Instructional Planning Yearly Update
Date __12/03/13_______________________
Department __Philosophy________________
Division __Hass_______________________
Goals and Recommendations from Program Plan
List the top five Goals and Recommendations from the last Program Plan and indicate whether they have been met?
Goals / Recommendations from six-year plan In progress
Goal Met
Comments
(identify source
of funding)
To increase student access and success by
decreasing the student/instructor ratio
Yes
No
We reduced the cap on nearly all classes, keeping Philo. 4, 9 &
10 at 65, and cutting 8,12,14,& 17 to 50 and 6 & 7 to 45.
To increase student success by providing diverse
in-class student experiences
Yes
No
To increase student success by enhancing access,
encouraging participation in learning communities
and stimulating communication by offering hybrid
distance format extensions to on campus courses
through “Blackboard” or other comparable
technology
A little
No
Philo. 17, Latin American Philosophy, has passed through
Cabrillo’s curriculum process and is awaiting approval from
Sacramento for Gen. Ed. Transfer. The plan is to alternate it
with Philo. 14 – Non-Western Philosophical Traditions
beginning in the Spring of 2015. The department has
discussed launching Aesthetics – but it is unclear which of our
core courses could be used to alternate with it since there are
no new units in the offing. We are still moving a bit
backwards on this goal as we are not scheduling Philo. 15 or
16 in order to maximize units in the more critical classes
necessary for matriculation.
We’ve lost any hope of reinstating our guest lecturer budget
thus enriching those classes such as Philo. 14 & 15. However
nearly all the faculty in the department have web pages and are
much more effectively exploiting digital media to enhance the
students’ experiences.
Restoration of 30 TU’s from Goal 1 would
necessitate hiring one additional contract
member
No
No
New Goals and Recommendations
Goal/Recommendation
Revised September 28, 2012
In the current economic climate, there is no hope of attaining
this goal.
List any new goals and recommendations identified by the department
Cost
Explanation/Evidence of Need
SLO Assessment Progress: In a sentence or two, describe where your department should be on the Revolving Wheel of Assessment (what
assessment you should have done in the last year) and what was actually done. If you’re not sure where you should be on the Revolving Wheel
contact the SLO Coordinator (x6366). If any task was not completed, explain why.
By the end of this semester, we will have assessed all courses currently taught except Philo. 7 which will be assessed in the Spring of 2014. We
will have to revise our wheel, as the SLO’s have been changed due to the AA-T process and at that point a reassessment on progress will occur.
Fill out the Assessment Results section below.
SLO Assessment Results: List SLO assessments, dialogues, and priorities identified as a result of your assessment below. Attach
Departmental Assessment Analysis Forms completed in the last two semesters.
Core Competency, Course
SLO, or CTE Program SLO
Assessed. Example: all course
SLOs for English 1A, 1B and 2
Philo. 49: SLO Critically
evaluate arguments,
identifying issues of premise
relevance, acceptability and
grounds
Date of meeting where
analysis / dialogue took
place. Example: Department
Meeting 8/27/10
12/2/13 Department Meeting
Priorities identified for program as a result of assessment. Example:
Develop strategies for teaching research and documentation skills; share
rubrics for research papers; provide more instructional support outside of
class.
In general, students who completed the midterm assignment did well, with a
'B' average overall. By charging students to conceive a research topic of
their own choosing, I have found a great deal of personal interest and
passion is imbued into the project. This interest and passion,
unsurprisingly, seems to translate directly into increased effort and therefore
success.
Topics chosen were varied and were addressed with a remarkable amount of
creativity and conceptual clarity. More often than not, however, when
students lost points on the assignment, it was due to a failure to carefully
follow explicitly stated requirements. For example, when asked to
standardize explanatory and argumentative outlines, some students instead
presented them in a natural language format.
Philo. 49: Core- Critical
Thinking
Revised September 28, 2012
12/2/13 Department Meeting
It was concluded that more development of transparent rubrics is needed
and that earlier opportunities for practice be offered.
Most students came up with interesting examples and did adequate work
presenting the argument in clear standard format. Some did exceptional
work when it came to writing a clear argumentative essay with welldeveloped reasoning.
Students need to work more on applying the critical thinking skills taught in
the course to content outside and beyond what they are presented in lecture
and texts. At least half of the students had difficulty locating examples of
arguments.
It was concluded that more opportunities should be provided for class
participation/discussion and for students to bring in examples, which
provide applications of the philosophy to areas outside “strict philosophy.”
Philo. 6: SLO Construct
expository and argumentative
essays
Revised September 28, 2012
12/2/13 Department Meeting
Although the improvement was slight and the students were different
people, it might help students to have a class exercise in making an outline
for argumentative essays prior to tackling their papers.