate evidence for and against research predictions. (Gen. Ed.
Objective 2)
3. Students will evaluate alternative conclusions based on research data.
2. Gen. Ed. Objective 2/Student Learning Outcome #2:
On Question 4 54.2% of students scored correctly, thus not surpassing the 60% achievement criterion.
3. Gen. Ed. Objective 8/Student Learning Outcome #3:
On Question 8 63.1% of students scored correctly, thus surpassing the 60% achievement criterion.
(Gen. Ed. Objective 8)
5

TABLE 8.B. RESULTS TABLE
SS520 COURSE ASSESSMENT RESULTS TABLE
NUMBER OF STUDENTS
WITH SCORE
GEN ED
OBJECTIVE
STUDENT
LEARNING
OUTCOME Q
0 incorrect
1 correct
2
Q4 & Q8 correct
PERCENTAGE OF
SCORES
INCORRECT CORRECT
#2
#2
#2
#2
#1
#1
#1
#2
1
2
3
4
74
83
87
164
284
276
270
118 76
20.7%
22.9%
24.6%
45.8%
79.3%
77.1%
75.4%
54.2%
#8
#8
#8
#8
#1
#1
#1
#3
5
6
7
8
93
289
106
132
265
69
252
135 91
26.0%
80.7%
29.6%
36.9%
74.0%
19.3%
70.4%
63.1%
6

TABLE 8.C. SCORING RUBRIC
SS520 COURSE ASSESSMENT SCORING RUBRIC
QUESTION
Q1-Q3
Q4
Q5-Q7
Q8
0
Students do not demonstrate minimum level of achievement.
Students do not identify correct and incorrect statements based on assigned readings.
Students do not adequately evaluate evidence for and against research predictions.
Students do not identify correct and incorrect statements based on assigned readings.
Students do not adequately evaluate alternative conclusions based on research data.
SCORE INTERPRETATION
1
Students demonstrate acceptable level of achievement.
Students identify correct and incorrect statements based on assigned readings.
Students adequately evaluate evidence for and against research predictions.
Students identify correct and incorrect statements based on assigned readings.
Students adequately evaluate alternative conclusions based on research data.
2
Students demonstrate high level of achievement.
Students evaluate evidence for and against research predictions with high proficiency.
Students evaluate alternative conclusions based on research data with high proficiency.
7

TABLE 9. EVALUATION AND RESULTING ACTION PLAN
In the table below, or in a separate attachment, interpret and evaluate the assessment results, and describe the actions to be taken as a result of the assessment. In the evaluation of achievement, take into account student success in demonstrating the types of knowledge and the cognitive processes identified in the Course Objectives.
A. Analysis and interpretation of assessment results:
What does this show about what and how the students learned?
The results are mixed. Regarding Student Learning Outcome #1 (Students will identify correct and incorrect statements based on assigned reading.) the results were favorable in the matter of questions addressing General Education Objective #2 (Use analytical reasoning to identify issues or problems and evaluate evidence in order to make informed decisions.) In contrast the results were unfavorable for questions assessing Student Learning Outcome #1 in the context of General
Education Objective #8 (Use historical or social sciences perspectives to examine formation of ideas, human behavior, social institutions, or social processes.) However, a closer examination of the results for each question (See Table 8.B.) shows that performance on two of those three questions(Q5 and Q7) exceeded the achievement criterion (74.0% and 70.4%, respectively), but performance on Q6 (19.3%) was far below the criterion and significantly suppressed the average of the three questions. The results for Student Learning Outcome #2 (Students will evaluate evidence for and against research predictions.) were unfavorable with students performing at a sub-criterion level (54.2%) on a constructed answer item (Q4) addressing General Education
Objective #2 (Use analytical reasoning to identify issues or problems and evaluate evidence in order to make informed decisions.) The inconsistency between performance on items addressing
General Education Objective #2 using objective questions (MC and T/F) versus constructed answer questions might be as much a reflection of the format of the question types as an indication of students ability to use analytical reasoning. Finally, results on Q8 were favorable for Student Learning Outcome #3 (Students will evaluate alternative conclusions based on research data.) addressing General Education Objective #8 (Use historical or social sciences perspectives to examine formation of ideas, human behavior, social institutions, or social processes.)
B. Evaluation of the assessment process :
What do the results suggest about how well the assignment and the assessment process worked both to help students learn and to show what they have learned?
Overall, the results indicate more success than failure of students with regard to their achievement on the assignment. On 6 of the 8 questions asked, student performance exceeded the achievement criterion of 60% correct. Excluding the extremely low performance on Q6, the lowest level of performance was found on the two constructed answer items (Q4 and Q8), suggesting that requiring students to demonstrate their achievement of the learning outcomes in a written task is more challenging than in a multiple choice or true/false task.
C. Resulting action plan:
Based on A and B, what changes, if any, do you anticipate making?
For future assessments it might be beneficial to reconsider the use of the true/false items and to use a more balanced number of multiple choice and constructed answer items. It might also be necessary to revisit the kind of reading assignment given. The essay used in this assessment involved discussion of several dimensions of a complex debate about the role of nature and nurture in human behavior and development. A large number of conceptual and empirical issues were wrapped up in a relatively brief essay. Perhaps students might be better served by being given a reading assignment with a more focused and circumscribed theme.
8

