Learning Goals & Objectives
The following learning goals and objectives reflect Department consensus. The critical thinking, writing, and research goals will be assessed by evaluation of student papers using rubrics designed by the Department Assessment Committee. The professional competence goal will involve several assessment measures: examination of transcripts to check for sufficient diversity in student programs, evaluation of papers to discern the ability to use crucial historical competence, and admission rates to M.A. programs in history or social studies.
Critical Thinking
1. Students should be able to describe historical events from multiple perspectives.
2. Students should be able to formulate, sustain, and justify a historical argument.
3. Students should be able to support arguments with historical evidence drawn from primary and secondary sources.
4. Students should be able to place historical arguments into a larger scholarly narrative.
5. Students should be able to analyze a primary source of medium difficulty. “Analyze” means recognize its biases and situate it in a historical context.
Ability to Cite Sources Correctly
1. Students should know when, where, and how to utilize citations.
2. Students should incorporate ideas from sources and use them appropriately.
3. Students should demonstrate the ability to distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate source materials.
4. Students should follow the correct attribution format as indicated by the instructor. They should use original ideas. They should avoid plagiarism and be able to state in their own words why it is wrong.
Writing Mechanics
1. Students should be able to produce writing that avoids common sentence-level errors such as comma splices, run on sentences, subject/verb agreements and fragments.
2. Students should be able to form complete paragraphs with clear transitions that are free of mechanical error.
3. Student papers should be well-organized and flow logically.
Research
1. Students will encounter primary sources.
2. Students will be able to contextualize historical events and describe change over time
3. Students will be able to acquire and analyze historical source materials.
4. Students will produce written evidence of research competence.
Professional Competence
1. Students will show competence in diverse areas and time periods of study. At minimum, their programs will include courses from three separate areas: (1) the Ancient World and Europe; (2) Africa, Asia, Caribbean, Central and South America, or the Middle East; and (3) the United States.
2. Students will understand and be able to utilize the crucial vocabulary of political, social, intellectual, and economic history.
3. Students will be able to pursue graduate studies in history or social studies teaching should they so choose.
Last modified: Oct 25, 2011
