NOTE: THIS IS A DRAFT, TO BE DISCUSSED BY THE FULL FACULTY AT THE 2008 FALL CONFERENCE
English Department Learning Objectives:
The English major provides valuable skills in writing, critical thinking, verbal communication, research, and in analyzing and synthesizing texts and data. Experience in investigating, engaging with, writing, and writing about texts cultivates a high degree of critical acuity and rhetorical sophistication. Given the wide range of material offered throughout the curriculum, majors graduate with knowledge of different cultural, historical, and theoretical traditions as well rhetoric and contemporary media and literatures. English majors develop intellectual flexibility, creativity, and cultural literacy, important assets in a constantly changing global climate.
English faculty will assess the extent to which students have achieved these objectives in a variety of ways, depending on the Penn State campus where they teach. Among the methods are these:
Gathering and evaluating data:
Range of jobs students acquire
Number and percentage of students attending graduate/professional schools
- identifying which schools they get into and rates of acceptance into law school, professional school, and graduate school
Number of students completing concentrations
Number of students studying abroad
Number and percentage of honors students
Number of internships (and evaluations of supervisors)
Number of students involved with research/publication projects
Number of students involved with service learning experiences
Assessment of student performance on capstone projects in English 487 or honors projects.
Collect student information:
Exit surveys
Alumni surveys (5-10 years out?)