APPENDIX A
READING ASSIGNMENT FOR SS520 ASSESSMENT PROJECT
Adapted From:
Why the nature/nurture debate won't go away
By Steven Pinker Boston Globe 10/13/2002
People's beliefs about the roles of heredity and environment affect their opinions on an astonishing range of topics. Do adolescents engage in violence and substance abuse because of the way their parents treated them as toddlers? Are people inherently selfish and aggressive, which would justify a market economy and a strong police, or could they become peaceable and cooperative? With so much at stake, it is no surprise that debates over nature and nurture evoke such strong feelings.
Much of the heat comes from framing the debate as an all-or-none issue . Humans, of course, are not exclusively selfish or generous (or nasty or noble); they are driven by competing motives elicited in different circumstances. Although no aspect of the mind is unaffected by learning, the brain has to come equipped with complex neural circuitry to make that learning possible. And if genes affect behavior, it is not by pulling the strings of the muscles directly, but via their intricate effects on a growing brain.
By now most thinking people have come to distrust any radical who would seem to say that the mind is a “ blank slate” that is filled entirely by its environment, or that genes control our behavior like a player piano. Many scientists, particularly those who don't study humans, have gone further and expressed the hope that the nature-nurture debate will simply go away.
Surely, they say, all behavior emerges from an inextricable interaction between heredity and environment during development.
But moderation, like all things, can be taken to extremes. The belief that it's simplistic to distinguish nature and nurture is itself simplistic. The contributions of this opposition to our understanding of mind and society are far from obvious, and many supposedly reasonable compromises turn out, under closer scrutiny, to be anything but. Let's consider some of the
''reasonable'' beliefs of the radical moderates.
' Reasonable'' Belief No. 1: No one believes in the extreme ''nurture'' position that the mind is a blank slate.
Certainly few people today endorse the blank slate in so many words, and I suspect that even fewer believe it in their heart of hearts. But many people still tacitly assume that nurture is everything when they write opinion pieces, conduct research, and translate the research into policy. Most parenting advice, for example, is inspired by studies that find a correlation between parents and children. Loving parents have confident children, authoritative parents (neither too permissive nor too punitive) have well-behaved children, parents who talk to their children have children with better language skills, and so on. Everyone concludes that to rear the best children, parents must be loving, authoritative, and talkative, and if children don't turn out well, it must be the parents' fault.
But there is a basic problem with this reasoning, and it comes from the belief that children are “blank slates.” Parents, remember, provide their children with genes, not just a home
9

environment. The correlations between parents and children may be telling us only that the same genes that make adults loving, authoritative, and talkative make their children self-confident, well behaved, and articulate. Until the studies are redone with adopted children (who get only their environment, not their genes, from their parents), the data are compatible with the possibility that genes make all the difference, the possibility that parenting makes all the difference, or anything in between. Yet in almost every instance, the most extreme position - that parents are everything - is the only one researchers entertain.
' 'Reasonable'' Belief No. 2: For every question about nature and nurture, the correct answer is
''Some of each.''
Not so. Take the question, ''Why do people in England speak English, and people in Japan
Japanese?'' The ''reasonable compromise'' would be that the Japanese have genes that make it easier for them to learn Japanese (and vice versa for the English), but both groups must be exposed to the language to acquire it fully. This compromise, of course, is not reasonable at all; it's false. Immigrant children acquire the language of their adopted home perfectly, showing that people are not predisposed to learn the language of their ancestors (though they may be predisposed to learn language in general). The explanation for why people in different countries speak different languages is 100 percent environmental. Today we know that autism and schizophrenia are highly heritable, and though they are not completely determined by genes, the other contributors (toxins, pathogens, chance events in brain development) have nothing to do with parenting. Mothers don’t deserve “some” of the blame if their children have these disorders, as a nature-nurture compromise would imply; they deserve none of it.
''Reasonable'' Belief No. 3: Disentangling nature and nurture is a hopeless task, so we shouldn't even try.
On the contrary, perhaps the most unexpected and provocative discovery in 20th-century psychology came from an effort to distinguish nature and nurture in human development. For a long time, psychologists have studied individual differences in intellect and personality. They have assessed cognitive abilities using IQ tests, statistics on performance in school and on the job, and measurements of brain activity. They have assessed people's personalities using questionnaires, ratings by other people who know them well, and tallies of actual behavior such as divorces and brushes with the law.
Where do these differences come from? Behavioral geneticists have discovered that intelligence, personality, overall happiness, and many other traits are partly (though never completely) heritable . That is, some of the variation in the traits among people in a given culture can be attributed to differences in their genes. The conclusion comes from three different kinds of research, each teasing apart genes and environment in a different way. First , identical twins reared apart are far more similar to each other than randomly selected pairs of people . Second, identical twins reared together are more similar than fraternal twins reared together. Third, biological siblings reared together are more similar than adoptive siblings . The more genes a pair of people share (holding environment more or less constant), the more similar they are.
These studies have been replicated in large samples from many countries, and have ruled out the alternative explanations that have been proposed. Of course, concrete traits that depend on content provided by the home or culture are not heritable at all, such as the language you speak, the religion you worship in, and the political party you belong to. But the underlying talents and
10

