Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2016
Publication Title
Journal of Assessment and Institutional Effectiveness
Abstract
This paper presents a case study of faculty in a psychology department whose shared questions about pedagogy and learning informed a data-driven curricular review and revision using an open-ended assessment that privileged deep learning. This paper describes the development of this assessment and how its results across the arc of the major led to a revision of the department’s curriculum, including the creation of new courses that focused on developing students’ abilities to ‘think like psychologists.’ The study indicates that faculty intuitions of potential problems in student learning can be successfully assessed and then addressed through curricular changes.
Keywords
assessment, deep learning, psychology, interpretive knowledge
Volume
6
Issue
2
First Page
191
Last Page
211
DOI
10.5325/jasseinsteffe.6.2.0191
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Rights
Licensed to Smith College and distributed CC-BY under the Smith College Faculty Open Access Policy.
Recommended Citation
DiBartolo, Patricia Marten; Duncan, Lauren E.; Ly, Minh; and Rudnitsky, Alan N., "Using a “Messy” Problem as a Departmental Assessment of Undergraduates' Ability to Think Like Psychologists" (2016). Psychology: Faculty Publications, Smith College, Northampton, MA.
https://scholarworks.smith.edu/psy_facpubs/18
Comments
Peer reviewed accepted manuscript.