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Program Assessment Plan

2012

Undergraduate Major: Anthropology

Department of Anthropology College of Arts and Sciences University of North Dakota

Contact: Melinda Leach, melinda.leach@email.und.edu

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Program Description Traditionally, subdisciplines of anthropology include sociocultural anthropology (the study of

contemporary societies), biological anthropology (the study of human/primate evolutionary biology and

variation, and their applications), archaeology (the study of past human societies and cultural

traditions), and linguistic anthropology (the study of language and its relationship with all culture).

Anthropologists most often receive training in all subdisciplines and take an interdisciplinary approach in

their research and teaching.

Anthropologists pursue questions that involve the study of fossil and archaeological records, variation in

biological populations and cultural institutions, the interplay between historical, social and cultural

factors in present-day populations, as well as numerous aspects of the diverse cultural traditions and

languages of world peoples (including those based in the US). In recent decades, more and more

anthropologists do applied work at home and abroad, in areas such as conservation biology, forensic

science, medicine, law, business, international development, cultural resources management, and social

services. Indeed, our students find broad applicability of the anthropology major and its underlying

concepts and relevance to a wide variety of career paths.

The UND Anthropology program is shaped by our firm roots in the discipline at large: its history in

fieldwork, the traditional integration of the subdisciplines1 in the pursuit of cultural understanding, its

applied relevance to global problems, and the broad, holistic perspectives represented in the analysis of

complex cultural problems. Thus, the design of our curriculum is informed both by our disciplinary

traditions and our faculty research interests (in method, theory, and particular culture areas).

Mission of the Anthropology Program Anthropology is the study of human life, including its cultures, behaviors, and biology in the past and

present. The Department of Anthropology’s mission is to provide students with theoretical and

methodological training in anthropology, preparing them to skillfully practice and apply the scientific

and humanistic perspectives unique to our discipline. Students will receive a strong academic

foundation in at least three of the broad sub-fields of anthropology. After joining our program, students

can expect to reflect on their world view(s) and their relationships to others as they enter an

increasingly complex and diversified world. Our program prepares students for graduate study and/or

entrance into the global market place where they will understand the importance of and be able to

apply holistic, integrative, and comparative anthropological approaches in their careers and everyday

lives.

1 Our program emphasizes three of the four subdisciplines; we currently do not feature linguistic anthropology in

our curriculum (save for one course in Language and Culture, co-listed with the Department of English).

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Integration of Our Mission with that of the College and University We, in the Department of Anthropology, are dedicated to providing a strong, carefully integrated

undergraduate (Bachelor of Arts) program within the College of Arts and Sciences that contributes

directly to the central liberal arts mission of the University. The Anthropology Department offers a broad

spectrum of courses (ranging from large introductory, Essential Studies (ES) classes to smaller upper

division courses) in cultural anthropology, archaeology, and biological anthropology. Experiential

learning is central to our curriculum. Our courses provide opportunities for laboratory analysis,

interviewing and ethnographic fieldwork projects, archaeological and forensic fieldwork projects, and/or

individual and team-based research projects. Our faculty attempt to inspire curiosity; strongly

encourage critical thinking; demand student competence in reading, writing and oral and graphic

presentation; and require use of library, archival and scholarly electronic resources.

Anthropology—as a broad interdisciplinary field—integrates the methods, approaches and explanatory

goals of the sciences, the social sciences and the humanities. Anthropology is well situated to help meet

national and regional calls to "globalize" the curriculum and to train an increasingly diverse student

population.

With our program’s emphasis on issues of diversity and globalization, experiential learning (including

authentic research experiences), and community outreach, we directly serve and reaffirm both the

mission of the University and the vision of an Exceptional UND.2

Anthropology Program Goals Given the broad mission statements presented above, it is essential to specify how our program mission

has been related directly to goals for student learning and achievement. Our 2008-2012 program goals

specify such learning outcomes for the Anthropology curriculum:

Upon completion of the Anthropology Major, students should be able to:

1. demonstrate knowledge of the holistic, integrative, and comparative nature of anthropology across its core subfields, 2. articulate and apply key anthropological perspectives using critical thinking and comparative analysis, and 3. demonstrate knowledge and understanding of the patterns and sources of biological and cultural variation.

2 The University’s mission encourages “... students to make informed choices, to communicate effectively, to be

intellectually curious and creative, to commit themselves to lifelong learning and the service of others, and to

share responsibility both for their own communities and for the world” ( UND Academic Catalog 2011-2013:2).

Exceptional UND calls for enriching student learning experiences and expanding UND’s presence by strengthening

“connections and community” (http://und.edu/provost/exceptional-und/background.cfm).

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These goals are shared by our faculty in the design and teaching of courses, and are understood as

central to the discipline of anthropology (across the subfields). Moreover, these goals are assessable by

methods appropriate to, and embedded within, the Anthropology curriculum and courses. Program

goals are useful (indeed, essential) in guiding curriculum planning, course content and learning activities,

and assessment methods throughout our curriculum.

Changes in the Program’s Mission and Goals The anthropology program’s mission and goals have undergone deliberate modifications since the last

program review. Prior to 2002, we had implemented six learning goals centered on holistic, scientific

and humanistic perspectives and ethically-based applied research and communication skills. In our 2004

Strategic Plan, our mission acknowledged the importance of preparing our students for the globalized

workplace. In 2007, we elaborated upon our then six program goals generating eight multilayered goals,

but found these to be cumbersome and difficult to fully assess. Over the following years, we spent

considerable time revising both our lengthy mission statement and our program goals. Finally in 2008,

we significantly streamlined our goals, producing the three outlined above. Still, we find that their

complex wording, multiple components, and redundancy pose problems for discrete assessment

activities. Thus, for the last several years, we have recommended during our annual assessment

retreats that we attempt again to specify, distill and clarify our goals and mission for student learning.

