Literary study, measurement, and the sublime
Subtitle: disciplinary assessment
By: Donna Heiland and Laura J. Rosenthal, editors, with the assistance of Cheryl Ching
Publisher: Teagle Foundation
Published: 2011
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 374
ISBN-13: 9780983123613
Subjects: Literature; Study and teaching (Higher); Educational evaluation
Description: Explores what is at stake in the work of assessment in the literature classroom, what we stand to gain, what we fear to lose, and whether current assessment methods can capture the outcomes we care about most: the complex, subtle, seemingly ineffable heart of learning. The essays in this volume are divided into four sections that focus on: outcomes assessment in the context of current national discussions of higher education and the work being done by various professional organizations; approaches to assessing "sublime learning" (that is, learning that can seem unassessable) and creativity; the question of what outcomes assessment can measure in the literature classroom, as well as the theoretical and political implications of doing so; case studies and templates for the assessment of literature programs, with related discussions of the assessment of writing and foreign language acquisition.--From publisher's description.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: [Part 1.] Assessment, liberal education, and literary study; title: Transformative learning: mine and theirs / Carol Geary Schnieder; title: Making the case for discipline-based assessment / Rachelle L. Brooks; title: Where has assessment been in the Modern Language Association?: a disciplinary perspective / Rosemary G. Feal, David Laurence, and Stephen Olsen; title: Measuring the humanities: the slippery slope from assessment to standardization / Michael Holquist; title: [Part 2.] Sublimity, creativity, and learning; title: The pygmies in the cage: the function of the sublime in Longinus / W. Robert Connor; title: Approaching the ineffable: flow, sublimity, and student learning / Donna Heiland; title: Fearful symmetries: rubrics and assessment / Sarah Webster Goodwin; title: Posthumanist measures: elephants, assessment, and the return of creativity / Lucinda Cole; title: Assessment in literary education / Charles Altieri; title: [Part 3.] Politics, institutions, and disciplinary goals; title: Assessment, literary study, and disciplinary futures / Laura J. Rosenthal; title: The future of literary criticism: assessment, the curricularized classroom, and thick reading / Charles M. Tung; title: A progressive case for educational standardization: how not to respond to calls for common standards / Gerald Graff and Cathy Birkenstein; title: English departments, assessment, and organizational learning / David Mazella; title: [Part 4.] Case studies and templates; title: From skepticism to measured enthusiasm: the story of two literary scholars' introduction to assessment in the major / Kirsten T. Saxton and Ajuan Maria Mance; title: A cautionary tale about system-wide assessment in the State University of New York: why and how faculty voices can and must unite / Pat Belanoff and Tina Good; title: Reading foreign literature critically: definitions and assessment / Jenny Bergeron and Russel A. Berman; title: The collaborative world languages department: a teamwork approach to assessing student learning outcomes / José G. Ricardo-Osorio; title: How to construct a simple, sensible, useful department assessment process / Barbara E. Walvoord.