PSYC 26 - Applied Psychology - Stage 3 - Lisa Harrison

Assessment

Assessment Methods

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

Assessment DescriptionAfter assessing students' overall performance on a written assignment in Fall 2012 called "Thinking About Situational Factors and the Fundamental Attribution Error (FAE)," I decided to take a closer look at student responses on the assignment to determine if specific areas need more in-class explanation and clarification. This step in the assessment process came from observation that students tend to miss two questions more often than other questions on the assignment. In fact, ~25% of students during the Fall 2012 semester missed one or both of these two questions. Although the overall performance goal was met by students last semester, a new goal was to further improve overall performance on this assignment and to improve students' mastery of the course content assessed by the two specific questions more often answered incorrectly. Therefore, during the Spring 2013 semester, I modified my lecture and class discussion by giving students more information related to the questions more often answered incorrectly.

Additionally, since the current PSYC 26 SLOs were written in 2005, Instructor Villalta and I began working together to review, update, and edit the course outline. This is still in process with a completion target date of September 2013.
Learning OutcomesD. Summarize the influence of beliefs and self-talk on emotions and behavior. (FAE Assignment)

ALL (updating course outline)
Number of Sections3
Number of Instructors2
Number of Students103

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
  • Phone
Data SummaryFAE Assignment: In Spring 2013, 88% of all students across 3 sections scored 75% or better. This is an improvement over Fall 2012 performance across 3 sections (85% of all students scored 75% or better).

In Fall 2012, ~25% of the students missed one or both of these questions while in Spring 2013 ~10% of the students missed one or both of these questions on the assignment.

PSYC 26 Course Outline: Update still in process.
Analysis SummaryAnalysis involved reviewing students' FAE assignment scores as well as reviewing each student's responses to the 2 more difficult questions. The goal of this analysis was to determine if there was an overall improvement of performance on both the assignment in general and on students' responses to the 2 specific questions after I modified my lecture and focus of class discussion. The data from this analysis indicate improvement in both areas and outcome achievement.
Next Steps PlannedFAE Assignment: Since students were having a more difficult time with 2 specific questions, it made sense for me to try making some changes (i.e., content additions, more explanation, and checking for understanding) to my lecture and class discussion to see if these changes would make a difference in students' overall performance and mastery of the course content. I will continue using the modified lecture next semester since it seemed to have a positive impact this semester. I will reassess student performance on the FAE Assignment to confirm effectiveness of the change.

PSYC 26 Course Outline: Instructor Villalta and I will continue reviewing, updating, and editing the course outline, particularly the SLOs, with a completion target date of September 2013.
Learning OutcomesALL

Changes

DetailsAs described, I modified my lecture and class discussion on attribution theory and attributional errors. I provided more specific information so that students would be better prepared to correctly answer the two more commonly missed questions on the assignment.
Learning OutcomesD. Summarize the influence of beliefs and self-talk on emotions and behavior.

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
More DetailsFAE Assignment: In Fall 2013 I will once again provide the modified lecture and class discussion and then analyze students' overall performance on the assignment and their responses to the two more difficult questions.

PSYC 26 Course Outline: The plan is to complete a full revision of the official course outline for PSYC 26 with the primary goal of updating the student learning outcomes.

SLO Details Storage Location

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