Overview:

The purpose of the Doctor of Philosophy in Transcultural German Studies is to mentor each graduate student toward outstanding standards of scholarship and teaching, independent research, and professional excellence. The PhD in German Studies prepares students to become a working professional in the fields of literary studies, cultural studies, theoretical and applied linguistics, second language acquisition and teaching, and related professional disciplines.

Learning Outcome 1: The student displays competence as a generalist in German Studies scholarship across literary, cultural, applied linguistic, and Second Language Studies fields.

Learning Outcome 2: The student demonstrates intensive specialization in a scholarly emphasis—for instance, in gender studies, film studies, medieval studies, sociolinguistics, pragmatics, translation studies, foreign language curriculum development, etc.

Learning Outcome 3: The student demonstrates competence in a variety of professional contexts, including academic job interviews, conference presentations, scholarly organizations, and collegial dialogue.

Learning Outcome 4: The student demonstrates capacity to write and prepare publishable manuscripts for German Studies journals and related scholarly venues.

Learning Outcome 5: The student demonstrates teaching excellence at various levels of a foreign language (i.e. German) language, culture, and literature curriculum.

Learning Outcome 6:The student demonstrate advanced competence in German and English, and working knowledge of a third language.

Direct Measures of Learning Outcomes

Using the following rubric, allPhD students in German Studies are evaluated annually on the six learning outcomes by a committee of three Departmental faculty members.During the 2016-2017 academic year, there were10 PhD students associated with the department, and all were evaluated.

Student Learning Outcome / 1. Displays competence as a generalist in German Studies scholarship across literary, cultural, applied linguistic, and Second Language Studies fields / 2. Demonstrates intensive specialization in a scholarly emphasis—for instance, in gender studies, film studies, medieval studies, sociolinguistics, pragmatics, translation studies, foreign language curriculum development, etc. / 3. Demonstrates competence in a variety of professional contexts, including academic job interviews, conference presentations, scholarly organizations, and collegial dialogue
Exceeds expectations / The student has shown exemplary growth and achievement in displaying competence as a generalist in German Studies scholarship across literary, cultural, applied linguistic, and Second Language Studies fields. / The student has shown exemplary growth and achievement in demonstrating intensive specialization in a scholarly emphasis—for instance, in gender studies, film studies, medieval studies, sociolinguistics, pragmatics, translation studies, foreign language curriculum development, etc. / The student has shown exemplary growth and achievement in demonstrating competence in a variety of professional contexts, including academic job interviews, conference presentations, scholarly organizations, and collegial dialogue.
Meets expectations / The student has met expectations in displaying competence as a generalist in German Studies scholarship across literary, cultural, applied linguistic, and Second Language Studies fields. / The student has met expectations in demonstrating intensive specialization in a scholarly emphasis—for instance, in gender studies, film studies, medieval studies, sociolinguistics, pragmatics, translation studies, foreign language curriculum development, etc. / The student has met expectations in demonstrating competence in a variety of professional contexts, including academic job interviews, conference presentations, scholarly organizations, and collegial dialogue.
Does not meet expectations / The student falls short of expectations in displaying competence as a generalist in German Studies scholarship across literary, cultural, applied linguistic, and Second Language Studies fields. / The student falls short in demonstrating intensive specialization in a scholarly emphasis—for instance, in gender studies, film studies, medieval studies, sociolinguistics, pragmatics, translation studies, foreign language curriculum development, etc. / The student falls short of expectations in demonstrating competence in a variety of professional contexts, including academic job interviews, conference presentations, scholarly organizations, and collegial dialogue.
Student Learning Outcome / 4: Demonstrates capacity to write and prepare publishable manuscripts for German Studies journals and related scholarly venues. / 5: Demonstrates teaching excellence at various levels of a foreign language (i.e. German) language, culture, and literature curriculum. / 6:Demonstrates advanced competence in German and English, and working knowledge of a third language
Exceeds expectations / The student has shown exemplary growth and achievement in demonstrating capacity to write and prepare publishable manuscripts for German Studies journals and related scholarly venues. / The student has shown exemplary growth and achievement in demonstrating teaching excellence at various levels of a foreign language (i.e. German) language, culture, and literature curriculum. / The student has shown exemplary growth and achievement in demonstrating advanced competence in German and English, and working knowledge of a third language.
Meets expectations / The student has met expectations in demonstrating capacity to write and prepare publishable manuscripts for German Studies journals and related scholarly venues. / The student has met expectations in demonstrating continuous advancement in research methods and presentation in German Studies and related fields / The student has met expectations in demonstrating advanced competence in German and English, and working knowledge of a third language.
Does not meet expectations / The student falls short of expectations in demonstrating capacity to write and prepare publishable manuscripts for German Studies journals and related scholarly venues. / The student falls short of expectations in demonstrating teaching excellence at various levels of a foreign language (i.e. German) language, culture, and literature curriculum. / The student falls short of expectations in demonstrating advanced competence in German and English, and working knowledge of a third language.

