At the end of the fall 2016 semester, Merritt College faculty met to discuss their assessment of the Cultural Awareness Institutional Learning Outcome (ILO). Faculty brought samples of student work and scoring rubrics that allowed us to consider student achievement in the areas of written and oral communication.
The results and action plans are summarized below.
Cultural Awareness ILO Assessment Meeting
December 16, 2016
Participants: Fereshteh Mofidi (Business), Heather Casale (Nutrition), Jennifer Yates (Radiological Sciences), Jennifer Briffa (Child Development), Lawrence Lee (Landscape Horticulture), Sheila Metcalf –Tobin (Art), Ruhina Najem (MEDAS), Sarah Gronquist (Landscape Horticulture), Mia Kelly (Nursing), Marty Zielke (Counseling), Susan Andrien (English), Nia Hill (Landscape Horticulture), Theresa Halula (Landscape Horticulture), Laura Forlin (Landscape Horticulture)
Present: Maril M Bull (Landscape Horticulture ), Molly Sealund (Landscape Horticulture).
Summary of Strengths:
Our students are passionate about learning about cultures other than their own
- Our students are generally aware of diverse cultures
- Our students are generally aware of their prejudices
- Our students expressed having strategies for countering stereotypes
- Our students expressed opportunities to capitalize on the diversity within our classrooms to learn about other cultures
Summary of Weaknesses:
- Analysis of reasonability of results
- Our students lacked an awareness of the impact of cultural diversity
- Some of our students expressed they avoided those of a different cultural heritage
- Some of our students expressed feeling challenged when communicating with others of a different culture
Proposed Actions:
- Incorporate college-wide cultural exercises to encourage exposure and awareness of diverse cultures
- Have annual or biannual International Day to allow for sharing and participation of students, faculty, and staff around cultural diversity
- Provide more campus-wide opportunities for collaboration and communication between those of differing cultures
- Rubric/Scoring Sheet
- Permission Form