The department recently (Fall 2012) addressed this need and our new mission and goals will now read

as follows:

2012 Mission Statement

The Department of Anthropology’s mission is to empower students to participate in an interconnected,

complex and diverse world. We provide an education in cultural diversity, archaeology, human/primate

evolution and human/primate biology as demonstrated globally and through time.

2012 Program Goals

Upon completion of the Anthropology major, students should be able to demonstrate competency

in and apply:

- The holistic nature of Anthropology. - The key anthropological theoretical perspectives. - Critical thinking about local and global problems. - Comparative analysis in an anthropological context. - Knowledge of the patterns and sources of biological and/or cultural variation. - Ethics in the subfields of Anthropology. - Anthropological research design and application.

Assessment of these new program goals will begin in 2013, with an annual rotation of two to three target goals for consideration in any given year.

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Program Assessment and the Senior Capstone Seminar Over the last 20 years, we have developed a purposeful curriculum that enhances student learning, along with a meaningful Program Assessment Plan.3 A significant development in that plan was the initiation, in 1995, of our Senior Capstone Seminar. The seminar was designed to be an on-going opportunity to assess the strengths and weaknesses of our undergraduate anthropology program through analysis of the textual evidence completed or compiled during the course (see below). Both direct and indirect methods of assessment are incorporated. From 1995-2001, a theme was chosen that brought together information and approaches from several or all of the traditional “subfields” of anthropology (sociocultural anthropology, archaeology, anthropological linguistics and biological anthropology) [Table 14].

Table 14. Themes of the Anthropology Senior Capstone Seminar (co-instructors).

1995 “Origins and Evolution of Humanness” (Leach & Williams)

1996 “Applying Anthropology in the 1990’s” (Schneider & Lang)

1997 “Women, Men, Monkeys & Apes: Gender in Anthropological Perspective” (Leach & Lang )

1998 “Applying Anthropology in the Late 1990’s” (Lang & Schneider)

1999 “Race & Ethnicity” (Schneider & Williams)

2000 “Anthropological Approaches to Health, Illness & Disease” (Lang & Williams)

2001 “The First Americans: Problems and Controversies” (Schneider & Leach)

2002 “Taking Sides: Problems and Controversies in Anthropology” (Lang & Leach)

2003 “Taking Sides: Problems and Controversies in Anthropology” (Leach & Schneider)

2004 “Taking Sides: Problems and Controversies in Anthropology” (Leach & Mikulak)

2005 “Taking Sides: Problems and Controversies in Anthropology” (Leach & Mikulak)

2006 “Taking Sides: Problems and Controversies in Anthropology” (Cuozzo & Mikulak)

2007 “Taking Sides: Problems and Controversies in Anthropology” (Mikulak & Reed)

2008 “Taking Sides: Problems and Controversies in Anthropology” (Reed & Scharf)

2009 “Taking Sides: Problems and Controversies in Anthropology” (Leach & Scharf)

2010 “Taking Sides: Problems and Controversies in Anthropology” (Leach & Scharf)

2011 “Taking Sides: Problems and Controversies in Anthropology” (Georgina & Scharf)

2012 “Taking Sides: Problems and Controversies in Anthropology” (Leach & Reed)

Beginning in 2002, the theme concept was dropped in favor of generalizing the structure and content of the course to address broader and more relevant learning and post-graduate transition goals (gleaned from national research on the Senior-Year Experience and from student feedback).

3In 2007, our Program Assessment Plan and 2007 Departmental Annual Report were evaluated positively as part of

a cyclical review process conducted by the UND Assessment Committee (University Assessment Committee Report

“Feedback to Academic Departments on Assessment Activities Reported in 2006-2007 Annual Reports,” April

2008). The Committee found our goals to be well-articulated and appropriately aligned with our assessment

methods in order to adequately address student learning. They noted our efforts to ‘close the loop’ in our annual

recommendations for curricular and program changes arising from assessment results.

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The capstone seminar has been a formal course requirement for the major in anthropology since its inception. We view the capstone seminar as a primary way of understanding how our classes, advising, field and laboratory opportunities, and other departmental activities have contributed to student knowledge, skills and abilities. The seminar also provides students with an important opportunity to apply this knowledge to current issues and topics with which anthropologists are engaged. In 2011, we were granted Essential Studies status as a capstone course under Goal #1: Thinking and Reasoning and Goal #2: Communication, with an (A)dvanced Communication overlay. The capstone seminar is coordinated by two faculty members, who offer research expertise in at least two subdisciplines. They develop a syllabus and course materials to be addressed in the spring semester of each year, drawing upon their areas of specialization. As a small department of five faculty, each with different but overlapping areas of specializations, we feel that this is an opportunity for two faculty to productively interact in a way that engages their own intellectual/research interests. We feel that two diversified faculty can best help students finalize and integrate their understanding of the multiple subdisciplines of anthropology. The capstone seminar is also an opportunity to draw together our senior majors who have developed diverse, specialized interests (and often have a second major) for a final integrative and culminating experience in which they have an opportunity to again consider the key aspects of anthropological approaches. In the capstone, we ask our students to 1) document and reflect on their undergraduate careers and academic development, 2) synthesize, integrate and apply the core ideas, debates and theoretical perspectives of the four-fold interdisciplinary field of anthropology, and 3) explore concerns about the transition to post-graduate life (careers, graduate school, etc.). Assessable activities and “products” of the seminar include: • The Senior Portfolio. Students provide evidence of assessed work products across the

anthropology major (for example, posters, graphic presentations, essays, research papers, laboratory reports, field and lab journals, awards, group project reports). The work products should reveal use of both qualitative and quantitative data to explore cultural phenomena across the different subfields of Anthropology (e.g. cultural, linguistic, biological and archaeological), and reveal an understanding of how anthropologists employ models and theory from both scientific and humanistic modes of interpretation to explore and explain cultural phenomena.