The results of the faculty evaluations of PhD students are represented as follows:

Learning Outcome 1: The student displays competence as a generalist in German Studies scholarship across literary, cultural, applied linguistic, and Second Language Studies fields.

Learning Outcome 2: The student demonstrates intensive specialization in a scholarly emphasis—for instance, in gender studies, film studies, medieval studies, sociolinguistics, pragmatics, translation studies, foreign language curriculum development, etc.

Learning Outcome 3: The student demonstrates competence in a variety of professional contexts, including academic job interviews, conference presentations, scholarly organizations, and collegial dialogue.

Learning Outcome 4: The student demonstrates capacity to write and prepare publishable manuscripts for German Studies journals and related scholarly venues.

Learning Outcome 5: The student demonstrates teaching excellence at various levels of a foreign language (i.e. German) language, culture, and literature curriculum.

Learning Outcome 6:The student demonstrates advanced competence in German and English, and working knowledge of a third language.

Indirect Measures of Learning Outcomes

To further assess these learning outcomes, all PhD students were asked to describe the extent to which they feel prepared to complete the tasks described in the six learning outcomes. They were asked to locate themselves on a scale from 0–10 (0=strongly disagree; 10= strongly agree), and further were asked to provide narrative feedback for each outcome.

The mean results of all PhD students’ self-assessment on the six learning outcomes are as follows.

SLO1:I feel that I am able todisplay competence as a generalist in German Studies scholarship across literary, cultural, applied linguistic, and Second Language Studies fields.

SLO2:I feel that I am able to demonstrateintensive specialization in a scholarly emphasis—for instance, in gender studies, film studies, medieval studies, sociolinguistics, pragmatics, translation studies, foreign languagecurriculum development, etc.

SLO3: I feel that I am able to display scholarly and practical familiarity in applied linguistics, SecondLanguage Studies, and foreign language pedagogy

SLO4:I feel that I am able todemonstrate capacity to write and prepare publishable manuscripts for German Studies journals and related scholarly venues.

SLO5:I feel that I am able to demonstrate steady advancement in research methods andpresentation in German Studies and related fields.

SLO6:I feel that I am able to demonstrate advanced competence in German and English, and working knowledge of a third language.

Response to Findings

Assessment Results arepresentedperiodically atthe German Studies departmental meetings, in Executive Session. Discussions surrounding the results focus on how to best improve our curriculum, as well as the assessment procedures themselves. The results inform our course and curriculum design, student advising activities, and resource allocation.

In April 2017, a faculty committee consisting of four full-time German Studies professors met to review the direct and indirect measures data from AY 2016–2017 and to consider program-level responses. We noted that faculty members’ assessment of graduate student learning outcomes were generally in line with students’ self-assessment on the learning outcomes. This is a good sign for us, because it means that faculty and students are identifying similar strengths and weaknesses. Based on our assessment of these data, the committee was able to hone in on several areas where growth and further program development is necessary.

Students’ self-assessments and faculty assessments both called for greater program-level and curricular attention to:

  1. Professionalization and Collegial Development: Students in the PhD program seek a diverse range of professional-preparation activities that cannot be addressed adequately in semester-long courses. One clear message from students is that they intend to pursue a wide spectrum of professional careers after graduating. Only a minority of students intend to become university academics. This is important, because it means that our professional development activities need to address topics that many of career academics (such as current departmental faculty) are somewhat unfamiliar with. We will thus collaborate with the UA Graduate Center and other resources on campus to develop a professional development program that meets the needs of a broad spectrum of graduate students. Still, our PhD students do note a need for traditional academic professional development, including training on interviewing and publishing.
  2. Training in Applied Linguistics: Current students at the PhD level report a sense that they are weaker than they would like to be in applied linguistics methodologies—in comparison with culture and literature. We believe that one of the challenges lies in clarifying for students what the interdiscipline of applied linguistics is, how it differs from foreign language pedagogy, second language studies, historical linguistics, and non-applied forms of linguistics research. We recommend to the departmental faculty that more applied linguistics courses be offered in the regular course of graduate curricular planning.
  3. Advanced proficiency in German language: Particularly among incoming students, faculty and students equally report some weaknesses in German linguistic proficiency. We recommend a more exploratory proficiency assessment among prospective applicants in the course of the application and admission process, as well as an early identification (i.e. in Fall semester of students’ first year) of any deficiencies that must be addressed. We recommended that GER 575 become a free-standing graduate seminar focused on advanced German stylistics and discourse competence. Furthermore, we recommended that curricular planning reflect a balance between graduate courses taught in German and those taught in English.