By Ryan Fisher¹
Department of Biology

Ryan Fisher

As a colonial “Brit,” I have an innate aversion to all things dental that is no doubt as deeply rooted as that of any native of the United Kingdom. I am sure that every tooth I possess has had a cavity that required filling, creating significant anxiety on my part. I am still in awe of people who can show me teeth, all of them, without a single cavity. My poor dental health was probably partly due to only brushing my teeth once a day until I was twenty, but also because once I had fled my mother’s clutches, dentists did not see too much of me. However, early in my twenties I learned that a visit to the dentist every 6 months actually reduced the amount of work conducted on my teeth, reduced my anxiety levels, and reduced the debits that were coming out of my bank account. But what on earth does this have to do with assessing the learning objectives of the core?

In my six years at Salem State College, I have heard much anxiety about assessment not only from colleagues in the Department of Biology but also from colleagues further afield in our college. I do not mean to be flippant by using my aversion to dentists as an analogy, but I really do believe that a clear understanding of the assessment of learning objectives will significantly benefit the long-term health of what our students are learning and of our own long-term health as teachers. My colleagues and I at the College-Wide Assessment Committee (CWAC) are happiest helping the college find tools that can be used to assess the still evolving wide-ranging learning objectives of the current core curriculum. Although there is no formal statement of the global goals of the college, Anita Shea (ex-Dean, SOAS) and Dorothy Siden (Chair of the Economics Department), articulated three goals, drawn from the Philosophy of the Undergraduate Core Curriculum (Salem State College Catalog 2008-2010, p.12), in a presentation to the Association of American Colleges and Universities in 2008. They are: Global Goal 1- Knowledge: Attain knowledge from a variety of disciplines, Global Goal 2- Skills: Master skills necessary for advanced study and, Global Goal 3- Values: Develop respect for diverse cultures and responsibility for our planet.

The overall charges of the CWAC have not changed under our new provost, Dr. Kristin Esterberg, and are: 1) to educate and assist the college community regarding assessment of student learning and (2) to make recommendations concerning assessment to the Vice President of Academic Affairs (CWAC Web Pages – http://www.salemstate.edu/5902.php). The provost has provided more focus to these two charges by specifying that work should be conducted on the core curriculum. To this end the provost has been very supportive by allowing a budget to be drawn up, supporting committee members to attend the recent New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) Conference and allowing us to “get on with the job”. Your CWAC and departmental assessment colleagues had a successful retreat in January where we learned of much assessment that is taking place throughout the college. We are trying to create a well-lubricated, open forum for exchange of ideas and advice. To this end we have created a Wiggio forum (if anyone would like to join this Wiggio, please email Ryan Fisher or Jeanette Sablock) to help all of us work, as an assessment community, on descriptive objectives for the core goals.

Some people might wonder whether these assessment efforts are a waste of time: Are we not already conducting assessment when we evaluate student work? Why is it necessary to conduct all this additional, rather onerous work in our already busy schedules? Well, for a start, many departments already have formal mechanisms in place that can be used to quantitatively assess learning objectives. But …. It is these learning objectives that are the key. Are our students learning what we think we are teaching them? Clearly, if they are not then we should use the knowledge gained from this formal, embedded assessment to re-shape how we are teaching them so students can more effectively learn. Many of us are doing this all the time, but in an informal way. We have all had that lecture that fell flat on the day. We go back, make changes and, usually, it works better the next time. To more efficiently assess the learning outcomes of our core curriculum, we need to have formal assessment instruments in place that provide, as much as is possible, quantitative data that can be acted upon to allow our core courses (and all others) to become the best they can be.

The assessment retreat in January showed that the college is already conducting some excellent assessment. Many departments are using curriculum maps or matrices to “track” their student’s progress. These instruments provide a “course map” as to when certain learning skills are introduced, practiced and reinforced. Several science departments are using pre- and post-tests to gauge numerous skills (the ability to perform computation, to utilize mathematical reasoning, to employ scientific reasoning) as specified in Global Goal Two: Skills – Master Skills Necessary for Advanced Study. Portfolios are being used in many humanities departments, while questionnaires (including Survey Monkey) are being used in others. The ground work for a comprehensive assessment environment is definitely in place but it needs to be nurtured and allowed to evolve throughout the college.

Barbara Walvoord, the national “assessment guru,” stated in December 2009 that assessment is only really effective once it becomes “the stomach” of any college rather than an ad hoc committee that feeds in to the chief academic officer (Walvoord, B.E., 2009. Workshop Handout. NEASC Annual Conference, Boston, December 2009). Nevertheless, she went on to explain that assessment can be “no frills” and effective. As long as departments meet even only once a year to assess a specific course or degree concentration and then take some action, if it was required, effective assessment is happening. Many of us may think the current “hoo hah” at Salem State College is due to the rapidly approaching NEASC accreditation visit in the next academic year; in the short term, there is no doubt some truth in this. However, it is the long term that is vital to our success as teachers and as a college. We need to be able to assess our learning objectives so that we can be more certain that our students are better prepared for the world that awaits them after commencement. Your CWAC and provost are working towards a future when assessment becomes less of a ‘dirty word,’ allowing a comprehensive assessment environment to evolve here at Salem State College.

But… the CWAC retreat and the SOAS retreat in January revealed what many of us already know – the current core is, perhaps, a little difficult to assess. While any revision to the core is outside the current remit of the CWAC, we are thinking about how discussion of changes to the core might be envisaged from an assessment viewpoint. For example, Global Goal One of our current core includes the objective appreciate aesthetic knowledge, while Global Goal Three includes the objective encourage creativity and natural curiosity. Clearly the future core needs to be worded in a manner that allows measurable objectives, both so we can determine how and if students are being offered the skills required to master the objectives, but also to help us better understand the differences (if any) between apparently similar goals. In light of this, it is important that the CWAC continues its good, close working relationship with the Presidential Advisory Committee on the Core Curriculum to allow combined thought on a realistic, assessable future Core.

The future of assessment at Salem State College is, like the condition of my teeth, very bright. The CWAC’s January retreat showed that much is being done across the campuses on assessment. Our provost has shown solid support for your CWAC, and as long as we continue to have widespread clear communication and support within and between departments and schools, the evolution of assessment to the level required for the long-term health of our students’ learning will be assured.

This article is part of ASpect’s March 2010 issue on the core curriculum.

1 The author thanks his colleagues on the College-Wide Assessment Committee for their assistance with this article.