temperaments are heritable: how proficient with language you are, how receptive to religion, how hidebound or open to change.
So genes play a role in making us different from our neighbors, and our environments play an equally important role. At this point most people leap to the following conclusion: We are shaped both by our genes and by our family upbringing: how our parents treated us and what kind of home we grew up in. Not so fast! Here is a puzzle: Identical twins growing up together have the same genes, family environments, and peer groups, but the correlations in their traits are only around 50 percent. So, neither genes nor families nor peer groups, nor the interactions among these factors, can explain what makes them different. Researchers have hunted for other possible causes, such as sibling rivalry or differential treatment by parents, but none has panned out.
My own hunch is that the differences come largely from chance events in development. One twin lies one way in the womb and stakes out her share of the placenta, the other has to squeeze around her. A cosmic ray mutates a stretch of DNA, a neurotransmitter zigs instead of zags, the growth cone of an axon goes left instead of right, and one person's brain might gel into a slightly different configuration from another's, regardless of their genes. Random events can divert the trajectory of growth, but the trajectories are confined within an envelope of functioning designs for the species.
The human brain has been called the most complex object in the known universe. No doubt many hypotheses that pit nature against nurture as a dichotomy, or that fail to distinguish the ways in which they might interact, will turn out to be simplistic or wrong. But that complexity does not mean we should fuzz up the issues by saying that it's all just too complicated to think about, or that some hypotheses should be treated as necessarily true, necessarily false, or too dangerous to mention. As with other complex phenomena like inflation, cancer, and global warming, when it comes to the development of a human being we have no choice but to try to disentangle the causes.
11

APPENDIX B
SS520 COURSE ASSESSMENT QUESTIONS
NOTE: Please base all answers on information from the assigned reading by
Steven Pinker (2002), “Why the Nature/Nurture Debate Won’t Go Away”
1. Which pair of siblings would be LEAST similar on a trait like intelligence or personality? a) identical twins reared together c) fraternal twins reared together b) identical twins reared apart d) fraternal twins reared apart
2. Compared with their intelligence or personality, the language spoken by a person is
LEAST affected by heredity. a) true b) false
3. Pinker discusses three general factors that influence development. They are hereditary factors, environmental factors and __________________. a) hormonal factors c) chance events b) spirituality d) neurotransmitters
4. Based on your reading of the assigned essay, describe in 2-4 sentences what the author,
Steven Pinker, concludes about the future of the nature-nurture debate.
NOTE: Please base all answers on information from the assigned reading by
Steven Pinker (2002), “Why the Nature/Nurture Debate Won’t Go Away”
5. If you believe that the newborn’s mind is a “blank slate,” then you believe
(a) we are completely controlled by our genes; the mind has nothing to do with how we act, think or feel
(b) hereditary influences have no impact on behavior or psychological processes at all; how we think, act and feel are completely due to learning and experience
(c) infants are born with a capacity to learn about their culture
(d) experience cannot reverse the behaviors and traits that are determined by heredity.
6. Today, most behavioral genetics researchers assume that heredity and environment play equally important roles in determining human behavior and mental abilities. a) true b) false
7. When variation in a trait among people is affected by genetic differences between those people, the trait is said to be ___________________. a) polygenic c) sex-linked b) heritable d) instinctive
8. Using your own words, write 2-4 sentences to explain why behavioral genetics researchers compare pairs of identical twins with pairs of fraternal twins, and briefly describe what they have concluded from that research.
12