Improving Quality in American Higher Education E-Book

Richard Arum

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Bildung
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 486

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

An ambitious, comprehensive reimagining of 21st century higher education Improving Quality in American Higher Education outlines the fundamental concepts and competencies society demands from today's college graduates, and provides a vision of the future for students, faculty, and administrators. Based on a national, multidisciplinary effort to define and measure learning outcomes--the Measuring College Learning project--this book identifies 'essential concepts and competencies' for six disciplines. These essential concepts and competencies represent efforts towards articulating a consensus among faculty in biology, business, communication, economics, history, and sociology--disciplines that account for nearly 40 percent of undergraduate majors in the United States. Contributions from thought leaders in higher education, including Ira Katznelson, George Kuh, and Carol Geary Schneider, offer expert perspectives and persuasive arguments for the need for greater clarity, intentionality, and quality in U.S. higher education. College faculty are our best resource for improving the quality of undergraduate education. This book offers a path forward based on faculty perspectives nationwide: * Clarify program structure and aims * Articulate high-quality learning goals * Rigorously measure student progress * Prioritize higher order competencies and disciplinarily grounded conceptual understandings A culmination of over two years of efforts by faculty and association leaders from six disciplines, this book distills the national conversation into a delineated set of fundamental ideas and practices, and advocates for the development and use of rigorous assessment tools that are valued by faculty, students, and society. Improving Quality in American Higher Education brings faculty voices to the fore of the conversation and offers an insightful look at the state of higher education, and a realistic strategy for better serving our students.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Acknowledgments

About the Editors

About the Contributors

Foreword

Chapter 1: Defining and Assessing Learning in Higher Education

Introduction

Core Principles of the Measuring College Learning Project

Goals and Activities

What We Have Learned: Lessons from MCL

Volume Overview

The Future of Higher Education Assessment

References

Chapter 2: Measuring College Learning in History

Introduction

A History of History Learning Outcomes

Essential Concepts and Competencies for the History Major

Student Learning in History: Past, Present, and Future Assessments

An Assessment for the History Major: Form, Uses, and Next Steps

References

Chapter 3: Measuring College Learning in Economics

Introduction

Overview of Prior Efforts to Articulate and Assess Learning Outcomes in Economics

Methods

Essential Concepts and Competencies for the Economics Major

Essential Concepts and Competencies for the Introductory Course

Recommendations for Future Assessments

Conclusion

References

Chapter 4: Measuring College Learning in Sociology

Introduction

Literature Review

The Sociological Literacy Framework: Essential Concepts and Competencies for the Sociology Major

Essential Concepts and Competencies for the Introductory Course

Current Assessments of Student Learning in Sociology

Future Assessments

Conclusion

References

Chapter 5: Measuring College Learning in Communication

Introduction

Historical Perspectives on Learning Outcomes in Communication

Essential Learning Outcomes for the Communication Major

Assessment of Student Learning in Communication

Conclusion

References

Chapter 6: Measuring College Learning in Biology

Introduction

Literature Review

Methods for Creating a List of Essential Concepts and Competencies for Biology

Essential Concepts and Competencies for the Biology Major

Essential Concepts and Competencies for the Introductory Biology Course

Current Assessments of Student Learning in Biology

Future Assessments in Biology: Blending Competencies and Concepts

Conclusion

References

Chapter 7: Measuring College Learning in Business

Introduction

Methods

Prior Efforts to Articulate Learning Outcomes for Business Undergraduates

Essential Concepts and Competencies for the Business Major

Essential Concepts and Competencies for the Introductory Course

Current and Future Assessments

Conclusion

References

Chapter 8: A Set of Further Reflections on Improving Teaching, Learning, and Assessment

A Promising Start and Some Way to Go: Some Reflections on the Measuring College Learning Project

MCL and Disciplinary Discourses: A Promising Step toward Assuring Collegiate Quality

References

How MCL Can Make a Lasting Difference

References

Don't Let the Promise of Better Measures Tomorrow Excuse Inaction Today

References

Index

End User License Agreement

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Guide

Table of Contents

Begin Reading

List of Tables

Chapter 1: Defining and Assessing Learning in Higher Education

Table 1.1 MCL Faculty Panelists

Table 1.2 Essential Concepts and Competencies from the Six MCL Disciplines

Chapter 3: Measuring College Learning in Economics

Table 3.1 Matrix of Essential Concepts and Competencies in Economics (Part 1 of 5)

Chapter 4: Measuring College Learning in Sociology

Table 4.1 Brief Overview of the Sociological Literacy Framework

Table 4.2 The Sociological Perspective: Five Essential Concepts

Table 4.3 The Sociological Toolbox: Six Essential Competencies

Chapter 6: Measuring College Learning in Biology

Table 6.1 Essential Concepts for Biology

Table 6.2 Essential Competencies for Biology

Table 6.3 Matrix of Learning Outcomes That Blends Essential Concepts with Essential Competencies

