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Association: Name: American Political Science Association URL: http://www.apsanet.org
Citation: URL: http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p151019_index.html Direct Link: HTML Code:

Sloat, James. "Balancing the Power: An Egalitarian Model for Course Evaluation and Assessment" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Marriott, Loews Philadelphia, and the Pennsylvania Convention Center, Philadelphia, PA, Aug 31, 2006 <Not Available>. 2011-03-13 <http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p151019_index.html>

Sloat, J. M. , 2006-08-31 "Balancing the Power: An Egalitarian Model for Course Evaluation and Assessment" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association, Marriott, Loews Philadelphia, and the Pennsylvania Convention Center, Philadelphia, PA Online <PDF>. 2011-03-13 from http://www.allacademic.com/meta/p151019_index.html

Publication Type: Proceeding Abstract: Assessment is everywhere in higher education. Titles such as Assessing Student Learning (Suskie), Knowing What Students Know (National Research Council), and Classroom Assessment Techniques (Angelo and Cross) point to the increasing focus on assessment as part of the educational enterprise. This generalized emphasis on assessment has reached beyond the classroom to the work of disciplines in publications such as Assessing Student Competence in Accredited Disciplines (Palomba and Banta) and Assessing Academic Programs in Higher Education (Allen). In response to this emphasis, scholars have sought to develop strategies to facilitate assessment: Changing Practices in Evaluating Teaching (Seldin), Fresh Approaches to the Evaluation of Teaching (Knapper and Cranton), and Techniques and Strategies for Interpreting Student Evaluations (Lewis). As a discipline, political science has paid increasing attention to the question of assessment. Last year�s annual meeting featured a short course on �Making the Most of Assessment: Creating Outcomes from Departmental Assessment� as well as panels entitled �How Do We Know If Our Students are Learning?�, �The Impact of Different Pedagogies in Political Science,� and �Education for Democratic Citizenship: Responsibilities and Impact of Colleges and Universities.� Individual instructors within political science have committed themselves to the reflective practice of their craft, as evidenced by papers and articles addressing specific pedagogical strategies such as simulations, group work, and use of technology. On the face of it, all of these assessment efforts share a common goal�having us (whether institutions, departments, or individuals) reflect on our educational work and make those changes that would be appropriate to enhance the educational impact of our efforts. Given such a shared premise, one might expect that assessment efforts would be �natural� and well-received across our institutions. In practice, however, assessment has proven to be an intractable issue. Institutions, departments, and individual instructors encounter numerous frustrations in their efforts to develop and implement assessment. Part of the resistance to assessment and course evaluation has to do with the perceived (and real) power imbalance that is implied by current assessment structures. Departments and individual faculty fear infringements on their autonomy by administrators who look only at numbers while wielding significant power over budgets, salaries, promotion, and tenure. Further compounding the problem is the fact that undergraduate students are passing judgment�and hence exercising power�over those who are experts in their fields. In this paper, I will present a different (and more egalitarian) model for how institutions and departments can conduct course evaluation and assessment. This model re-empowers faculty and departments in the effort to construct assessment instruments that provide departments with the information that they need and individual faculty with the pedagogical feedback that is essential to the reflective practice of the craft of teaching. The model is sensitive to administrative needs, but it suggests that administrative needs are best served by instruments and procedures that focus on the needs of faculty and departments. Among the elements that will be detailed are the following: a tailored, multi-section instrument; an institutionalized faculty response instrument; and documentation for administrators on how to read and interpret the data produced by the reports. As a political scientist who divides his time between faculty and administration, I bring a unique perspective to the question and am eager to share some of the strategies that my institution is using to meet the needs of the institution, its departments, and its faculty. While my setting is that of a small college, some of the principles of our work should be of interest to those working in larger institutional settings.

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