Apostasy of an “Anti-Assessment” Curmudgeon: Developing a Geographic Concept Inventory for Assessing Program-Level Learning Outcomes in a Department of Geography

Abstract

Apostasy is defined as the abandonment or renunciation of a religious or political belief. This article describes the apostasy of a professor of geography with respect to their initial hostility toward the utility of learning outcomes assessments. This apostasy motivated the development of assessment instruments that could provide evidence that graduating geography and environmental science majors possessed more skills and knowledge and confidence in their skills and knowledge than they did as incoming first-year students. The instruments we developed for learning outcomes assessment are described and presented. Qualitative and statistical analyses of several years of data demonstrate statistically significant improvements in the objective quizzes and self-assessments of the graduating students. The results provided a satisfying body of evidence suggesting that the teaching and learning taking place in our department are effective while also identifying some issues we need to address. These data provide a mechanism for the faculty to reflect on our curriculum and teaching practices to identify ways to improve them. These instruments are used on an on-going basis to inform departmental program reviews, to field inquiries from accreditation teams, and to promote the department within the university.