New Questions for the Next Round of Assessment

The common learning outcomes outlined above are culled from reports that began in the early 1990s. Proof that the field is at the forefront of educational progress is evident in the fact that it took until the following decade for AAC&U to articulate “five key outcomes as a concentrated focus for assessment” in Our Students’ Best Work: a Framework of Accountability Worthy of Our Mission. These outcomes cover the major goals of Women’s Studies, but in different terms.

To quote the report:
In brief, the outcomes we propose are

1. strong analytical, communication, quantitative, and information skills . . .
   
2. deep understanding of and hands-on experience with the inquiry practices of disciplines that explore the natural, social, and cultural realms . . .
   
3. intercultural knowledge and collaborative problem-solving skills . . .
   
4. a proactive sense of responsibility for individual, civic, and social choices . . .
   
5. habits of mind that foster integrative thinking and the ability to transfer skills and knowledge from one setting to another . . . (5-6)

Obviously, these outcomes are appropriate to a variety of disciplines, but what is distinctive about Women’s Studies is its inclusion of all of them. In some ways, the interdiscipline of Women’s Studies has been soft on quantitative skills and the natural sciences; however, students in our courses use quantitative skills in evaluating data and learn about the gendered construction of science. Therefore, one area for study in a new assessment project should be the extent to which programs are including more opportunities for students to learn and use quantitative skills and information from the natural sciences. What courses are being developed that emphasize analysis of scientific research and the acquisition of digital literacy? What kinds of gender-related courses already teach “hard” science?

This report from AAC&U also argues strongly for sequenced learning and increasingly complex assignments, and Women’s Studies could improve in this area. Because of many programs’ reliance on cross-listed courses and the large numbers of nontraditional and transfer students in their Women’s Studies courses at public institutions, those engaged in curriculum development may find it difficult to structure programs into cohesive structures in which students progress from basic to more advanced concepts and skills. One way that some programs are meeting this challenge is through the adoption of courses that fill the gap between introductory general education classes and advanced seminars or capstones. These intermediate classes may carry prerequisites, thus encouraging students to proceed at a set pace. A second area of research, then, includes an analysis of the structures of Women’s Studies programs and the sequencing of courses. (How) have we learned to adapt our curriculum to students’ needs for incremental skills development, even as students pursue increasingly complex paths through higher education?

Moreover, as Women’s Studies increasingly takes leadership in general education service courses, we must assess how the discipline manages to provide individualized and engaging experiences for students even in mass delivery formats. Students in Women’s Studies general education courses frequently comment in their end of term evaluations that they find the course far more difficult than they had envisioned, and that they enjoyed the rigor, the expectation that they would challenge themselves to think critically and participate actively. What can other disciplines learn from Women’s Studies’ leadership in general education? How can large numbers of students be engaged in rigorous introductory courses?

AAC&U has gone beyond its 2004 report in the 2007 document College Learning for the New Global Century. The latter document is based on reports from business leaders that students need to be prepared to shift careers more often than in prior generations, “Americans already change jobs ten times in the two decades after they turn eighteen, with such change even more frequent for younger workers” (2). Graduates must excel in skills such as critical thinking and team work so they can be flexible in facing new challenges. For example, one executive quoted in the report cites another, the chairman of Intel Corporation, as saying that “90 percent of the products his company delivers on the final day of each year did not exist on the first day of the same year.” (16). A narrow education based on content in a single area allows for less flexibility than a broad-based interdisciplinary course of study focused on integrating major concepts and applying learning to multiple situations, especially those involving diverse cultural norms and business strategies. Furthermore, this report implies that the traditional mode of studying dominant, Western approaches to the sciences, engineering, mathematics, and economics in isolated departments, should be complemented by activities like those in Women’s Studies classes, in which students use quantitative and technological knowledge in thinking about “big questions,” current questions of pressing importance to an increasingly interconnected global society. (How) does the emphasis on an “ethic of care,” hands-on learning, and social justice in Women’s Studies enable females to function in nontraditional careers, such as business and engineering? How does the insistence on cross-cultural and cross-class analysis in Women’s Studies prepare students for work in such careers? What can other disciplines learn from the progress Women’s Studies practitioners have made in integrating knowledge about women of color throughout their courses?

One of the most recent changes in Women’s Studies programs in the United States has been a move toward on-line delivery of courses. Indeed, the University of Central Missouri now offers a graduate certificate entirely on line, aimed at international students, while the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth has proposed a major available through distance learning. Such programs have the advantage of improving access for those populations of students from which Women’s Studies has always drawn a sizeable contingent—working women, older students, and mothers. Yet at the same time it is difficult to deliver some of what Women’s Studies does best through new technology—for instance, to engage in heated discussions, to learn how to manage conflict, and to be challenged with just the right question at the right time. Consequently, another new area for assessment will be the impact of on-line course delivery on women’s studies learning.