SOC 151: Social Relations
Dr. Campbell worked on refining a set of questions and a grading rubric for her Social Relations (SOC 151) classes. She has been assessing students' critical thinking skills by having them answer an essay question on a take-home examination. Students have a choice of one of four questions about social institutions. The test and the grading rubric is available in a workbook that Dr. Campbell creates for her courses, and she spends time in class going over her expectations. Dr. Campbell assesses students' ability to evaluate sociological concepts and/or integrate course information from several sources and to be able to clearly express their ideas.

Dr. Campbell taught Social Relations in both the Fall 2007 and the Spring 2008 semesters. For the Spring semester, she made the exam questions more specific and she changed the weights for the various "cells" of her rubric. The latter change made the comparison between students' performances in the two semesters weaker because the scores weren't perfectly aligned. However, she saw a slight decrease in the average scores from Fall to Spring.

Dr. Campbell plans to teach one section of Social Relations in the Summer III Section of 2008. She will edit the questions and rubrics further. She may also offer the students an opportunity to work in groups on these questions on the assumption that critical thinking may develop more sharply in the process of student interaction.

Exams

Original Exam

Revised Exam

Rubrics

Original Rubric

Revised Rubric