Regional SoTL Projects
Regional projects are supported by the Carnegie Foundation for
the Advancement of Teaching, the Wabash Center for Teaching and
Learning in Religion and the University of Notre Dame. The following
projects were selected from proposals received from faculty at
universities within approximately 100 miles of Notre Dame.
- An Examination into the Transformational Efficacy of a Liberal
Arts Approach to Biblical Studies in the Adult Education Undergraduate
Setting
Principal Investigator: Kyle Roberts, Faculty
Coordinator and Christian Ministry Cluster Coordinator,
REACH Program, Trinity International University
Contact: Kyle Roberts, Kroberts@tiu.edu
Trinity International University’s REACH (Relevant Education
for Adults) Program provides a Christian education that tries
to promote the integration of faith and learning. Its mission
statement defines a liberal arts approach to learning as 1) giving
systematic exposure to the heritage of human experience, 2) sharpening
the ability to form questions and sound judgments, 3) teaching
consistency and comprehensiveness in thought, clarity, and coherence
in expression, 4) cultivating appreciation for the beautiful,
the imaginative, the delightful, and empathy for the unlovely,
the commonplace, and the tragic; and 5) developing the human
capacity to create, which reflects the creative power of God.
This Carnegie project addresses the question of whether or not
student learning in biblical studies is changed significantly
by taking foundational courses in the Christian Ministry major
that take a liberal arts emphasis. To answer this question,
the principal investigator is creating a narrative-form questionnaire
that will examine students’
attitudes towards a liberal arts approach. This instrument
will be given to students before and after they take the courses. Applied
learning papers, the major focus of student work in the foundational
courses, will also be assessed to see whether or not students
are meeting course objectives. Finally, the investigator
will interview students to see if they are conscious of changes
in their attitudes and approach toward biblical studies.
- Integrating Writing and Research Skills to Strengthen Student
Marketability and Job Performance
Principal Investigators:
Project Director: Barbara Peat,
Ph.D.
School of Public and Environmental Affairs
Indiana University-South Bend
Investigative Team:
Rebecca Brittenham, Ph.D., IUSB Writing
Center
Joanne Detlef, IUSB Writing Center
Contact: Barbara Peat, bpeat@iusb.edu
A recent internal assessment of the Criminal Justice Program
of IUSB’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA)
found, among other things, that employers who have hired graduates
of the Criminal Justice Program have concerns with the writing
skills of incoming employees (i.e., most all new employees, not
just SPEA graduates). Employers specified a range of problems,
from poor grammar, punctuation, and spelling, to the inability
to structure complete sentences and paragraphs, as well as the
inability to summarize material and write clear and concise reports. This
feedback led to the development of a plan to provide a “links”
course between the English Department and SPEA that would promote
common course goals of critical thinking, writing skills, and
research abilities. It was decided that the best choices
of courses to link were Criminal Justice Data, Methods, and Research
(J202) and Professional Writing Skills (W231). Through
the consistent use of common course objectives for both courses
and combined assignments, as well as coordinated faculty evaluation
of student work, the links course is intended to assist in improving
students’ writing skills and, as a result, their marketability
for employment and enhancement of job performance once placed.
In the first phase of this Carnegie study, the Project Director
and Investigative Team will evaluate completed assignments from
the J202 course to determine how portions of these assignments
might be integrated into assignments for W231.
The Project Director and Investigative Team will then develop
the links course to be offered in the Spring 2002 semester.
Two forms of evaluation of the links course will be used: Outcome
Evaluation based on grades given for completed work and Impact
Evaluation based on employer feedback.
- A Modular (Inquiry-Based) Learning Approach to Introductory
Psychology
Principal Investigators:
Preston Bost, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, Wabash College
Brenda Bankart, Ph.D., Department of Psychology, Wabash College
Contact: Preston Bost, bostp@wabash.edu
Students in Wabash College’s Introductory Psychology course
consistently express a desire to supplement traditional lecture
classes with more interactive formats, such as discussions, demonstrations,
and group work. Faculty as well would like to implement
more active-learning formats. Through colleagues in the
chemistry department at Hope College, faculty in Wabash’s
psychology department have recently become familiar with a course
format organized around “modules.”
