Queensborough Community College/CUNY
Department of Social Sciences
Individual Course Assessment Report
Course Number/Title:
PSYC 215 – Child Development
Course Description (from the college catalog):
The goal of this course is to enable students to acquire a knowledge base of child
development. Consideration of developmental issues particular to special needs
youngsters will also be addressed. Students will examine the central emotional,
cognitive, and social issues for each developmental period during childhood.
Cultural, socio-economic, and historical influences on development will be integrated
within the course.
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: Examine how cognitive, social, and emotional changes influence child
development
ICO2: Compare prominent theories of cognitive and social development with one
another.
ICO3: Identify and describe how childhood presents individuals with unique
challenges and opportunities for growth unlike other periods in the lifespan: Children
are by no means little adults.
ICO4: Explain and use scientific methods to observe children and gather data.
ICO5: Identify contemporary issues in the area of child development.
Curricular Objectives (CO) Assessed: None
Participants
Number of Sections Assessed: 1
Number of Students Assessed: 21
Course Assessment Method
One section of PSYC 215 was assessed in the Spring semester of 2013 representing
21 students. The survey asked the students to indicate whether they agreed with, were
neutral concerning, or disagreed with each of ten statements designed to measure either a
General Education objective or an Individual Course objective. For ease of scoring, all 10
items were keyed so that ‘agree’ signified that the objective was met.
As shown in Tables 1 and 2 in the Results section below, students agreed with the
statements in the survey (percentages ranged from 76% to 100%). These findings indicate
that the General Education Objectives and the Individual Course Objectives were largely
met. According to the data, Statements 2, 7, and 8 on the survey received the highest
agreement: “This class helped me to analyze theories of child development”; “This class
helped me to understand how children develop cognitively, socially, and emotionally”; and
“This class helped me to understand how children differ from adults in critical areas such as
their intellectual abilities”, respectively. The statement receiving the lowest agreement, 76%,
was Statement 4, “This class helped me to discuss the application of theory and research in
the study of child development to other fields.”
The percent agreement with statements was fairly similar regardless if the statement
tapped a General Education Objective or an Individual Course Objective. The overall mean
for either category of objectives was greater than 90%.
Results
Table 1: Students (%) Agreeing with Statements Addressing General Education Objectives
General Education
Objective (GEO)
GEO2
GEO5
GEO8
GEO 2, 5, 8
Survey Statement
Agree (%)
S1
95
S2
100
Mean: S1 & S2
97.5
S3
90
S4
76
Mean: S3 & S4
83
S5
86
S6
95
Mean: S5 & S6
90.5
Overall Mean (S1 – S6)
90.3
Table 2: Students (%) Agreeing with Statements Addressing Individual Course Objectives
Individual Course
Objective (ICO)
Survey Statement
Agree (%)
ICO1&2
S7
100
ICO3
S8
100
ICO4
S9
90
ICO5
S10
81
ICO 1 – ICO5
Overall Mean (S7-S10)
92.75
Conclusion
It should be noted that agreement with the statements on the survey was generally
good (>85%) indicating that most General Educational Objectives and Individual Course
Objectives, appear to have been met. A few statements received less than 85% which may
indicate that improvement is necessary. (The cut-point of 85% is arbitrary.)

General Education Objectives
For GEO2 (Use analytical reasoning to identify issues or problems and evaluate
evidence in order to make informed decisions), students showed overall a high level
of agreement that this objective was met: 97.5%. Moreover, the percent agreement
for both survey statements used to gauge the objective were similar. For Statement 1
(This class helped me to discuss theories, concepts, and debates in the study of child
development), the percent of those who agreed was 95%. For Statement 2 (This class
helped me to analyze theories of child development), the percent of those who agreed
was 100%.

For GEO5 (Integrate knowledge and skills in their program of study), the percent of
those who agreed were 83%. The agreement is less than 85% and deserves further
attention. It is important to compare the percentage of students who agreed with both
questions that gauged the objective. For Statement 3 (This class helped me to
understand how children develop in everyday life), 90% of students agreed with the
statement. However, those who agreed with statement 4 (This class helped me to
discuss the application of theory and research in the study of child development to
other fields), was 76%. While it is heartening that the objective appears to be
somewhat met as noted in the scores for statement 3, the lower score for statement 4
indicates that students need further class time and assignments devoted to making
bridges from the material in class to other fields outside the realm of child
development and psychology.