• The Functional Resume and other professional skills identification activities. Students assess the

critical transferable skills they have developed throughout the undergraduate career (including academic and civic-related accomplishments). Attention is also paid to the importance of cross-cultural understanding and communication skills. In 2011, this aspect of the seminar was furthered by use of a new text, Designing an Anthropology Career.

• The Senior Anthropology Mini-statement. In a brief statement, students define anthropology

and assert the relevance of anthropology and its methods to social and global problems (what are the core values, benefits, perspectives and methods by which Anthropology makes essential contributions?). This statement also briefly casts these core concepts within the context of the student’s interests and career aspirations.

• Weekly Critical Readings, Response Essays and Oral Presentations from Taking Sides: Clashing

Views in Anthropology. Students critique use and application of qualitative and quantitative data

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in support of arguments made by leading theoreticians. They demonstrate holistic and critical thinking and communication skills in essays and oral presentations in which they analyze current debates and controversies, from across the subfields, drawing their own conclusions. They must also evaluate ethical issues in the conduct of ethnographic, archaeological or forensic/biological anthropological fieldwork.

• The Applied Anthropology Research Project (used from 2009-2011) or Three Applied Anthropology Performance Tasks (new in 2012). In these substantial projects, students evaluate authentic and immediate cultural, archaeological and biological anthropology case studies, synthesizing and applying integrative and comparative methods (incorporating professional ethical issues and choices) from across the subdisciplines, to contemporary social problems and global issues. Students also must reflect on critical ethical issues related to anthropological research and professional conduct.

• The Final Self-Reflection Essay. In a substantial essay, students reflect on the undergraduate career, explicating experiences, academic relationships, achievements, the quality of mentoring, career goals, and the effect of studying anthropology on their global world view.

Assessment Methods and Feedback to Faculty and Program Curriculum For a number of years, then, we have implemented our anthropology program assessment plan around the capstone course and a three-part, teamwork process. Each year, our objective is to conduct several levels of assessment – individual, course, program and Essential Studies Capstone. Our aim is to determine whether course4 and program goals 5 have been achieved. In the context of the Senior Seminar, the work products described above represent the best material evidence of student learning and level of achievement across the undergraduate program. Beginning in 2013, we will select 2-3 program goals to assess, in a planned rotation. The activities of program and ES assessment take place both during and immediately after the Senior Capstone Seminar in the spring. Each year, these specific products are assessed using prepared rubrics for each of the program and relevant ES goals. Standardized, lichert-scale scoring sheets are used to allocate simple numerical scores to goal-related products, and qualitative data are gathered. These data are then graphically summarized.

4 Capstone Course Goals: Upon the completion of the Senior Capstone Seminar, students should be able to

demonstrate the application of anthropological perspectives; critical thinking and communication about theory

and its uses; and professional development of skills in transitioning.

5 2012 Program Goals: Upon completion of the Anthropology major, students should be able to demonstrate

competency in and apply the holistic nature of Anthropology, the key anthropological theoretical perspectives,

critical thinking about local and global problems, comparative analysis in an anthropological context, knowledge of

the patterns and sources of biological and/or cultural variation, ethics in the subfields of Anthropology, and

anthropological research design and application.

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This is a time-intensive, marathon session taking parts of several days. Student work products are intensively evaluated by the program assessment team (the capstone seminar co-instructors). Upon completion of the seminar and the assessment data collection, the program assessment team communicates the assessment results, with a graphic presentation, to the department as a whole during a faculty retreat (usually in early May). Detailed discussion of the students' performance relative to each goal follows. For each goal they explicitly address the following: how well have students demonstrated some level of goal achievement? Where do they see weaknesses? Which course/program goals appear to be represented and how strongly does the evidence of student work represent some achievement of those goals? And do the students, themselves, recognize their achievement of a particular goal? The team also makes specific recommendations for improving learning outcomes in the course and the program. During this retreat, we review our program goals and mission, as needed. Finally, we generally review our curriculum and discuss where our current students’ strengths and weaknesses lie. Explicit discussion centers around which goals are not being met adequately and how we can address any weaknesses in our upcoming course assignments and curricular planning. Thus, we attempt to “close the loop” by moving from each year’s data to an assessment of our curriculum, course activities, and our program as a whole. We discuss what we have we learned and talk about what needs to be strengthened or modified in the design of our courses and in our curriculum. Faculty members are explicitly asked to keep the program goals in mind as they plan courses and assignments for the following year. A centralized file is maintained in the department which contains each year’s program assessment data, results, and recommendations. The file also holds samples of professors’ innovative assignment sheets, organized by relevant program goal. Clearly, observations generated by all assessment methods should contribute to on-going curriculum and course development in the department. Any consideration of new courses or curricula should explicitly examine how such courses will address our program and ES goals and fulfill our program mission. Overview of Assessment Results and Departmental Responses (“Closing the Loop”) Over the period of this program review, our program assessment activities have generated a number of changes in our curriculum. Following are several observations that we have made about our students’ learning and how we have responded on a program level: • Anthropology students increasingly recognize and can provide substantial evidence of having acquired

practical skills, including analysis, communication, presentation with a variety of media, and cross-cultural awareness and sensitivity (diversity), in our program. We have seen an improvement in the clarity and strength of written and oral communication, as a result of assessment recommendations, and we continue to emphasize these skills in our courses.

