PHIL 12A - Symbolic Logic - Stage 4 - Stephan Johnson

Assessment

Assessment Methods

Analysis of exam, quiz, or homework items linked to specific SLOs

Assessment DescriptionMajor Learning Outcomes Assessment

Philosophy 12a

The following outcomes have been identified as major for this course. As a means of determining your proficiency in these outcomes, we are administering the following short quiz. This quiz is to be taken anonymously and will not count for or against your grade. It’s purely a means for us to determine how these outcomes are being taught.

Outcomes Assessed:

A. Demonstrate the ability to identify and evaluate both the components of arguments (premises and conclusions) and arguments as a whole.

B. Demonstrate a grasp of the concepts of validity, soundness, as well as inductive strength and weakness in the evaluation of arguments as a whole.

D. Demonstrate the ability to prove, within various formal systems, the entailment of one sentence from a set of sentences.

Bubble in the correct answer for each of the following on your Scantron sheet:

1. If you have a valid argument with a false conclusion then you know that:

a. all of the premises must be true

b. none of the premises can be true

c. at least one of the other premises must be false

d. none of the above

2. Is the following argument valid?

1. Either Abe and Bart, or Cindy and Dave, are home

2. Either Bart and Cindy, or Dave and Edy, are also home

Therefore

3. Either Cindy or both Abe and Edy are home





a. Yes

b. No

3. The statement ‘No one home is awake’ is logically equivalent to

a. Not everyone home is awake

b. If anyone is awake, they’re not at home

c. If anyone’s home, they’re not awake

d. For anyone, either they’re not at home or they’re awake e. C and D
Learning OutcomesA. Demonstrate the ability to identify and evaluate both the components of arguments (premises and conclusions) and arguments as a whole.

B. Demonstrate a grasp of the concepts of validity, soundness, as well as inductive strength and weakness in the evaluation of arguments as a whole.

D. Demonstrate the ability to prove, within various formal systems, the entailment of one sentence from a set of sentences.
Number of Sections2
Number of Instructors2
Number of Students51

Data Analysis

Data Shared With
  • Instructors of the same course (at CCSF)
  • Faculty and staff within our department
Data Sharing Methods
  • Face-to-face meetings
  • Email
Data SummaryOn Question 1: 60% answered correctly

On Question 2: 58% answered correctly

On Question 3: 52% answered correctly
Analysis SummaryA majority of students answered each question correctly. This, while not outstanding, is indicative of both some success in mastering the course material, but also of continued work that needs to be done.
Next Steps PlannedFor the assessments, we are going to move to a pre and post test model. We feel this will give us more information as to whether student performance is indicative of prior abilities, or, and to what extent, it's indicative of exposure to the course material.
Learning OutcomesALL

Tentative Future Plans

TermFall 2013
Activities
  • Revision of outcomes and assessment methods (measurements)
  • Assessment (measurement) of outcomes
  • Analysis and discussion of assessment data and next steps
  • Implementation of planned changes and reassessment
More DetailsWe plan on both changing assessment methods and also emphasizing certain concepts (validity, etc.) more in our presentation of the course material.

SLO Details Storage Location

ELECTRONIC COPY - In my electronic filing system (hard drive or web server)

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