Anthropology
- Mission Statment
The overall mission of the Anthropology Major Program is to provide students with holistic, comparative knowledge about human biological and cultural differences and similarities world-wide and through time derived from anthropological research and theories. The program strives to produce students with anthropological experience in research, analysis, and interpretation and a strong sense of anthropology’s relevance to the world today. Students are taught to question and examine the significance of beliefs, attitudes and prejudices toward human differences and similarities and to be informed of the anthropological position of relativism and valuing cultural and biological variation. The program prepares students for a broad range of both public and private sector employment in anthropology-related fields or to enter professional or graduate schools appropriate to their interests.
- Student Learning Outcomes
- Certificate
Students completing the Archeological Technician Certificate will:
- Associate Degree
Students completing the Associate of Applied Science in Archeological Technician degree will:
- Bachelor Degree
At the end of their study at WSU, students completing the Bachelor of Arts or Science in Anthropology or Anthropology, Archeology Track will:
- Understand human biological and cultural differences and similarities across the world and through time in terms of anthropological descriptions (data) and explanations (theories).
- Understand the nature of the four specialized fields within anthropology (archaeology, biological anthropology, anthropological linguistics, and cultural anthropology), and how these interrelate to provide a holistic approach to documenting human differences and similarities across the world and through time.
- Be proficient in basic anthropological concepts and terminology.
- Know the processes of theory formation and how various theories have been developed, applied, and evaluated throughout the history of the discipline of anthropology.
- Be familiar with a variety of anthropological research methods and analytic techniques.
- Be able to apply critical thinking and reasoning skills to anthropological problems and issues.
- Be able to write, speak, and communicate about anthropological issues.
- Be aware of human prejudice and discrimination (e.g., racism, ethnocentrism, sexism, anthropocentrism), and the anthropological insights and alternatives which value the broad range of human behavior and adaptations.
Upon successfully completing ANTH 1040 (i.e., achieving a final grade of D or higher), WSU students will:- Demonstrate knowledge of diverse philosophical, communicative, linguistic, or literary traditions, as well as of key themes, concepts, issues, terminology, and ethical standards in humanities disciplines. Analyze cultural artifacts within a given discipline, and, when appropriate, across disciplines, time periods, and cultures. Demonstrate their ability to effectively communicate their understanding of humanities materials in written, oral, or graphic forms. Ecological interactions – All organisms, including humans, interact with their environment and other living organisms. Genetics and evolution – Shared genetic processes and evolution by natural selection are universal features of all life. Metabolism and homeostatis – Living things obtain and use energy, and maintain homeostasis via organized chemical reactions known as metabolism. Levels of organization – All life shares an organization that is based on molecules and cells and extends to organisms and ecosystems. Problem solving and data analysis – Science relies on empirical data, and such data must be analyzed, interpreted, and generalized in a rigorous manner. Science and society – The study of science provides explanations that have significant impact on society, including technological advancements, improvement of human life, and better understanding of human and other influences on the earth’s environment.
Measurable Learning Outcomes – Life Sciences General Education course:- Upon successfully completing ANTH 1020 (i.e., achieving a final grade of D or higher), WSU students will demonstrate an understanding of the Nature of science – Scientific knowledge is based on evidence that is repeatedly examined, and can change with new information. Scientific explanations differ fundamentally from those that are not scientific.
- The Integration of science – All natural phenomena are interrelated and share basic organizational principles. Scientific explanations obtained from different disciplines should be cohesive and integrated. Be able to identify a commonly debated socio-cultural phenomenon (e.g, the origin of religion; the advent of agriculture) and present different explanations for its development or practice. Be able to apply basic anthropological concepts, theories, and/or research methods to a particular cultural practice and identify factors that could effect change in that institution.
Measurable Learning Outcomes – Social Sciences General Education courses:
- Upon successfully completing ANTH 1000, 2010, and 2030 (i.e., achieving a final grade of C or higher), WSU students will be able to describe how people influence, and are influenced by, social practices (e.g., kinship systems and post marital residence patterns), the physical environment in which they live, and/or globalization.
- Certificate
- Curriculum Grid
- Program and Contact Information
The Anthropology Program is located in the Department of Sociology & Anthropology within the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. It provides undergraduate education in anthropology for students wishing to complete degrees that include the Anthropology Major, Anthropology Minor, Archaeological Technician Certificate or Applied Associate of Science Degree, or BIS emphases. It also serves students seeking general education, diversity credits, or who wish to take anthropology courses for interest, and provides appropriate anthropological services, resources, and activities to the region that the university serves. Unique features of the program include a holistic, four-field approach to anthropology with its fields of archaeology, linguistics, ethnology and biological anthropology. The anthropological philosophical perspective views humans and their behavior within the context of long-term interactions and adaptations among biological, cultural, and environmental factors. The major has a two-track program option: General Anthropology or Archaeology. The program also offers both an Archaeological Field School and a two-week Study-Abroad experience program during most summers.
