Who Says You Cant Change History

1
Who Says You Cant Change History?

• Step 1 Principles and Pressures
• Step 2 Practices
• Step 3 Collective and Individual Projects
• Problems and Lessons

2
Step 1 Principles and Pressures

• General Education
• Assessment
• Teachers for a New Era
• Liberal Education for Americas Promise

3
General Education, since 1984

• Introduction to areas of knowledge
• Criteria for approval
• List of approved courses
• On paper/in practice
• Course Action Request forms
• Undergraduate program reviews

4
Assessment, since 1995

• Learning outcomes
• General Education breadth
• Major depth
• What should UWM students and majors know and
• know how to do?
• Program plans
• WEAVE system

5
Teachers for a New Era, since 2004

• Carnegie Corporation of New York project
• Primary/middle/secondary-school programs
• Professional organizations
• What should future teachers know and know how
• to do?

6
Liberal Education for Americas Promise, since
2005

• Wisconsin American Association of Colleges and
• Universities first LEAP state
• State Advisory Group on the Liberal Arts
• Essential Learning Outcomes
• What should liberally educated students know and
• know how to do?

7
Step 2 Practices

• Assessment
• Syllabuses
• Conversations

8
Assessment

• Assessment plan outcomes and measures
• Faculty assessment of majors
• Student assessment of major

9
Assessment plan

• Majors are required to complete
• 1. 6 credits in European history, 6 credits in
  U.S.
• history, and 9 credits in global or non-Western
  history
• 2. 3 credits in a course dealing with the period
  before
• 1500
• 3. 18 credits in courses numbered 300 and above
• 4. A methods course (288, 293, 294, 594, 595,
  596)
• 5. The capstone course (600) or senior thesis
  sequence
• (681-682)

10
continued

• In completing these requirements, majors acquire
• A. Both broad and specialized knowledge of the
  past
• through a variety of courses defined
  geographically,
• chronologically, and thematically
• B. A better understanding of the complexity and
• diversity of human experience, which makes them
• more prepared to make more informed and
  responsible
• decision about the world in which they live

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Faculty assessment of majors

• 1 2 3 4 5
• Rate the students ability to
• 1. Recognize 0 6 36 33 25
• assumptions, concepts, models, and various
  methods
• in methods in historical work and in our own
  thinking
• about the past
• 2. Discuss general 0 3 50 19 28
• issues such as causes and consequences, change
  and
• continuity, identity and culture

12
continued

• 3. Locate primary and 0 8 33 39 20
• secondary sources
• 4. Read and analyze 0 11 36 25 28
• primary sources
• 5. Read and analyze 0 14 25 31 31
• secondary sources

13
continued

• 6. Use various types of 0 8 22 25 33
• evidence
• 7. Construct an effective 3 14 28 19 36
• argument
• 8. Write a substantial 8 8 33 22 28
• research paper in a literate and cogent manner

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Student assessment of major

• 1 2 3 4 5
• -
• 1. How has the major 3 0 11 43 43
• helped you recognize assumptions, concepts,
  models,
• and various methods in historical work and in our
  own
• thinking about the past?
• 2. How has the major 0 3 14 26 57
• helped you acquire an understanding of general
  issues
• such as causes and consequences, change and
• continuity, identity and culture (race, gender,
  class,
• ethnicity, and religion)?

15
continued

• 3. How has the major 0 0 15 37 48
• helped you acquire the ability to locate, read,
  and
• analyze both primary sources and secondary
• literature?
• 4. How has the major 3 6 12 44 35
• helped you acquire the ability to use various
  types of
• evidence to construct an effective argument and
  to
• write a substantial research paper in a literate
  and
• cogent manner?

16
continued

• 5. How would you assess your experience in the
• History program?
• 6. How can it be improved?
• Additional information about the students who
  filled
• out the questionnaires
• Which methods course did they take?
• How many credits did they take in Fall 2007?
• How many hours/week did they work in Fall 2007?

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Syllabuses

• 100/200-level courses
• 300/400-level courses
• Capstone course

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Step 3 Collective and Individual Projects

• Conversations
• Recommendations for all History courses
• Guidelines for History courses
• Undergraduate Research Experience proposal
• Information and Evaluation
• Revision of courses

19
Conversations

• Notes from Sep, Oct, Nov, and Dec 2007

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Recommendations for all History courses

• Have objectives that are stated and implemented
  in
• syllabuses. In lower-level courses, objectives
  should
• be related to General Education criteria. In
  upper-level
• courses, objectives should be related to
  departmental
• Assessment criteria.
• 2. Present history as a process (how to think
  about the
• past) as well as a product (what to know about
  the
• past) .
• 3. Make use of primary sources, teach students
  how to
• read primary as well as secondary sources
  critically,
• and make methods of analysis explicit.

21
continued

• 4. Require analytical written work in which
  students
• use evidence to make a point. In all courses,
  students
• should get the message that writing matters and
• should use University of Chicago style for foot/
• endnotes and bibliography.
• The Department recognizes the differences (in
  level,
• size, and format) among courses and does not
  expect
• instructors to implement all of these
  recommendations
• in the same way in every course.

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Guidelines for History courses

• Large lecture courses
• History 192/3 Freshman Seminar
• History 293/4 Seminar on Historical Method
• History 600 Seminar in History

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Undergraduate Research Experience Proposal

• Research-intensive courses
• Spring 2009
• History 286 The Korean War
• History 436 Immigrant America
• Guidelines

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Information and Evaluation

• Recommendations for all History courses
• Undergraduate courses
• Assessment plan
• Recruitment of and orientation for faculty,
  lecturers,
• and teaching assistants
• Evaluation of Assistant Professors and lecturers

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More?

• Objectives for lower/upper-level courses
• Student course evaluations
• Merit exercise

26
Revision of courses

• History 205 Europe from the Italian Renaissance
  to the
• French Revolution
• History 229 History of Race, Science, and
  Medicine in
• the United States
• History 286 The Korean War

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History 205

• First Time Next Time
• Objectives not stated change and continuity
  1400-1800 especially social history
• events in context
• history process as well as product
• reading textbook and sources critically
• writing analytically
• using evidence to make a point
• Format 2 lectures, 75-minute thematic lecture
• one more 75-minute discussion
• narrative, one
• more thematic

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continued

• Class time coverage of also discussion of how to
  think of what to taking notes on textbook and
  know lecture
• issues, images, numbers in textbook
• comparing textbook accounts
• reading academic prose
• analyzing sources
• using evidence to make a point
• library resources

29
continued

• Reading textbook textbook (Levack), chapter
• (Chambers), per week
• chapter per
• week
• academic article
• several sources selected for illustrative and
• classic texts, instructional purposes
• Machiavelli to
• Voltaire
• witchcraft case book
• Exams quizzes
• midterm
• final ids open-notebook essay final
• essay

30
continued

• Writing weekly page
• outline for practice analytical paper
• 5-page 2 5-page analytical papers
• analytical optional rewrites
• paper
• library exercise
• Grading 10 quizzes
• 20 paper 50 papers
• 25 other assignments
• 20 midterm
• 50 final 25 final

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Problems and lessons

• Education in publicity/experience
• In General Education, majors, and courses, what
  do we
• want students to know and know how to do?
• What to know how to think
• Product and process
• Intentionality and transparency
• Principles/practices
• Assessment not burden but challenge
• Not just because we have to do it but also
  because we
• need to do it

32
continued

• How to make change?
• From top down/bottom up
• Telling faculty what to do/involving faculty in
• discussion of principles and practices
• Consensus about learning outcomes
• Courses not private property
• Curriculum work in progress
• Own it and fix it
• Parts and whole