Measuring the Sublime - Advances in the Assessment of Philosophical Dispositions
Abstract
In keeping with the formative mission of the College of St. Benedict and St. John's University the Philosophy Department seeks to inculcate in its students a cluster of dispositions that are important to us as teachers of philosophy, but that have moral and political ramifications as well. This past year the department reconstructed measures for these dispositions embedded in its in-house assessment questionnaire in an attempt to improve their statistical reliability. We also introduced new measures of students' learning experience as well as department teaching practices in an effort to learn how our classroom practices might be related to learning outcomes. This presentation will share with the CSB/SJU community some of the frustrations of this latest effort to measure our students' learning as well as some of the interesting and unexpected outcomes obtained this past Spring 2011.