Table 6.4 Concept Learning Outcomes for an Introductory Molecular and Cell Biology Course

Chapter 7: Measuring College Learning in Business

Table 7.1 High-level Concepts Identified by AACSB and UK QAA as Important to Business Students

Table 7.2 Competencies Included in the AACSB and UK QAA guidelines

Richard ArumJosipa RoksaAmanda Cook

Improving Quality in American Higher Education

Learning Outcomes and Assessments for the 21st Century

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Acknowledgments

This volume emerges from a large-scale collaborative effort organized by the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) and supported by a large number of individuals and institutions from across the country. Our colleagues at the SSRC provided support for this initiative at multiple levels: Ira Katznelson, Mary McDonnell and Ron Kassimir, as leadership at the Council, embraced the importance of the work from its initial stages and provided guidance and unwavering support throughout; Amanda Cook not only contributed to the project conceptually, but administratively oversaw the initiative during her time at the Council; additional assistance was provided by Abby Larson in initial phases of the project and most ably by Eleanor Blair during the final production of white papers and this volume.

A vital complement to the SSRC's role in this project was the steadfast intellectual and organizational support of a great many disciplinary associations and other organizations. In particular, we are deeply grateful to leadership at the following organizations for partnering with us and providing constructive feedback and input on the work: the American Economic Association, the American Historical Association, the American Sociological Association, the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business, the National Communication Association, the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment, the Stanford History Education Group, the Society for the Advancement of Biology Education Research, and the Educational Testing Service.

Another essential factor behind the success of this endeavor was the support of both the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Teagle Foundation, who not only provided generous financial support, but also served as valuable thought partners throughout. We are particularly grateful to the following foundation officers: Dan Greenstein, Patrick Methvin, Jason Palmer, Jim Ptaszynski, and Stacey Clawson from the Gates Foundation; and Judith Shapiro, Loni Bordoloi Pazich, Richard L. Morrill, Annie W. Bezbatchenko from the Teagle Foundation.

At Jossey-Bass, the project benefited from editorial guidance and support from Marjorie McAneny, Shauna Robinson, Prithviraj Kamaraj, and Kristi Bennett. We are also grateful to some of the leading voices in higher education learning and assessment— Charles Blaich, Peter Ewell, Natasha Jankowski, George Kuh, Carol Geary Schneider, and Kathleen Wise—who were willing to contribute critical commentary on the work. We've included their voices in this volume, which reflects our belief that for an initiative of this character to be successful, it must be open to criticism and committed to iteration over the years to come.

Most of all, we owe our deepest gratitude to the faculty members from the six disciplines who came together to respond to the historic challenge we are facing in higher education. We are deeply indebted to the faculty who contributed their time and ideas to the Measuring College Learning panels, to their colleagues who they consulted and who offered constructive feedback, and most of all to the coauthors of the chapters to follow.

About the Editors

Richard Arum is professor of sociology and education at New York University and director of the Education Research Program at the Social Science Research Council.

Josipa Roksa is associate professor of sociology and education at the University of Virginia.

Amanda Cook is assistant director of the Education Research Program at the Social Science Research Council.

About the Contributors

Sam Allgood is Edwin J. Faulkner Professor of Economics at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln.

Amanda Bayer is professor of economics at Swarthmore College.

Sara Beckman is senior lecturer and Earl F. Cheit Faculty Fellow in the Haas School of Business at the University of California, Berkeley.

Steven Beebe is Regents' and University Distinguished Professor of Communication Studies at Texas State University.

Charles Blaich is director of the Center of Inquiry and the Higher Education Data Sharing Consortium at Wabash College.

Lendol Calder is professor of history at Augustana College.

William Carbonaro is associate professor of sociology at the University of Notre Dame.

Clarissa Dirks is professor of biology at The Evergreen State College.

Peter Ewell is president of the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems.

Susan Ferguson is professor of sociology at Grinnell College.

Natasha Jankowski is associate director of the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment at the University of Illinois and Indiana University.

Ira Katznelson is Ruggles Professor of Political Science and History at Columbia University and president of the Social Science Research Council.

Nancy Kidd is executive director of the National Communication Association.

Jennifer Knight is associate professor of molecular, cellular, and developmental biology at the University of Colorado, Boulder.

George Kuh is director of the National Institute for Learning Outcomes Assessment, adjunct research professor of education policy at the University of Illinois, and Chancellor's Professor of Higher Education Emeritus at Indiana University.

W. Bradford Mello is associate professor of communication at Saint Xavier University.

Jeff Nesteruk is professor of legal studies in the Department of Business, Organizations, and Society at Franklin and Marshall College.

Trevor Parry-Giles is director of academic and professional affairs at the National Communication Association and professor of communication at the University of Maryland.