Contact Information:
Dr. Brooke Arkush, Professor of Anthropology and Program Coordinator
Department of Sociology and Anthropology
Weber State University
1299 Edvalson St., Dept 1208
Ogden, Utah 84408-1208
(801) 626-7202
barkush@weber.edu - Assessment Plan
Persons Responsible for Collecting and Analyzing the Data:
- The full-time faculty of the anthropology program will serve as the Assessment Committee to oversee and implement the department’s assessment plan, with the Coordinator of Anthropology serving as the committee chair.
Assessment Measures to be used:
- The Anthropology assessment plan examines student outcomes for majors using the following direct and indirect measures. (To increase reliability and ensure validity at least two measures will be used for each outcome.)
DIRECT MEASURES (DM):
1. Course-specific assessment results
2. Grade point averages of graduating seniors:
A. Anthropology GPA’s
B. Cumulative GPA’s3. Grades of graduating seniors:
A. Per course in required courses ANTH 4200 and 4300 in achieving Program Learning Outcomes
B. Cumulative grade patterns of those courses with High ratings in achieving central Program Learning Outcomes
INDIRECT MEASURES (IM):
1. Student course evaluations: For core and specific courses with High ratings in achieving central Program Learning Outcomes
2. Periodic focus groups of majors
3. Exit interviews of graduating seniors
4. Alumni surveys: Institutional data on: job placement; graduate and professional school acceptance; other significant accomplishments
5. Verbal and written feedback from individual graduates
Schedule of Assessment:
- Data from direct measures (DM) will be collected and compiled for several Anthropology courses each year. For data pertaining to indirect measures (IM), exit interviews will be collected annually, but data from alumni surveys will be gathered on a rotational basis with each measure examined every two to three years. Analysis of the data will typically occur during autumn semester with any needed changes to the program to be identified and addressed as soon as possible. Our goal is to assess each Anthropology course that is offered on a regular basis (and that receives sufficient enrollments) at least once every five years.
Assessment Plan Chart:
STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES:
HOW ASSESSED:
1. Understanding human biological & cultural differences & similarities across time & space
DM: 1 – 3; IM: 1 & 3; four courses: ANTH 3100, 3200, 3600, and 3900
2. Understanding the four fields
DM: 1 – 3; IM: 1 & 3; five courses: ANTH 1000, 1020, 1040, 2010, and 2030
3. Proficiency in concepts & terms
DM: 1 – 3; IM: 1 & 3; four courses: ANTH 3100, 3200, 3400, and 4200
4. Knowledge of theory & history
DM: 1 – 3; IM: 1 - 5 ; three courses: ANTH 4100, 4200, and 4300
5. Familiarity with research methods
DM: 1 - 3; IM: 1 – 5; five courses: ANTH 3300, 3400, 4100, 4300, and SOC 3600
6. Critical thinking & reasoning
DM: 1 – 3; IM: 1 & 3; seven courses: ANTH 3200, 3500, 3600, 3900, 4100, 4200, and 4300
7. Speaking, writing & communication
DM: 1 – 3; IM: 1 & 3; seven courses: ANTH 3200, 3400, 3600, 3900, 4100, 4200, and 4300
8. Awareness of anthropological values
DM: 1 – 3; IM: 1 – 5; three courses: ANTH 3500, 3600, and 3900
Assessment Plan Cycle:
- The Anthropology Program will implement a 5-year course assessment cycle in order to evaluate its success in achieving the eight above-listed student learning outcomes. Only those courses with explicit levels for learning outcomes will be assessed on a regular basis.
2015 – 2016 AY: three upper division Archaeology Track courses (ANTH 3100, 3200, and 4100)
2016 – 2017 AY: three upper division General Anthropology Track courses (ANTH 3500, 3600, and 3900)
2017 – 2018 AY: General Education courses (ANTH 1000, 1020, 1040, 2010, and 2030)
2018 – 2019 AY: primary Major core courses (ANTH 4200 and 4300; SOC 3600) - Assessment Report Submissions
- 2021-2022
- 2019-2020
1) First year student success is critical to WSU’s retention and graduation efforts. We are interested in finding out how departments support their first-year students. Do you have mechanisms and processes in place to identify, meet with, and support first-year students? Please provide a brief narrative focusing on your program’s support of new students:
Any first-year students taking courses in your program(s).
- The bulk of our students are first year students taking gen ed classes. We see this body of students as being very important as Utah has no Anthropology in the high schools. We are having the college advisors make a presentation to the 1000 classes on how to manages the complex routes through gen ed.
Students declared in your program(s), whether or not they are taking courses in your program(s)
- Majors 89
- Minors 38
- BIS 1
2) A key component of sound assessment practice is the process of ‘closing the loop’ – that is, following up on changes implemented as a response to your assessment findings, to determine the impact of those changes/innovations. It is also an aspect of assessment on which we need to improve, as suggested in our NWCCU mid-cycle report. Please describe the processes your program has in place to ‘close the loop’.
- We make extensive use of the Starfish system. The number of Advisement sessions with majors and Dr. Holt has increased 50%.
