Listed below are selected learning outcomes in the areas of critical
thinking, writing, and information
seeking that Western Washington University is actively integrating
into its curriculum. Each learning outcome is listed with its definition,
along with a description of how Professor Hoover's course meets
each of these student learning outcome goals. See also Institutional
Goals.
| Learning Outcomes |
Definition |
Course Outcomes |
| Identification |
Accurately identifies and interprets
evidence. |
The first week of class, the students
were divided into small groups and given a different website
to evaluate. Each group's task was to develop criteria to
determine the credibility of internet information sources
on elections.
|
| Alternative Consideration |
Considers major alternative points
of view. |
The instructor chose politically
charged topics for the students to research, such as gender
issues, thus encouraging discussion and examination of alternative
points of view. |
| Accurate Conclusions |
Draws warranted, judicious, non-fallacious
conclusions. |
By doing the research in their assigned
area, generating initial hypotheses based on this research,
and reexamining the hypotheses in light of the election results,
they verified the accuracy of their conclusions. |
| Justification |
Justifies key results and procedures,
and explains assumptions and reasons. |
During the website evaluation, the
students developed and examined the criteria for evaluating
research, thus justifying their research procedure. As they
revisited their previous work in the written assignment, they
underwent a reasoned process to accurately justify their conclusions. |
Source: Adapted from the California Academic Press's
Holistic Critical Thinking Scoring Rubric available at: http://www.calpress.com/rubric.html
| Learning Outcomes |
Definition |
Course Outcomes |
| Rhetorical Knowledge |
Focuses on a clear rhetorical purpose
and responds appropriately to the needs of varied audiences
and situations. |
Each student completed not only an
individual writing assignment, but also a team writing assignment.
In addition, each team wrote a script for their five-minute
streaming internet reports. This allowed the students to respond
appropriately to the needs of varied audiences and situations.
Each writing assignment also had a clearly described purpose. |
| Critical Analysis |
Develops, examines,
situates, and communicates a reasoned perspective clearly to
others. |
The first week of class
two lectures laid the groundwork for students to begin to critically
evaluate not only their information sources, but also the content
of their research sources. Working with their instructor and
graduate research assistant, the students then generated reasoned
hypotheses based on this initial exploration of their assigned
subject area. |
| Composing Processes |
Understands writing as
a recursive process that involves drafting, re-thinking, editing,
reconceptualizing. |
After the students developed
and researched their team hypotheses, created their website,
and wrote a team script for their streaming video reports, they
completed their individual writing assignments. The individual
writing assignment required the students to revisit their previous
work and describe how their findings explained the results of
the election. Based on this reflection, they also archived their
election website reports. The initial research hypotheses were
therefore revisited several times during the course of the project. |
| Convention Knowledge |
Uses appropriate conventions for
documentation and for surface features such as syntax, grammar,
usage, punctuation, and spelling. |
Each of the writing assignments required
the students to use different writing conventions--the website
even required the students to learn beginning html conventions. |
Source: Adapted from Western Washington University's Learning
Outcomes for Writing II, available at http://pandora.cii.wwu.edu/cii/resources/writing/writing_rubric.html
| Learning Outcomes |
Definition |
Course Outcomes |
| Identifying Need |
Recognizes when information is needed
and formulates clear questions based on the information needed. |
Students met in the library with
the social science librarian and the government documents
librarian during the course of the project, and they learned
how to identify appropriate resources for their research.
Based on this research, the students developed clear hypotheses.
|
| Search Strategies |
Matches information needs to information
resources and organizes an effective search strategy. |
The students performed library
and internet searches for information that would be useful
for their websites and reports. They used the sources indicated
by the librarians, plus they located and evaluated information
on their own. During this process, they learned to develop
effective search strategies. |
| Effective Searching |
Interprets citations and the internet
equivalents and knows how to efficiently retrieve cited items. |
Students were directed to list the
sources for their reports and were given a format to do so.
Working in teams allowed them to compare each others' work,
and to learn to make their own searches for information more
effective. |
| Evaluating |
Seeks various sources of evidence
to provide support for a research question or conclusion. |
The students were involved in evaluation
of sources and processes from the first week of class. The exercise
that allowed them to develop their own criteria for evaluation
of information, plus the sessions with the librarians and with
their instructor and graduate assistant, allowed them to evaluate
their own work and that of their teammates. Revisiting their
hypotheses in light of the actual election results reinforced
this learning outcome. |
Source: Adapted from the Association of College and Research
Libraries Selected Information Literacy Outcomes (http://www.ala.org/acrl/outcome.html)
|