For GEO8 (Use historical or social sciences perspectives to examine formation of
ideas, human behavior, social institutions, or social processes), on average, 90.5% of
students agreed that the objective had been met. For Statement 5 (This class helped
me to understand how concepts in the study of child development can be applied to
social problems concerning children), 86% of students agreed with the statement. For
Statement 6 (This class helped me to apply concepts from the study of child
development to the understanding of human behavior), 95% of students agreed.

Individual Course Objectives
Statement 7, tapped ICO 1 (Examine how cognitive, social, and emotional changes
influence child development) and ICO2 (Compare prominent theories of cognitive
and social development with one another). There was 100% agreement for
Statement 7 indicating that the objectives were met.

ICO3 (Identify and describe how childhood presents individuals with unique
challenges and opportunities for growth unlike other periods in the lifespan: Children
are by no means little adults) was assessed with Statement 8 (This class helped me to
understand how children differ from adults in critical areas such as their intellectual
abilities). A high level of agreement was noted, 100%.

ICO4 (Explain and use scientific methods to observe children and gather data) was
assessed with Statement 9 (This class helped me to understand how research is
conducted when studying children). Agreement of 90% was found.

ICO5 (Identify contemporary issues in the area of child development) was gauged
with Statement 10 (This class helped me to understand how research can be used to
address the issues facing children and parents in everyday life). For this objective,
81% of students agreed that the objective was met. This percentage, which is less
than 85%, calls for further consideration.
Action Plan

Based upon the results of the assessment, one action that will be taken is to gear
assignments that ask students to make bridges between theory and research in the
study of child development to other fields. The topic will be pursued either in essay
questions, in-class activities, or oral or written presentations. It is important for
students to make connections across disciplines because such knowledge will
contribute to their depth of knowledge leading to greater integration of ideas and
theory.

In addition, further attention will be given to having students note how the ideas and
information presented in the class pertain to parents and children in everyday life.
For students, this can be a difficult enterprise given that ideas about parents and
children are ingrained from early childhood. Such knowledge can make it difficult to
consider findings that may not agree with information gained from early experience.
For instance, many have a difficult time considering the research findings that (1)
corporal punishment is not an ideal parenting technique or (2) language learning
begins well before children speak. Findings thought to be at odds with early
experience are sometimes quickly discounted given that popular wisdom is thought to
prevail. Thus, the relevance of information to everyday life is called into question.
Further consideration of the research, in direct comparison to popular wisdom, is
likely to help students see the relevance of the data to everyday life. This issue will
be kept in mind when designing questions and assignments.
APPENDIX A
PSYC 215
Survey
Child Development
Outcomes
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 the study of child
development.
2. This class helped me to analyze theories of child development.
3. This class helped me to understand how children develop in everyday life.
4. This class helped me to discuss the application of theory and research in the study of child
development to other fields.
5. This class helped me to understand how concepts in the study of child development can be
applied to social problems concerning children.
6. This class helped me to apply concepts from the study of child development to the
understanding of human behavior.
7. This class helped me to understand how children develop cognitively, socially, and
emotionally.
8. This class helped me to understand how children differ from adults in critical areas such
as their intellectual abilities.
9. This class helped me to understand how research is conducted when studying children.
10. This class helped me to understand how research can be used to address the issues facing
children and parents in everyday life.
PSYC 215 - Closing the Loop

Based upon the results of the assessment, one General Education Objective that needs
to be attained to a higher degree is, integrating knowledge and skills across students’
programs of study. Beginning with the Spring semester of 2014, students will be
asked to identify two to three courses taken at Queensborough. Students will be
asked to write a one page summary containing the information learned in each course
identifying major themes or topics. Then, students will be asked to list and describe,
for each course, three similarities found between the course and child development.
Students will be asked to present their ideas in written format and may be asked to
present them orally.
This activity will be designed to have students make bridges
between several fields and theory and research in the study of child development.

Effort will also be made in reaching, to a greater degree, the Individual Course
Objective of having students see relationships between contemporary issues facing
children and parents and the utility of child development research in addressing these
concerns. Beginning with the Spring semester of 2014, students will be presented
with several in-class writing assignments, most likely in small groups, which will ask
students to identify one or two issues facing parents and children. Then, students will
propose ways in which the issue(s) could be studied using the methods of science
presented in the class. Members of each group will then be asked to present their
ideas to the class.