• Our assessment reveals that our student research and writing opportunities are among our strongest program offerings. We have proposed, however, that faculty should assign more tasks involving greater complex critical thinking and analysis, and explicit application of anthropological perspectives. Faculty have responded by incorporating more problem-based inquiries and mock grant proposal assignments. The Senior Seminar is now in its fourth year of requiring and assessing multi-layered

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investigations of authentic global issues requiring applied anthropological perspectives and consideration of ethics.

• While we have been pleased at the many kinds of research opportunities that we offer, we need to

heighten student awareness of the significance and processes in which they are engaged in these research projects. Our students have provided relatively weak evidence of their understanding of how theory affects observation and interpretation in scientific and humanistic research. Moreover, their ability to apply core theoretical approaches and explanatory models needs to be improved considerably. We have instituted at least four new method and theory course options in our curriculum and we are considering a specific, focused theory requirement for the future. Students have commented during the assessment process that hands-on methods and explicit theory courses have been very important to their learning. These courses should be retained, and even strengthened, in upcoming consideration of curriculum revisions.

• Early assessment data suggested that our students were not readily able to recognize or respond to

ethical issues in the practice of anthropology. Immediately, we strengthened the treatment of ethics in all courses, including exposure to the IRB process, professional codes of ethics, and specific fieldwork and analysis scenarios. We have also given more explicit assignments and essay exams directed at ethical issues. We have noted marked improvement in the students’ awareness of the dilemmas that anthropologists face and how ethically to deal with those dilemmas. In the last four years, in particular, there has been much stronger evidence represented in student portfolios of an understanding of ethical issues in the work and perspectives of anthropologists. Still, continued focus on ethical practice and implications needs to be incorporated into the curriculum. There is some discussion underway about the possibility of a new course dedicated to ethics across the subdisciplines.

• We have had a recurring concern about students' comprehension of the key concept of ‘culture’ and

its profound and subtle impacts on individuals’ lives, as well as their understanding of globalization impacts and human rights. To be good citizens and well-prepared professionals they must understand how culture works, how it infuses every interaction from the most personal to the level of the nation state. We should consider actively encouraging study abroad and service learning experiences, along with field schools. We have developed new courses with strong applied foci in globalization, gender, and have discussed similar new courses in historic preservation and primate conservation. These courses will be highly relevant to our students' lives and will explicitly discuss students’ potential contributions in the 21st century. With a second temporary cultural anthropologist for the last several years we have been able to add new culture area courses and to provide stronger coverage of culture theory and globalization issues (including tourism, heritage, gender, etc). However, we continue to assert the need for a second cultural anthropologist in a tenure-track line.

• We have also discussed the possibility of bringing community service into the program in a

‘documentable way,’ with planning and critical evaluation by the students. We have increased the service activities of our department, the visibility of that service to our students, and the service activities of our Anthropology student organization.

• Assessment revealed that our students need to better understand the unique potential of

anthropology to play a role in addressing global problems. This applied aspect of anthropology is being driven home forcefully in several sections of our Introduction to Cultural Anthropology and certainly in the newly designed (2009-2012) Senior Seminar, with major applied anthropology projects.

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We have also, this year, strengthened the Senior Seminar course goals and related applied activities (the application of anthropological perspectives in readings, discussions and critical essays).

• In recent years, since the last inception of new program goals, we have noted the need to strengthen students’ understanding of holism and the integrative perspectives and unique methods of anthropology. Since 2009, we have incorporated class activities in the Senior Seminar that ask students to reflect regularly on the key perspectives being employed by scholars in our field. Too, the applied projects in the seminar require explicit recognition of the interconnectedness of biological, cultural, archaeological and ethical issues.

• Over the years, we have realized that our students need to think about their anthropological learning

and achievements in more integrated ways. They need to become far more aware of our goals for their learning and to be able to articulate what they have learned. As a result, we are making our program goals more transparent to the students in syllabi and class discussions. We have now provided a copy of the program goals in a new majors’ binder and are planning an annual majors meeting in which the overall pattern of working towards having a portfolio organized around learning goals is emphasized.

• We have noted, in several assessment years (e.g. 2007 and 2008) that students have demonstrated a

relatively weak understanding of the sources and patterns of cultural and biological variation. In response, we are proposing a stronger curriculum requirement in theory for each of our subfields. Also, faculty have been asked to explicitly deal with theory in all or most of our classes, and to emphasize issues of cultural diversity and human variation. The new ES assessment for the capstone course (as of 2009), also directs attention toward this issue in review of student portfolios and applied projects.

