Gary S. Elbow

Associate Vice-Provost for Academic Affairs, Texas Tech University

ASSESSMENT AND REFORM OF THE TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY CORE CURRICULUM

THE CHALLENGE:

• Accommodate the new Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board Component Area Objectives into the Texas Tech University core curriculum

• improve the core curriculum • strengthen assessment

THE ISSUES

• New Component Area Objectives are skill-based, while the old Exemplary Educational Objectives (EEOs) were content-based.

• Texas Tech University core curriculum was implemented in 1987-88 and by 2007 had grown to over 650 courses, of which 459 were junior or senior courses.

• Included “all courses” statements (English, foreign languages, history, and sociology).

• Mainly content-based• Little or no assessment• Very general core objectives (based on THECB statements)

TYPICAL CORE CURRICULUM STATEMENTTTU Natural Science Core Curriculum Objective Statement:

The objective of the study of the natural sciences component of a core curriculum is to enable the student to understand, construct, and evaluate relationships in the natural sciences, and to enable the student to understand the bases for building and testing theories. The natural sciences investigate the phenomena of the physical world.

THECB Component Area Statement for Life and Physical Science (10/2011)

Courses in this category focus on describing, explaining, and predicting natural phenomena using the scientific method.

Courses involve the understanding of interactions among natural phenomena and the implications of scientific principles on human experiences.

CORE CURRICULUM COMPOSITION IN 2007• Communication (Rhetoric) (6 hrs) 2 courses/0 upper level

• Communication (Oral) (3 hrs) 9 courses/3 upper level

• Mathematics & Philosophy (6 hrs) 24 courses/6 upper level

• Natural Science (8 hrs) 31 courses/1 upper level

• Technology and Applied Science (3 hrs)* 69 courses/35 upper level

• Humanities (3 hrs) 211 courses/185 upper level

• Visual and Performing Arts (3 hrs) 120 courses/74 upper level

• U. S. History (6 hrs) 4 courses/2 upper level

• U.S. government (6 hrs) 2 courses/0 upper level

• Individual and Group Behavior (3 hrs) 112 courses/78 upper level

* removed from the core in fall 2012

THE SOLUTION

• Use the new Component Area Objectives created by the Coordinating Board in October 2011 as a basis for reforming the core curriculum.

• Focus on non-specialized lower-level courses • Include assessment as a part of reforming the core

curriculum• Emphasis on skill-building rather than content for core

curriculum assessment

THECB COMPONENT AREA OBJECTIVES

• Critical Thinking• Communication• Empirical and Quantitative Reasoning• Teamwork• Individual Responsibility• Social Responsibility

Based on the VALUE rubrics of the AAC&U

THE PROCESS

• Terminate the existing core curriculum as of fall semester 2014

• Establish a review process for creating a new core curriculum to be implemented at the beginning of fall semester 2014

• Set up a time line• Build a website• Create a course request on-line application

CORE CURRICULUM REVIEW TIMELINE

• Preliminary review of course proposals by a special subcommittee of the Core Curriculum Committee during Summer 2012. Deficient proposals for courses that appear to meet requirements will be returned to the sponsoring unit for revision and resubmittal. Proposals for courses that are not suitable for the core curriculum will be returned to the sponsoring unit with an explanation of why they are rejected. Rejected courses may be appealed to the Core Curriculum Steering Committee with a response in September.

• September 7, 2012: Full proposals due, with complete syllabus including learning outcomes and assessments. Syllabi are forwarded to the appropriate Component Area Committee (core area specialists) for final review. Any proposals with problems will be returned to the sponsoring unit for revision and resubmittal. Proposals for courses that are unsuitable for the core curriculum will be returned to the sponsoring unit with an explanation of why they are rejected. The Component Area Committees will report their findings no later than December 3, 2012. Rejected courses may be appealed to the Steering Committee

• March 18, 2013: Any syllabi returned to a sponsoring unit for revision must be returned to the Core Curriculum Committee by this date.

• May 3, 2013: Core curriculum course lists are presented by the Component Area Committees to the Core Curriculum Steering Committee for review and a recommendation for approval.

