As in the previous review, the G.E. Committee observes that some of these courses do not do an adequate job of reinforcing the basic skills. Several of these courses require a five to seven page paper or two three page papers, others include essay questions on exams, while still others offer no opportunity for writing at all. The G.E. Committee is aware of the difficulties of teaching large lecture courses, but it feels strongly that this is an area that needs to be addressed.

The G.E. Committee recommends that syllabi for all G.E. courses contain a statement regarding the learning objectives for the course, and how they relate to the G.E. program, and that they contain a list of assessable outcomes for the course.

Further recommendations regarding this category are given in the following section.

RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE COLLEGE OF SOCIAL AND BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES IN RESPONSE TO ITS REPORT ON ITS CAPSTONE COURSES

The College of Social and Behavioral Sciences was requested to conduct a review of its capstone courses, and to forward a report of their findings to the G.E. Committee. Over the current five-year cycle, the G.E. Committee is assessing capstones to see whether the present problems regarding development of higher-order learning skills are being addressed. The report was to explain what actions are being taken to incorporate exercises that develop higher-order thinking skills in the capstone courses, and was to address the issue of allocation of resources for assigned time for faculty and/or student assistants for courses.

The College of Social and Behavioral Sciences asked its department chairs to review and report on the capstone courses taught by faculty within their departments. For example, SSCI 321 Urbanization and the Urban Environment was reported on by the Chair of the Department of Geography. Reports were submitted for eight of the ten capstone courses offered by the College. It is not clear whether these individual reports were circulated and/or discussed among all of the College’s chairs as no summary statement was provided.

The following observations highlight the information obtained from the chairs’ reports.

The Social and Behavioral Sciences capstone courses tend to be truly interdisciplinary, integrating material from a variety of social and behavioral sciences. Additionally, the courses do a good job of including material concerning multicultural and gender issues.

Courses offered in a multi-section format tend to be very consistent. The report for SSCI 316 notes that the topics covered and the tone set by the syllabi and other class materials are remarkably similar. The faculty who teach SSCI 325 have been meeting to discuss, among other issues, the consistency of the course.

In general, the courses do not do a good job of reinforcing the basic skills of oral and written communication, and critical thinking. Only one of the chair’s reports mentions a writing component in a capstone course, others mention that the time necessary to read and respond to written work in a large lecture course prohibits such assignments.