• We have implemented increasingly focused activities around professionalism and transitioning to

post-graduate life. Over the years, we have used several texts to address the application of skills developed in anthropological study in the world of work. In 2012, with the adoption of Designing an Anthropology Career, students critically identify and acknowledge the many relevant analytical skills and perspectives (including professional ethics) that they have acquired as Anthropology majors. Through analysis of their transcripts, portfolios, and research, along with the production of a carefully-crafted professional functional resume and mini-statement, they have responded that they feel better prepared to face the marketplace. We also devote time to graduate school preparedness (graduate school letters of intent, letters of recommendation, workload issues, balancing life in graduate school, etc.).

• We have seen tremendous evidence that our students recognize the unique contributions of

Anthropology and its impact upon them. They remark that they feel different from their peers in other majors, aware that their responses in seminars seem qualitatively different, informed by cross-cultural awareness and recognition of ethnocentrism. Our seniors, in their self-reflection essays, express an eagerness to take on the world, to dive into culturally diverse contexts, to interact with others not like themselves, to look cautiously at evidence and arguments and to analyze complex situations holistically (or at least make the attempt!). In short, our seniors recognize significant shifts in their world view as a result of majoring in Anthropology and in their skills and level of confidence in facing a rapidly changing world.

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• For the last several years, we have recognized difficulty in clearly discriminating the implications of the program goals, as redefined in 2008. Students were asked, in 2010 and 2011 to suggest new program goals. As described earlier, we now have revised our program goals (Fall 2012) and will proceed to assess them beginning in Spring 2013.

Other Assessment Activities As described above, the Senior Capstone Seminar is the chief context for our program and ES assessments. However, these are not the sole evaluative tools we use. Individual faculty who teach other (non-capstone) anthropology courses regularly evaluate relevant course products and design assignments with our Program Goals in mind. Our annual assessment faculty retreat allows instructors to share their assignments and to discuss how they relate to our program goals (for specific examples of assignment sheets, see ‘Program Assessment’ binder in Department of Anthropology). These various course assignments appear as completed products in the senior portfolio. Since 1992, we have distributed several alumni surveys to graduates. These solicit information about program effectiveness, experience since graduation, preparation for work, etc. Specifically, questions about experiential learning opportunities, advising and mentoring, curriculum quality, capstone experiences, and emphases on communications skills and post-graduate transitions are posed. This survey has been distributed three times (1992, 2002, 2005) and should be administered in the near future. In the future, we intend also to distribute the survey to each cohort of graduates two years after their commencement, as an ‘exit’ survey. In previous years, we have published an Alumni Newsletter and distributed it to ca. 400 alumni and friends of the department. We hope to complete a new issue of the newsletter in the upcoming year. We have invited alumni back to the department to speak to our graduating seniors about their careers and accomplishments, and the relevance of anthropology in their lives and work. In this way, we get rich feedback about the value and relevance of our program.

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Program Assessment Plan2005

AnthropologyCollege of Arts and Sciences

Contact Person: Melinda Leach, Chair7-3697; melinda.leach@und.nodak.edu

March, 2005

1At present, our five faculty members represent three of the four subdisciplines, and we occasionally haveteam-taught a course in language and culture with linguistic colleagues in the Department of English.

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Department of AnthropologyProgram Assessment Plan, 2005

MissionWhat is Anthropology?Anthropology is the study of human life as a whole: its cultures, behaviors, and biology in the past, present andfuture. Our mission, in the Department of Anthropology, is to help students become better citizens of the world, tolearn to look at life and cultures holistically and humanistically—in short, to look at the world differently. We hopethat students, as a result of joining our program, will come to recognize their position and obligations in a complex,globalized world and to see that the human condition affects every single one of them. At the heart of theanthropological perspective is the idea that understanding culture, at the family, community, national and globallevels, is vital. We all share in the responsibility of understanding how culture shapes our interactions, choices andbehaviors at each of these levels.

Anthropologists pursue questions that involve the study of fossil and archaeological records, the interplay betweenhistorical, social and cultural factors in present-day populations, as well as numerous aspects of the diverse culturaltraditions and languages of world peoples (including ethnic and socioeconomic groups within the larger Americansociety). Subdisciplines of anthropology include sociocultural anthropology (the study of contemporary societies),physical or biological anthropology (the study of human evolutionary biology and human variation),archaeology/prehistory (the study of past human societies and cultural traditions), and anthropological linguistics(the study of language and its relationship with all culture). Anthropologists receive training in all subdisciplinesand take an "interdisciplinary approach" in their research and teaching. In recent decades, more and moreanthropologists do applied work at home and abroad, in areas such as forensic science, medicine, law, internationaldevelopment, cultural resources management, and social services.

Anthropology—as a broad interdisciplinary field—integrates the methods, approaches and explanatory goals of thesciences, the social sciences and the humanities. Anthropology is well situated to help meet national and regionalcalls to "globalize" the curriculum and to train an increasingly diverse student population. Our curriculum isexplicitly shaped by our conviction that every student who graduates from our program should be able to recognizeand articulate the holistic, integrative, and comparative nature of anthropology and its unique perspectives, withspecial awareness of the ethics related to research and fieldwork. Further, students should have a familiarity(through direct hands-on experience) with the basic research methods and central tenets of our discipline. Thesetenets include cultural and biological diversity and evolution; ethnocentrism and relativism; issues of human rights;and contemporary social problems. Emphasis in all of our courses is placed on communication skills, interpretationand analysis of evidence, as well as presentation of arguments and data.

