Collaborative Research: Curriculum Mapping Tool for Sociology: Implementation, Assessment, and Dissemination

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In an increasingly technological society, the improvement of undergraduate preparedness for STEM fields is of vital interest to the advancement of science, health, prosperity, and national defense. Evidence indicates that students in many undergraduate STEM programs progress through their majors without sufficient engagement with scientific content, especially with respect to data analysis and rigorous scientific inquiry. Clear learning objectives coupled with meaningful assessment have great promise to address this concern. The proposed study seeks to refine and disseminate a curriculum development tool and facilitate its use in 150 undergraduate sociology programs. The tool will assist faculty members in their efforts to evaluate programmatic strengths and weaknesses with respect to seventy objectives contained within twelve overarching recommendations advanced by the American Sociological Association's report "The Sociology Major in the Changing Landscape of Higher Education: Curriculum, Careers, and Online Learning." The tool will facilitate curriculum review, guide faculty members through the process of curriculum revision, and provide benchmarking data. The project is designed to help departments understand how they compare to peer institutions. If successful, the curriculum mapping tool can be modified for use in other STEM fields. The study has four distinct goals. Goal 1 is to develop a curriculum mapping tool for sociology, which draws upon an already tested tool developed by the researchers. The tool will integrate spreadsheets, videos, and other supplemental components within a survey platform. Goal 2 is to engage 150 sociology departments in curriculum mapping activities, which involves teaching faculty the process of curriculum mapping and gauging their response to insights identified. Goal 3 is to benchmark conformance to recommended curricular standards, which requires analyzing the curriculum maps developed in individual departments. Goal 4 is to assess the impact that curriculum mapping has on program quality, which involves identifying the extent that curriculum mapping produced meaningful changes to course offerings and program structures. Department chairs will be surveyed at three points over the course of three years, providing detailed information on faculty receptivity to curriculum mapping and impacts on program design at their institutions. Impact of exposure to benchmarking data will be examined with a randomized experimental design. Curriculum maps generated will document the extent to which departments conform to disciplinary standards. In addition to publication of results, leading scholars of teaching and learning in other STEM fields will be shown how curriculum mapping operates within sociology programs.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.