Each module is a two- to five-week segment in which groups of
students try to answer an important question. Students
learn important methodological and content concepts in the service
of answering the overarching question. Along the way, they
engage in discussions, demonstrations, laboratory investigations,
and research activities that answer important sub-questions. The
module culminates in a final group project, presentation, or
activity that requires each group to synthesize its previous
work into a proposed answer to the module question.
The principal investigators of this Carnegie project are examining
whether or not modules will enhance student learning in Introductory
Psychology. Beyond supplementing lectures with interactive
class formats, the investigators believe each module would cut
across multiple content areas, presenting a more integrated field. In
addition, students investigating a module question would develop
a greater appreciation for the process of conducting psychological
research in order to answer important questions. The preliminary
plan for this study is to develop a single pilot module to insert
at the end of the first-year section of Introductory Psychology
in the Spring 2001 semester. Investigators will compare
students’ achievement and course evaluations for the modular
and traditional approaches in this course.
In addition, investigators will solicit more detailed student
feedback on specific elements of the module format. If
student feedback and/or performance is positive, investigators
will develop additional modules to pilot in subsequent first-year
sections beginning in Fall 2001.
- Assessing Biblical Literacy
Principal Investigator: Paul Keim, Department
of Bible, Religion and Philosophy, Goshen College, pkeim@goshen.edu
Goshen College students enter the required General Education
course called Biblical Literature (BIBL 100) with widely varying
levels of knowledge about the Bible, facility with literary interpretation,
and theological orientations. Students with prior preparation
in biblical studies who wish to waive the BIBL 100 requirement
and take an upper-level course in Bible may take a placement
test. Few students sit for this exam, however, and even fewer "pass" it. A
formal assessment needs to be undertaken to reliably measure
biblical literacy of students coming in to the class and then
to assess the level and degree of student learning at the end
of the course. I want to develop an assessment instrument that
will be able to measure not only awareness of isolated facts
(names, dates, geographical locations, etc.) and narrative reconstructions
(The Exodus, The Exile, The Passion of Christ), but also literary
comprehension (reading skills) and moral development (ability
to interact with opposing views). The instrument must be comprehensive
enough to measure a range of knowledge and skills, but also focused
enough to maintain student interest.
The assessment tool developed through this Carnegie project will
help to determine how to section students in groups of those
with similar incoming biblical literacy scores, as well as suggest
which learning strategies might be most appropriate and effective
to achieve course goals and enhance student learning. Teaching
strategies might also be developed to address particular and
consistent problems. Finally, the challenge of developing
an effective assessment tool will compel the department to more
clearly define the essential components of biblical literacy
and the contribution biblical literacy makes toward general education
of students in a liberal arts context.
- Assessing and Improving Student Writing Throughout the University
Curriculum
Principal Investigators:
Nancy Hill, Ph.D., Director, Office of Teaching, Learning, and
Assessment, DePaul University
Jodi Cressman, Ph.D., Assistant Director, Office of Teaching,
Learning, and Assessment, DePaul University
Contact: Nancy Hill, nhill@wppost.depaul.edu
This Carnegie project responds to what the principal investigators
perceive as university-wide faculty concern that the quality
of student writing across the university has declined and/or
otherwise failed to meet the standard of “articulate communication” expressed
in the learning goal.
The principal investigators have thus set out to discover how
well DePaul University students are writing, and how the teaching
and learning of writing throughout the curricula of DePaul’s
eight schools and colleges might be improved.
The investigators have identified three distinct methods for
this research. The first method involves a writing inventory
that will assess how much and what kind of writing DePaul students
are currently asked to do. This inventory will also track
longitudinal changes in faculty attitudes toward the teaching
of writing, as well as changes in the practices of writing instruction. The
second method, a holistic assessment of senior papers, will measure
how well graduating students are actually writing. Finally,
the third method will measure the degree of improvement in student
writing and determine the most important factors for that improvement. Investigators
will assess a sample of essays written by incoming DePaul students
for placement in the writing program. Scores for these
essays will be compared with corresponding scores (based on the
same rubric) that this cohort of students receive on their senior
essays four or five years later. A second writing
inventory will also be conducted to determine if a difference
in scores is linked to the number or nature of writing assignments
given to students across the university.
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