We, in the Department of Anthropology, are dedicated to providing a strong, carefully integrated undergraduate(Bachelor of Arts) program within the College of Arts and Sciences that contributes directly to the central liberalarts mission of the University. The Anthropology Department offers a broad spectrum of courses (ranging fromlarge introductory, GenEd classes to smaller upper-division courses) in cultural anthropology, archaeology &prehistory, and biological anthropology1. Experiential learning is central to our curriculum. We provide, in all ofour courses, opportunities for laboratory analysis, interviewing and mini-ethnographic fieldwork projects,archaeological and forensic fieldwork projects, and/or individual and team-based research projects. Our facultyattempt to inspire curiosity; strongly encourage critical thinking; demand student competence in reading, writing andoral and graphic presentation; and require use of library, archival and scholarly electronic resources.

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The Department of Anthropology provides an undergraduate liberal arts curriculum leading to a Bachelor of Artsdegree. We feel strongly that the unique perspective of the discipline of Anthropology, detailed above, directlyserves and reaffirms the mission of the University and the stated objectives of a general university education. In theUND Academic Catalog (2001-2003) the University’s mission is described, in part as:

“[encouraging] students to make informed choices, to communicate effectively, to be intellectuallycurious and creative, to commit themselves to lifelong learning and the service of others, and toshare responsibility both for their own communities and for the world.” (From the “Mission of theUniversity,” p.2).

In describing the philosophy and goals of a general education, the UND General Education RequirementsCommittee has stated that:

“... a general education program should help students develop 1) the ability to make informedchoices, 2) the ability to communicate effectively, 3) intellectual curiosity and creativity, 4) acontinuing commitment to learning, 5) a capacity and interest in serving others, 6) a sense ofresponsibility both to specific communities and to a culturally pluralistic world, and 7) greaterpersonal satisfaction through access to the larger social, political, economic, scientific, andaesthetic culture.”(From “The Purposes of a University Education,” UND Academic Catalog2001-2003, p. 25).

Affirming these stated educational goals, then, the anthropology program offers multiple opportunities for studentsto develop intellectual curiosity and critical thinking skills, examine varying perspectives and methods acrossseveral disciplines, become familiar with cultures and times other than their own, engage in experiential learning inthe lab and field, and reflect on their place in society and in the world.

Anthropology Program GoalsGiven the broad mission statement presented above, it is essential to specify how our mission can be related directlyto goals for student learning and achievement. Our program goals, listed here, specify outcomes for theAnthropology curriculum.

Upon completion of the Anthropology Major, students should be able to:

1. recognize the holistic, integrative, and comparative nature of anthropology, with anunderstanding of how anthropologists employ scientific, social scientific and humanisticmodes of interpretation in their study and research;

2. understand and appreciate cultural and biological diversity and recognize the commonorigin of humans, along with an awareness of the prevalence of ethnocentrism andprejudice across many world societies and communities, including our own;

3. demonstrate experience in carrying out a research project (laboratory, fieldwork-based,or library-based) in biological, cultural or archaeological anthropology, that includes:formulating and justifying a research question, collecting and analyzing data, andarticulating conclusions;

4. understand the ethical problems related to a) the concept of cultural relativism, b)conducting ethnographic, archaeological or forensic/biological anthropological fieldworkin communities and with individuals in these communities, and 3) analysis, presentation,and interpretation of data;

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5. recognize how anthropological approaches can be useful for understanding and can beapplied to helping solve contemporary human problems;

6. develop and refine communication skills, including writing, oral presentation, and datapresentation in various formats (e.g., posters, Websites, electronic presentation media,etc.).

These goals are shared by our faculty in the design and teaching of courses, and are understood as central to thediscipline of anthropology (across the subfields). Moreover, these goals are assessable by methods appropriate to,and embedded within, the Anthropology curriculum and courses. Program goals are useful (indeed, essential) inguiding curriculum planning, course content and learning activities, and assessment methods.

Program Assessment, Departmental Activities and the Senior Capstone SeminarWe, in the Department of Anthropology, have been committed to developing a meaningful assessment plan that isused to enhance student learning and improve the quality of our program. One significant development in that planwas the initiation, in 1995, of our Senior Capstone Seminar. The seminar was designed to be an on-goingopportunity to assess the strengths and weaknesses of our undergraduate anthropology program. The capstonecourse generates textual data (via essays and an undergraduate portfolio) that serve our Program Assessment Plan.It also represents a culminating experience that asks students to reflect on their undergraduate careers, to synthesizethe big ideas and perspectives of the four-fold interdisciplinary field of anthropology, and to confront concernsabout the transition to post-graduate life.

We view the capstone seminar as a primary way of understanding how our courses, advising, field and laboratoryopportunities, and over-all departmental activities have contributed to student knowledge. The seminar alsoprovides students with an important opportunity to apply this knowledge to current issues and topics with whichanthropologists are engaged. The capstone seminar is coordinated by two faculty members who develop a syllabusand course materials to be addressed in the spring semester of that year, drawing upon the common ground of theirareas of specialization. From 1995-2001, a theme was chosen that brought together information and approachesfrom several or all of the traditional “subfields” of anthropology (sociocultural anthropology, archaeology,anthropological linguistics and biological anthropology) [Table 1]. Beginning in 2002, the theme concept wasdropped in favor of generalizing the structure and content of the course to address broader and more relevant coursegoals.

Table 1. Themes of Senior Capstone Courses in the Anthropology Program.

