Those universities that have been reviewed in the last two years, under the new Principles of Accreditation, have learned that engaging in institutional effectiveness requires specificity about learning expectations for the general curriculum and for the departmental and program curricula.

1. Begin with statement of department or program purpose, linked to the College's mission

2. Use active voice. For example: Students develop familiarity, NOT students will become familiar.

3. Specify and explicate broadly drawn expectations such as understand, develop, appreciate. Think about the expectations in terms of thresholds: how would you know if a student understands or appreciates? Alternatives might include the following: know, recognize, describe, use, demonstrate.

Example 1: Students will understand the fundamental principles; better: Students will be able to describe the fundamental principles

Example 2: Students will develop essential thinking and problem solving skills; better: students will be able to demonstrate thinking and problem solving skills in specific ways . . . .

Example 3: Students will be introduced to major figures; better: students will recognize and will be able to discuss the writings of major figures

Example 4: The concentration provides comprehensive exposure to a range of topics; better: students study diverse topics and will be able to describe the issues and use the methods of the field

Example 5: Courses provide comparative analyses; better: students read, write, and practice theoretical approaches and will be able to discuss their critical understandings of the respective strengths and weaknesses of those approaches

Example 6: Students are expected to understand fundamental conceptual and theoretical propositions; better: students will be able to describe fundamental conceptual and theoretical propositions

Example 7: Students comprehend; better: Students will be able to describe

Example 8: Students are taught the forms . . .; better: Students will know and will be able to describe

4. Describe expectations positively (as a necessity) rather than conditionally: students should be able to; better: students will be able to . . . .

5. Identify the most central student learning expectations rather than a laundry list of possible expectations

6. It may be useful to distinguish lower level expectations from higher level expectations, using Blooms taxonomy (as in Feiss original memo dated 6/25/03)