Learning in the Major: progress report

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Learning in the Majorprogress report

• Sharon, Ellen, David
• 4-11-08

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Our charge

• Help Arts and Sciences meet accreditation
  requirements wrt UG learning goals
• we are one of 30 of 40 depts so far
• learning goals posted on web site by next week
• More generally
• What should students be learning about lgcs? (all
  majors)
• What are our students actually learning?
• Is our UG program coherent?

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Today

• Summary of activities to date
• Learning goals for Ling majors
• Student survey questions
• Other results of our activities
• Recommendations/discussion items
• Our to-do list

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Summary of activities to date

• Met with faculty as whole
• Developed curricular map (course flow)
• Studied UG Linguistics programs elsewhere
• 36 institutions
• recommendations by LSA? (none)
• Dept focus group meetings, gathered syllabi
• Brief oral report to AS (4-4)

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Dept focus group meetings

• Subspecialty
• syntacticians (Karen, Barbara, Julia, Emily B.,
  Edith)
• phoneticians (Richard, Kelley, Jamie)
• semanticists (Toshi, (David))
• historical linguists (Edith, Jurgen, Mike
  Shapiro, Chuck Barrack, Joe Voyles)
• phonologists (Emily C., Laura, (Sharon, Ellen))
• computational linguists (Emily B., Laurie, Bill,
  (David))
• morphologists (Emily C., Jurgen, Steve, Edith)
• ASL specialists (Lance, Sarah, Richard Ladner,
  Nancy Emery)
• sociolinguists (Alicia, Mike S.)
• Other key personnel
• UG advisor (Amy)
• chair (Julia)

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Our learning goals for Ling majors
lt Results of our meetings

• Develop appreciation for general properties of
  language, including
• systematicity of language
• how language can spread geographically how
  languages change over time
• common cross-linguistic patterns/tendencies,
  universals
• modelling language as a formal system, value of
  describing language as a formal system
• scientific value of all languages/dialects
• properties of signed as well as spoken languages
• How language can be scientifically studied
• gathering data and observing
• hypothesis formation and testing
• making predictions possible vs. impossible
  patterns
• empirical advantages of working with large
  amounts of data
• Develop competence in lgc analysis
• Analysis of sound, word, and sentence structures
  of individual languages.
• Account of how languages change in certain
  patterns.
• Understanding of social factors' effect on
  language.
• Knowledge of language acquisition.
• Acquire knowledge of/contribution of subfields
• Develop general academic skills

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Learning goals on our web site

• http//depts.washington.edu/lingweb/info/assess.ht
  ml
• lt? UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON ASSESSMENT IN THE
  MAJORS, 2007-2009. Compiled from Biennial
  Departmental Reports Submitted to Ed Taylor, Dean
  and Vice Provost, Undergraduate Academic Affairs.
  Prepared by the Office of Educational Assessment
  2007

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Revised learning goals?

• Goals for student learning in the UG Linguistics
  major
• Substitute list from our meetings?
• Regular methods for assessing UG learning
• Course-specific
• Oral and/or written work by students
• Student self-evaluations of learning
• Peer evaluations of student work
• Periodic surveys of UG majors
• Honors theses (Ling majors), senior project
  (Roling majors)

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Student surveys planned

• May 08 planned for current Ling majors via
  Catalyst web survey
• Recent graduates (3-5 years out). OEA supposed to
  help us with this

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Questions to ask current majors

• Basic demographic info
• when did you declare major?
• what is your current level at UW?
• what are your other majors?
• what languages did you study for LING degree?
• anticipated graduation date?
• What are your plans for after graduation?
• Is your Ling major preparing you for what you
  plan to do after graduation?
• Are you aware of the Ling honors program?
• Yes. Im in it.
• No. I wasnt aware of it.
• Yes. I was aware of it but not interested or not
  able to pursue it because _________
• Which introductory class in Ling did you take?
• What do you want to study in linguistics but are
  unable to?
• want to study ________________________
• reason unable to scheduling, not offered at UW
• Rate the overall difficulty of the UG major in
  linguistics for you
• Final thoughts on your learning experience in our
  program

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Questions to ask recent graduates

• Basic demographic info
• when did you declared major?
• what were your other majors?
• what languages did you study for LING degree?
• when did you graduate?
• What have you done after graduation? (list jobs)
• Did your Ling major prepare you for what you plan
  to do after graduation?
• Were you aware of the Ling honors program?
• Yes. I was in it.
• No. I wasnt aware of it.
• Yes. I was aware of it but not interested or not
  able to pursue it because _________
• Which introductory class in Ling did you take?
• What did you want to study in Ling but were
  unable to?
• wanted to study ________________________
• reason unable to scheduling, not offered at UW
• Would you have taken ASL at UW if it had been
  offered?
• How integrated was sign language linguistics in
  your linguistics courses?
• What Linguistics courses have prepared you the
  most for your current position?
• What other courses at UW are helping you now?

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Other results of our activities

• Our UG program is typical of top-ranked, PhD
  granting programs
• Offers more in the way of phonetics,
  computational linguistics than most other
  programs
• Offers less of L1
• No capstone requirement for all majors (but most
  places do not)

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Problems

• Courses not offered often enough
• hist ling
• field methods
• Not enough Spring options for Winter-declared
  majors
• Too much overlap between some courses (200 and
  450)
• Some classes too challenging for (some) students
  (442, 472)
• Some classes very different from student
  expectations (432)
• Little systematic training in writing linguistics
• Major as a whole not as challenging as it could
  be

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Recommendations/discussion items

• No-cost changes
• Changes involving

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No-cost changes

• Increase core course graduation requirement
  (currently 5 classes) by 1 class? add historical
  as option?
• Provide more systematic training in writing (451
  and 462 paper?)
• Enforce prerequisites (for classes with too much
  overlap)
• Develop standard LING 200 syllabus (so students
  know what to expect in 432, 442)
• Add learning goals to every syllabus

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No-cost changes

• Eliminate/phase out 400
• use to teach 450 in the Spring, a gentler
  CompLing intro, hist ling annually
• service classes vs. intro class for majors
• 100, 232 vs. 200
• Make dept web site more informative for UGs (both
  content- and format-wise)
• Subspecialty groups should meet annually
• are course assignments reflective of learning
  goals?

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Changes involving

• Add intro to Ling for ASL students (those w/ at
  least 1 year ASL study)
• Better integrate ASL into core courses by
  developing modules (Lorna Lance lt grant)
• Offer field methods (need to pay speaker)
• Better support for UG advisor
• database establishment and maintenance
• office space (office currently shared with 2
  lecturers often meets with students in hall)

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Our to-do list

• Revise learning goals on web site (by 4-18)
• Survey current majors (by 5-2? respond by 5-15?)
• Meet with John Webster (5-9?) re writing options
• Review survey results (5-16)
• Meet with faculty again?
• Written report to AS (by end of Spring)

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Some other to-do list

• Examine all UG programs we offer Ling minor,
  RoLing major
• Implemented changes to program are they
  effective?