Sociology Snapshot - Measures

Measures

Each semester all majors have individual counseling sessions with the PSA academic advisor where they communicate what they are learning in each required course for graduation for which they are enrolled. At graduation, exit interviews are conducted and course content and contribution to their learning is assessed. Periodic alumni surveys are conducted. Informal contacts and conversations with employers of graduates are initiated regarding the strength of their skills in the workplace.

Plans are underway to develop and maintain scholarship portfolios of majors whereby their best academic product is archived on a semester to semester basis.

Consistent with students in other undergraduate programs of the Department of Sociology, PSA students will understand and demonstrate:

• Disciplinary contributions to understanding social reality
• Unique aspects of the sociological perspective and its differences from common sense and other social sciences
• Breadth and depth of diversity of thought and investigative tools within the discipline
• Role of scientific evidence and use of qualitative and quantitative methodologies
• Differences in investigative approaches in building knowledge in the discipline
• Critical assessment skills in reviewing published research
• Institutional interconnections and relationships between individual freedom and agency versus the determinism of external social structures