• September 2013: Core curriculum is submitted to the Academic Council for review and a recommendation to the PSVP for or against approval. Any recommended revisions will be considered for implementation during September and October and the revised core curriculum resubmitted for the October Academic Council meeting.

• November 30, 2013: Core curriculum sent to the Coordinating Board for its approval.

• Fall 2014: New core curriculum is implemented.

NEWCORE.TTU.EDU WEB PAGE TOPICS

• Home • Core Course Requirements• Core Course Approval Process• Component Area Criteria• Component Area Objectives• Submit/Review Core Course Application• Frequently Asked Questions

THE REVIEW PROCESS• Core Curriculum Committee, >65 members representing all colleges • Selected for familiarity with component areas• Divided into 9 subcommittees (communications; mathematics &

philosophy; life and physical sciences; creative arts; language, philosophy & culture; U.S./Texas history; U. S. government; social and behavioral sciences)

• Steering committee comprised of chair of each component area committee

• 2 phases• Phase 1 Steering Committee review of core course requests• Phase 2 Component area committee review of course syllabi

THE REVIEW PROCESS (CONTINUED)Phase 1 core course request form

Called for a course to address each Coordinating Board Component Area Objective and each Texas Tech University Core Curriculum student

learning objective.

Also must address College-Level Outcome for component area

Outcome of review

Course is approved

Course is returned for revision

Course is rejected as inappropriate for the core curriculum

Topic is not appropriate

Emphasis is not consistent with core requirement

THE REVIEW PROCESS (CONTINUED)• Outcome of Phase 1 review

• Communication 9 submitted 1 withdrawn

• Mathematics and Philosophy 19 submitted 2 withdrawn, 2 pending

• Life and Physical Sciences 30 submitted 3 pending appr.

• Creative Arts 20 submitted 1 rejected

• Language, Philosophy, & Culture 48 submitted 7 rejected or withdrawn

• Social and Behavioral Sciences 39 submitted 2 withdrawn, 4 pending

• U.S. History 6 submitted 3 rejected

• U.S. Government 2 submitted 0 rejected or withdrawn

• Total 172 approved, revised, or pending approval

TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY CORE CURRICULUM COURSE REQUEST (CONT.)

CORE AREA CREATIVE ARTSCOURSE TYPE Existing CourseCOURSE ID HONS 2314DEPARTMENT HONSCOLLEGE HRCOURSE TITLE International Cinema

COURSE CATALOG DESCRIPTION(25 words or less)

(3) Analysis of foreign and ethnic cinema as an expression of human values and creativity viewed through the lens of a distinctive culture or cultures. May be repeated as the topic varies with permission of the Honors dean. Fulfills multicultural and Core Visual and Performing Arts requirement.

TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY CORE CURRICULUM COURSE REQUEST (CONT)

NUMBER OF SECTIONS TO BE OFFERED PER YEAR 2

ESTIMATED ENROLLMENT PER YEAR 40Name and e-mail address of individual to whom responses and questions about this course maybe addressed.REQUESTOR NAME Gary ElbowEMAIL ADDRESS gary.elbow@ttu.eduDEPARTMENT APPROVAL DATE 04/30/2012COLLEGE APPROVAL DATE 05/01/2012CURRENT APPLICATION STATUS ReviseREVISIONS REJECTION

TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY CORE CURRICULUM COURSE REQUEST (CONT.)• COORDINATING BOARD COMPONENT AREA OBJECTIVES

• Critical Thinking Skills: to include creative thinking, innovation, inquiry, and analysis, evaluation and synthesis of information

• Students willl practice critical thinking through analysis of foreign (non-English language) films they have viewed. Students are required to write critical essays on 12-14 films during the semester. The essay rubrics call upon students to evaluate aesthetic qualities (cinematography, sound, color, sets and setting, costume, etc.), acting, story-telling, philosophical perspectives, cultural content, historical and socio-political context, and treatment of social responsibility, among other elements. The practice of critical thinking is essential for students successfully to craft acceptable essays.

TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY CORE CURRICULUM COURSE REQUEST (CONT.)• Communication Skills: to include effective development, interpretation and

expression of ideas through written, oral and visual communication

• Students write essays frequently during the course of the semester and those essays are carefully critiqued to encourage consistent improvement in student writing skill. In addition, students will be asked to form teams to write an outline for a film Visual communication comes through student interpretation of what they see on the screen. Students are not required to create films or otherwise demonstrate the ability to produce examples of visual communication. Discussion of films is an integral part of HONS 2314, and students are expected to demonstrate their understanding of the films, evaluation of their aesthetic content, and comprehension of the cultural context in which the film was made. Instructors use the Socratic method to elicit responses from students when discussion lags. Sometimes all grading is based on essays and class discussion, but when examinations are used they are essay-type.

TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY CORE CURRICULUM COURSE REQUEST (CONT.)• Teamwork: to include the ability to consider different points of view and to work

effectively with others to support a shared purpose or goal

• Honors seminar courses generally have enrollments of 20 students or less. This allows for students to be organized into teams to work on specific projects. For this purpose, students will be organized into groups of 3-5 individuals to develop a film script outline that deals with a specific issue that has been developed in one or more of the films shown in the course. The outlines will be presented in written form as well as in an oral report delivered to the class by each team. Students will be asked to evaluate the level of participation of fellow group members and participation will also be monitored by the course instructor.

TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY CORE CURRICULUM COURSE REQUEST (CONT.)• Social Responsibility: to include intercultural competence, knowledge of civic

responsibility, and the ability to engage effectively in regional, national, and global Communitities.

• Films chosen for presentation in HONS 2314 are serious (“art house”) films that deal with important issues related to social responsibility as related to the countries from which the films come. As noted above (Objective #1) students will be asked to comment on these how the films deal with social responsibility in their film reviews. Because the films deal with these issues in a distinct, non-US cultural context, students are exposed to a variety of regional, national, and global communities.

TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY CORE CURRICULUM COURSE REQUEST (CONT.)• TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY STUDENT LEARNING OBJECTIVES FOR CREATIVE ARTS

• Identify and describe a body of works (individually and collectively) in the creative arts.

• This course specifically addresses cinema as an art form. Students are called upon to describe and evaluate aesthetic qualities in a series of films from a region or regions of the world.fy and describe a body of works (individually and collectively) in the creative arts.

• Explain and differentiate creative works as expressions of values within cultural and historical contexts.

• Films are cultural productions and, as such, they reflect the cultural values and historical contexts of the regions in which they were produced. In essays and class discussions, students are expected to reflect upon these issues as they are expressed in films.

• Analyze and summarize aesthetic principles that structure creative works.

• Essay rubrics specifically call upon students to identify and analyze the aesthetic elements of the films they see.

TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY CORE CURRICULUM COURSE REQUEST (CONT.)

• TEXAS TECH UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LEVEL COMPETENCY FOR CREATIVE ARTS

• Students graduating from Texas Tech University should be able to: construct, present, and defend critical and aesthetic judgments of works in the creative arts.

• Students are required to write multiple essays in which they make critical judgments about the aesthetic elements in the films they see. They are also required to defend the critical judgments they present in their essays and in class discussions.

PHASE 2 CORE CURRICULUM COURSE REVIEW

• Phase 2 is in progress• All but 10 syllabi have been submitted• Committees have developed rubrics for course syllabus

review• Committees are beginning to meet• Completion of reviews due by end of Fall 2012 semester• Courses returned for review will have until March 18 to

submit revisions

ANTICIPATED BENEFITS

• Smaller core curriculum (to 172 from 265 currently not counting Technology and Applied Science, which was dropped from the core as of fall 2012)

• Removed all but one upper-level course from the core• Focused on general courses that focus on skill acquisition• Improved assessment because specific assessment

strategies were required for core curriculum approval• Improved monitoring of core curriculum courses

ISSUES• Core curriculum is heavily weighted toward Colleges of Arts and

Sciences and Visual and Performing Arts; some professional colleges have complained about bias in the process

• Science labs (added as a degree requirement), transfer issues• Still need more work on assessment. Some departments and some

individual faculty still are not doing meaningful assessment• Some component areas have too many courses—would be better to

focus on fewer courses • Have not completely disabused departments of the idea that courses

must be in the core for them to meet minimum enrollment numbers• Need to make faculty more aware of VALUE Rubrics