Broad Knowledge Base: Criterion for success for sections of the final exam in Psychology 1301 was reached in three of the 10 areas. In one other area, Science of Psychology, criterion was almost made. Although we changed how we assessed the outcome data, we seem to be getting better; the Social Psychology section of this year's exam was at 74% while the Social Section of last years exam was only at 57%. The upcoming academic year we will require all instructors of Psychology 1301 to attend the CHSS teaching conference. The coordinator for the sections also will meet bi-weekly with TAs and suggest ways of handling class issues. In order to ensure the best instructors for our undergraduates, the coordinator will also require that means for each exam given in each section be reviewed in order to determine if any of the TAs are struggling. Additionally, the coordinator will review questions on the common final exam to determine if some are misleading, some are worded enigmatically, or some are above or below the level of what should be expected of a person just having taken a course in Introductory Psychology.

Generating and Communicating Scientific Knowledge: The numbers were down a little bit this past academic year. The chair will meet with the instructors of the Statistics Labs and discuss what problems may have arisen and how to address those problems. It may be that the reductions this year are just normal flucuations but it would be best to find out and not let these types of scores continue.

Broad Knowledge Base: this academic year we reached criterion in two areas of the Psychology 1301 course and came very close in two other areas. Obviously, there is much continued room for improvement. Considering the "Previous Plan," we did require all of our instructors to attend the annual teaching conference, which they did. The coordinator for the sections actually did not meet bi-weekly with the instructors and met with them when problems arose. This was perhaps an error but it was difficult to schedule times when all instructors were free and when the chair was free. The coordinator did review questions on the final exam and made appropriate changes to questions that were worded enigmatically or were misleading.

Generating and Communicating Scientific Knowledge: The chair met with the instructor for the course to discuss issues and problems with the students' abilities to absorb the material. I am happy to say that there was a large improvement in Generating scientific knowledge but distressed to see a reduction in Communicating scientific knowledge.

Broad-based knowledge:
We seem to be maintaining where we were in the previous academic year which is unsettling. The numbers for the Social Psychology section are improved from previous years as are the numbers for Research Design. The problems remain in the Physiological Psychology section and the Personality section.
For those areas not reaching criterion, the coordinator for the Introductory sections will:
1. send out very specific guidelines for what their students should take away from the course;
2. examine the performances for those areas on each pertinent exam during the course of the semester;
3.  the TAs will be instructed to make the materials for these areas more germane to student interest;
4. the instructors will be encouraged to utilize more on-line materials that the students can access.
Assessments will be ongoing and will consist of comparing performance on each area exam with performance on past and current final exams.
In addition, it is the goal that the 70% criterion that is striven for on the final exam be in place for all the areas on the area exams.
This should allow us to identify problems as the semester goes along.

Generating and Communicating Scientific Knowledge: The chair will meet with the new instructor for the statistics course and lab and impress upon him the need to make the material more understandable to the students. He also will review the current types of embedded questions that are asked and attempt to update those with specific, real-life examples.
Specific points will be to consistently, throughout the semester, assess how students generate and communicate scientific knowledge.
For both areas:
1. questions will be embedded in each exam, and addressed on each laboratory exercise, to assess the students' abilities to determine and explain statistical findings and effects;
2. the 80% criterion will continue to be used;
3. if criteria is not met at each level of assessment further remedial tasks will be given;
4. assignments including design selection (between vs. within, single factor vs. factorial, etc.) will be required of the Psychology 3101 class with an 80% criterion being used to determine effectiveness;
5. assignments with hands-on SPSS/Excel based calculations will be required of the Psychology 3101 class with an 80% criterion being used to determine effectiveness;
6. hypothesis formation, testing, and interpretation will be required of the Psychology 3101 class with an 80% criterion being used to determine effectiveness;
7. students will be tasked on three separate research papers to analyze mock data and report decisions in APA-style results and Discussion sectons. An 80% criterion will be used to determine effectiveness of the course to instill the ability to generate and communicate scientific data.