 |
Standard 2:
Achieving Educational Objectives Through
Core Functions
|
 |
2.5: The institution's academic programs actively involve students in
learning, challenge them to achieve high expectations, and provide them with
appropriate and ongoing feedback about their performance and how it can be
improved.
|
UC Santa Cruz Summary of Evidence |
As mentioned in standard 2.4, while recently adding
letter grades to student evaluations, UCSC continues to
employ performance
(narrative) evaluations. For
most classes, faculty prepare for each student a textual description of
the student’s performance in class, including such observations as:
strengths, weaknesses, ideas for future intellectual development, work
habits, etc. We believe that performance evaluations add to the quality of
student evaluations and increase student expectations in the following
ways:
- Written evaluations encourage faculty to become
acquainted with individual students and for students to make themselves
known to faculty, thereby creating a more convivial class atmosphere;
- Evaluations provide more information: strengths,
weaknesses, performance on a wider range of parameters, and a record of
the student’s development over the course of a ten-week term;
- Whereas letter grades encourage students to focus their
energies on only graded assignments, evaluations open the possibility that
other initiatives will be recognized and honored, thus providing greater
incentives for risk taking, creativity, out-of-the-box thinking, and more
emphasis on synthesis and application.
UCSC continues to require
capstone experiences in most
departments. These typically require students to demonstrate mastery of
subject material by emphasizing synthesis and application through such
projects as original research, theses, performances, summary exams, or
capstone seminar courses.
|
|
Links to Evidence and Related Documents |
|
|