1995 “Origins and Evolution of Humanness” (Leach & Williams)1996 “Applying Anthropology in the 1990’s” (Schneider & Lang)1997 “Women, Men, Monkeys & Apes: Gender in Anthropological Perspective” (Leach & Lang )1998 “Applying Anthropology in the Late 1990’s” (Lang & Schneider)1999 “Race & Ethnicity” (Schneider & Williams)2000 “Anthropological Approaches to Health, Illness & Disease” (Lang & Williams)2001 “The First Americans: Problems and Controversies” (Schneider & Leach)2002 “Taking Sides: Problems and Controversies in Anthropology” (Lang & Leach)2003 “Taking Sides: Problems and Controversies in Anthropology” (Leach & Mikulak)2004 “Taking Sides: Problems and Controversies in Anthropology” (Leach & Mikulak)2005 “Taking Sides: Problems and Controversies in Anthropology”(Leach & Mikulak)

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As a small department of five faculty, each with different but overlapping areas of specializations, we also felt thatthis must be an opportunity for two faculty to productively interact in a way that engages their ownintellectual/research interests. The capstone seminar is also an opportunity to draw together our senior majors whohave developed diverse, specialized interests (and often have a second major) for a final integrative and culminatingexperience in which they have an opportunity to again consider the key aspects of anthropological approaches.

The capstone seminar is now a formal course requirement for the major in anthropology. Our objectives in theseminar include assisting students in the synthesis and integration of core concepts of anthropology, helpingstudents prepare for the transition to post-college life (jobs/graduate school, etc.), and challenging students toobserve, reflect on, and document their growth across their college career. Various activities and “products” of theseminar include:

• a competence-based, Functional Resume (stressing skills, academic experience, and civicinvolvement achieved during the undergraduate years;

• an Anthropology ‘mini-statement’ that briefly casts core concepts of the field within the context ofthe student’s interests and career aspirations;

• a series of critical essays and oral presentations analyzing scholarly articles that highlight currentdebates and controversies from an anthropological perspective;

• a substantial Self-reflection essay in which the student analyzes experiences, relationships,achievements, and course products over the entire undergraduate career; and

• a comprehensive Portfolio, introduced by a Portfolio Narrative, containing self-selected works(for example, posters, graphic presentations, essays, research papers, laboratory reports, journals,awards, group project reports) from all anthropology classes that reflect students’ experiences andachievements as a major anthropology and undergraduate student.

Assessment MethodsThe Anthropology Department employs several assessment methods to evaluate learning outcomes from each of theprogram goals outlined above. The chief context of program assessment is the Senior Capstone Seminar. Byregarding the capstone seminar as an opportunity to identify patterns of strengths or weaknesses among the studentsin that particular year’s seminar, we may be able to modify/place emphasis on some areas as we plan our courses forthe next year.

We think that the products of the Capstone course and the student portfolio of works produced over theundergraduate career represent the best material evidence of student learning and level of achievement, but these arenot the sole evaluative tools we use (see ‘Other Assessment Activities’ below). Student work products from theSenior Seminar (Table 2) are evaluated by a Senior Seminar assessment team, comprised of the two instructors ofthe seminar.

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Table 2. Relationship of Program Goals to Assessment Methods in the Senior Seminar.

Goals Assessment Methods

1. recognize the holistic, integrative, and comparative natureof anthropology, with an understanding of howanthropologists employ scientific, social scientific andhumanistic modes of interpretation in their study andresearch

Senior Self-reflection EssayPortfolioSenior Anthropology Mini-statementCapstone Critical EssaysAlumni Survey, Exit Survey (Qs #–)

2. understand and appreciate cultural and biological diversityand recognize the common origin of humans, along withan awareness of the prevalence of ethnocentrism andprejudice across many world societies and communities,including our own;

Senior Self-reflection EssaySenior Anthropology Mini-statementPortfolioCapstone Critical Essays

3. demonstrate experience in carrying out a research project(laboratory, fieldwork-based, or library-based) inbiological, cultural or archaeological anthropology, thatincludes: formulating and justifying a research question,collecting and analyzing data, and articulatingconclusions;

PortfolioFunctional Resume

4. understand the ethical problems related to a) the conceptof cultural relativism, b) conducting ethnographic,archaeological or forensic/biological anthropologicalfieldwork in communities and with individuals in thesecommunities, and c) analysis, presentation, andinterpretation of data;

Senior Self-reflection EssayPortfolioSenior Anthropology Mini-statementCapstone Critical Essays

5. recognize how anthropological approaches can be usefulfor understanding and can be applied to helping solvecontemporary human problems;

Senior Self-reflection EssayPortfolioSenior Anthropology Mini-statementFunctional ResumeCapstone Critical EssaysAlumni Survey, Exit Survey (Qs #–)

6. develop and refine communication skills, includingwriting, oral presentation, and data presentation in variousformats (e.g., posters, Websites, electronic presentationmedia, etc.).

Senior Self-reflection EssayPortfolioSenior Anthropology Mini-statementFunctional ResumeCapstone Critical EssaysAlumni Survey, Exit Survey (Qs #–)

Individual faculty who teach other anthropology courses regularly evaluate relevant course products and designassignments with our Program Goals in mind (Table 3). An annual faculty retreat allows instructors to share theirassignments and to discuss how they relate to our program goals (for specific examples of assignment sheets, see‘Program Assessment’ binder in Department of Anthropology). These various course assignments willsubsequently be reviewed in the Senior portfolio.