Anthropology Program goals
2018
Increase efforts at community outreach, particularly AP high school students and Anthropology as an attractive major and minor. Continue our experiential learning opportunities in archaeology and internships
Revise and update curriculum offering more flexible offerings, with special attention to our service classes, a new capstone class has been submitted to Curriculog
Increase advising interactions, internships and study abroad opportunities as we increase the number of our minor and BIS students
- In the fall we joined the National Anthropology Honorary Lambda Alpha as part of alumni effort. (8 inducted) and Added a Capstone Anthropology Class and revised and updated our curriculum to fit with the new Capstone. We have had several faculty and student presentations in 1-12 schools.
- We offer a large number of general education classes including four different colleges/ categories (social science, life science, humanities and diversity), and we will be reevaluating our classes to include the addition of content regarding career application of disciplinary knowledge. Pursuant to revisions to the WSU Gen Ed curriculum, our General Education courses are also being revised to include signature assignments which feature the application of disciplinary knowledge to the solution of ‘wicked problems’ such as climate change (e.g. ANTH 2010 – Stevenson)
The full report is available for viewing.
- 2017
1) Based on your program’s assessment findings, what subsequent action will your program take?
- We will examine our current assessment efforts and our mission statement to see if you can find ways to improve both.
2) Are there assessment strategies within your department or program that you feel are particularly effective and/or innovative? If so, what are those strategies and what do you learn about your students by using them?
- The use of logs, short papers, and journal article reviews in Anthropology courses are effective methods for assessing student learning. Bottom Line Up front (BLUF) power point slide presentations increase students’ abilitiy to be concise and clear and give informative oral presentations. These assignments are strong indicators of how well students understand basic anthropological concepts, as well as their ability to apply relevant terminology and theory to short writing assignments as well as longer final research papers.
The full report is available.
- 2016
The Anthropology Department conducted a 5 year program review with full self-study during the spring of 2016. Those results are presented in place of the Annual Assessment. Please reference those documents for information that includes data for the 2015/16 academic year.
- 2015
1) Based on your program’s assessment findings, what subsequent action will your program take?
- We will do our best to offer more sections of ANTH 1020 (Biological Anthropology) and 1040 (Language and Culture) during the fall and spring semesters because there is high student demand for these courses.
2) Are there assessment strategies within your department or program that you feel are particularly effective and/or innovative? If so, what are those strategies and what do you learn about your students by using them.
- The use of logs, short papers, and journal article reviews in Anthropology general education courses are effective methods for assessing student learning. These assignments are strong indicators of how well students understand basic anthropological concepts, as well as their ability to apply relevant terminology and theory to short writing assignments.
- Some sections of ANTH 1000 (Introduction to Anthropology) use weekly online reading quizzes to assess student understanding of course material and concepts. Each week, students in these sections must answer 5 questions based on important points from the course reading, which assesses whether or not students understand key concepts.
The full report is available for viewing.
- 2014
1) Reflecting on this year’s assessment(s), how does the evidence of student learning impact your faculty’s confidence in the program being reviewed; how does that analysis change when compared with previous assessment evidence?
- Unlike the courses evaluated in our previous assessment evidence, ANTH 3300 (Archaeological Field Methods) and ANTH 3400 (Archaeological Laboratory Techniques) are courses required only for the specialist Archaeology Track of the Anthropology Program and as such specifically address technical and analytical skills appropriate to that track. The results suggest that the courses are successful at making the link between the classroom and field research that is critical within Anthropology as a whole and specifically in the Archaeology subfield.
2) With whom did you share the results of this year’s assessment efforts?
- We have shared, or will share, results of the current learning assessment effort with our Department Chair, Dean, Provost, and several of our program’s Community Partners.
3) Based on your program’s assessment findings, what subsequent action will your program take?
- At this time, we do not plan to implement any major curricular changes.
The full report is available for viewing.
- 2013
1) Reflecting on this year’s assessment(s), how does the evidence of student learning impact your faculty’s confidence in the program being reviewed; how does that analysis change when compared with previous assessment evidence?
- When compared with evidence of student learning from last fall’s assessment study, data from the current year reflects a similar of, or slight increase in, achievement level of most program learning goals, although the courses that were assessed this year are three upper division offerings as opposed to the five General Education courses that were evaluated last year. These current data indicate that our program’s Major core courses provide students with a broad overview of general anthropological theory and research methodology as well as basic quantitative analysis. Several Anthropology graduates who have gone on to graduate programs have told us that the Anthropological Theory course that they completed here provided them with an excellent background in this topic and allowed them to excel in graduate level theory courses that they recently completed (at the University of New Mexico, for example).
2) With whom did you share the results of this year’s assessment efforts?
- We have shared, or will share, results of the current learning assessment effort with our Department Chair, Dean, Provost, and several of our program’s Community Partners.
3) Based on your program’s assessment findings, what subsequent action will your program take?
- At this time, we do not plan to implement any major curricular changes. We are, however, considering revising our indirect measures by adding graduate feedback solicited via our program’s web site.
To access the full report, select this link: Anthropology 2012/13 Annual Assessment Report.
- 2021-2022
- Program Review