Carol Geary Schneider is president of the Association of American Colleges and Universities.

Tracy Steffes is associate professor of education and history at Brown University.

Kathleen Wise is associate director of the Center of Inquiry and director of the Teagle Assessment Scholar Program at Wabash College.

Foreword

Ira Katznelson

We live in an age of metrics. With measurement everywhere, critical questions concern not whether, but how to gauge and evaluate. All the more reason to celebrate the pioneering approach to pedagogical achievement represented in this stimulating volume.

The Social Science Research Council is especially pleased to host the ambitious Measuring College Learning Project that has been guided by Richard Arum, Josipa Roksa, and Amanda Cook because its core principles and methodology resonate so richly with the history and objectives of the SSRC. Founding in 1923, the Council was fashioned by then young learned societies in Anthropology, Economics, History, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, and Statistics. Their intellectual leaders sought to deepen the craft of social science by crossing intellectual boundaries while respecting the individual vectors of each subject of study. They wished to galvanize social scientists to work on crucial public issues, including education. They also aimed to build the capacity of students and scholars to learn and conduct inquiry about the human condition.

What the founders did not do was focus on pedagogy or on assessing how undergraduates were acquiring knowledge. Notwithstanding, each of their principal aspirations only could be achieved if buttressed by high-quality teaching and learning. Then as now, none of the Council's primary objectives can be secured without inspiring young adults to thoughtfully understand and deploy the work of systematic social knowledge. This capacity also provides a foundation for democratic citizenship in which members of the society are called on to thoughtfully judge key aspects of social life and public affairs.

By way of a compelling corrective, the past decade has witnessed a major effort by the SSRC to engage with and evaluate the results of collegiate instruction. The Council's program on higher education has originated powerful research concerned with what students actually learn in college, and with how their experiences project into adulthood. Based on rich data and incisive analysis, Academically Adrift revealed limits on learning and pressed colleges and universities to become more focused on goals and processes. That book's successor, Aspiring Adults Adrift, revealed profound challenges for the cohort of students studied in the earlier volume as that group left the shelter of the university for the world of more independent adulthood.

What the current work detailed below adds is a powerful insistence that meaningful assessments of learning outcomes depend on a small number of key decisions and judgments too rarely made. This approach to measuring outcomes revolves around the insight that faculty intentions not only motivate how education best proceeds, subject by subject, but how learning's achievements are refracted through competencies and concepts that educators believe to be essential for their fields of study.

At a time when too many standards impose artificial and mechanical criteria that fail to measure rigorously and thoughtfully, this project's diversity of fields, respect for the distinctiveness of different types of learning, and commitment to more incisive and precise measurements that move beyond too-simple efforts at accountability show that it is possible to advance learning by combining understanding with clarity about objectives, means, and results.

Both the overview and the treatments of learning in the six disciplines this book considers are not intended to be dispositive. Rather, they convene a way of working that necessarily varies across subjects and across institutions and student communities. The issues dealt with in these essays go to the heart of defining what faculty instructors believe to be indispensable knowledge. They are bound to be controversial in both substance and method. As such, they should be read as a robust invitation to a wide variety of persons concerned with higher education to think hard, in fresh ways, about the ambitions, tools, and consequences of what we do as educators.

We are in the midst of a public conversation about the price, value, and effects of college-level pedagogy. Much of this talk has been based on uneven information, sporadic impressions, and limited analyses that are based on measures about cost, rates of completion, factual retention, and post-college job market experiences. These dominant approaches are not adequate. What we lack and urgently require are supple and knowledge-focused ways to appraise how those aspects of subjects that teachers and researchers believe to be fundamental to critical thought are conveyed and received. It is with passion for this set of challenges that the Measuring College Learning Project has begun to make important gains.

Much remains to be accomplished. The kinds of appraisals recommended here require new instruments, buy-ins by persons and organizations, effective persuasion and dissemination, and understanding of the utility of faculty- and discipline-based appraisals. In all, the success of this venture has large implications for the future of social knowledge and the character of civic life.

Chapter 1Defining and Assessing Learning in Higher Education

Josipa Roksa

University of Virginia

Richard Arum

SSRC and New York University

Amanda Cook

SSRC

This contribution presents an overview of the Measuring College Learning (MCL) project, a faculty-led effort coordinated by the Social Science Research Council in collaboration with a set of national disciplinary associations to articulate essential learning outcomes and develop improved measures of undergraduate-level student learning in six academic disciplines. It begins with a description of the motivating forces behind the project, which include a desire to bring faculty voices and a focus on student learning to the fore of discussions about the desired outcomes of higher education. Next, it describes the core principles of the MCL project, its goals and activities, and lessons learned from progress on the project to date. It concludes with a summary of the six discipline-specific contributions that follow and some general recommendations for the future of assessment in higher education.