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Table 3. Sample Individual Class Assessment Tools, correlated with Program Goals

Anthropology Program Goals. At thecompletion of a major in Anthropology,students should be able to demonstrate thatthey can …

SAMPLE Individual Class Assessment Tools

Course # Assignment Title1. recognize the holistic, integrative,and comparative nature ofanthropology, with an understandingof how anthropologists employscientific, social scientific andhumanistic modes of interpretation intheir study and research;

100 Primate Behavior325 Biological Lab372 Social Facts: Durkheim309 Cross-Cultural Childrearing340 Ecological Model for Human Health270 Skeletal/Biological Profile171 Cultural Fieldwork171 Mini-Ethnography426 Lithic Analysis

2. understand and appreciate cultural andbiological diversity and recognize thecommon origin of humans, along with anawareness of the prevalence of ethnocentrismand prejudice across many world societies andcommunities, including our own;

309 Cross-Cultural Childhood Development350 Social Constructions of Body171 British Marriage Ritual Analysis170 Understanding Race Video Response309 Primate Conservation Summary330 Human Variation Power Point Presentation346 Osteology Lab Exercise440 Osteology Notebook171 Cultural Fieldwork171 Nacirema

3. demonstrate experience incarrying out a research project(laboratory, fieldwork-based, orlibrary-based) in biological, culturalor archaeological anthropology, thatincludes: formulating and justifyinga research question, collecting andanalyzing data, and articulatingconclusions;

350 Stepping In/Stepping Out: Understanding Cultures309 Fieldwork in Public Schools345 Group Project: Forensics Lab270 Biological Profile Poster Project388 Archaeological Research Design300 Laboratory Methods Journal325 Human Origins Hot Topics Presentation100 Primate Behavior Observation171 Proxemics and Gender Study172 Faunal Analysis

4. understand the ethical problemsrelated to a) the concept of culturalrelativism, b) conductingethnographic, archaeological orforensic/biological anthropologicalfieldwork in communities and withindividuals in these communities,and 3) analysis, presentation, andinterpretation of data;

372 Film: Life & Debt Response Paper350 Institutional Review Board (IRB) Course and Exam346 Ethics discussion and Exam 1 Question 1378 Human Variation IRB Course and Exam309 Primate Conservation Summary Papers309 Traditional Ecological Knowledge Case Study171 Circumcision Response388 Native Amer. Reburial and Repatriation Response200 Looting and Intellectual Properties Response

5. recognize how anthropological approachescan be useful for understanding and can beapplied to helping solve contemporary humanproblems;

309 Primate Conservation& Deforestation Response340 Projects: Alternative & Traditional Health care350 Ethnographies and Local Subcultures171 Anthropology In The News Report171 Hunting Endangered Species Debate171 Indigenous Cultures in Crisis Paper171 African Applied Medical Anthropology Response340 Critical Viewing Film Response American Diet

6. clearly communicate in a variety of ways,including writing, oral presentation, and datapresentation in various formats (e.g., posters,Websites, electronic presentation media, etc.).

426 Lithic Analysis PowerPoint Oral Report w/ stats388 Scholarly Article Critical Evaluations for Theory309 Student Webpages Childhood Cross-Culturally350 Powerpoint Presentations Ethnographic Studies

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6. clearly communicate...(continued) 376 Oral and Written Maya Presentation379 Oral and Written Micronesia Presentation345 Homicide Investigation Group Project270 Biological Profile Poster Presentation170 Biological Anthropology Powerpoint Presentation325 Human Origins Hot Topics Presentation

Timeline for Review of Program Assessment Results and Feedback to Curriculum

At the end of each senior capstone seminar (in early May), the Portfolio, the Functional Resume,the Anthropology ‘Mini-statement,’ the Critical Essays, and the Self-Reflection essay will beevaluated by at least two faculty members (instructors of the Senior Seminar) to determine ifprogram goals have been achieved. Also reviewed is the Portfolio Narrative, which requires thestudents, themselves, to address how specific products demonstrate each of the program goals.Data are collected on standardized departmental forms that qualitatively consider the adequacy ofthe products’ demonstration of each goal.

Immediately after this intensive post-seminar review, the reviewers will communicate theirassessment results to the department as a whole during a half-day, all-faculty retreat. In thisretreat, we will review program goals, and document our assessment methods, and current courseobjectives. Finally, we will review our curriculum and our sense of student strengths andweaknesses as they have proceeded through our courses, and consider our department offeringsand our assessment process. Explicit discussion will identify which goals are not being metadequately and how we can address any weaknesses in our upcoming course assignments andcurricular planning.

At the close of the semester, a centralized file will be created for each year’s program assessmentdata, results, and process documentation.

Observations generated by all assessment methods will contribute to on-going curriculum andcourse development in the department in the coming year. Any consideration of new courses orcurricula should explicitly address how they will address our program goals. Finally, ourprogram goals should be reviewed and amended bi-annually.

Other Assessment ActivitiesSince 1992, we have distributed a survey/questionnaire to alumni soliciting information aboutprogram effectiveness. Specifically, questions about experiential learning opportunities, advisingand mentoring, curriculum quality, capstone experiences, and emphases on communicationsskills and post-graduate transitions are posed. This survey has been distributed twice in the lastten years (1992 and 2002). In the future, we intend also to distribute the survey to each cohort ofgraduates two years after their commencement, as an ‘exit’ survey.

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For four years, we have published an Alumni Newsletter and distributed it to ca. 400 alumni andfriends of the department. We regularly invite alumni back to the department to speak to ourgraduating seniors about their careers and accomplishments, and the relevance of anthropology intheir lives and work. In this way, we get rich feedback about the value and relevance of ourprogram.