Housed in the Sociocultural Studies Department, History supports student success, completion and transfer. We strive to cultivate in students historical reasoning skills that facilitate life-long learning and that will help them to become contributing members of a diverse society.
History is the study of how the society we live in came to be. Through contemplation and analysis of historical materials, historians interpret the past and construct collective memory. The Associate Degree for Transfer in History supplies students with foundational knowledge in United States and World History, as well as with an introduction to the historical inquiry process. The degree offers two of four courses required in the CSU, Chico major core program, in addition to courses approved as electives in the general history option. With successful completion of the History program, the student will be able to: 1. Identify major developments in the history of the United States and of the world, and to examine the past from diverse perspectives. 2. Apply historical reasoning to the study of the past and to think in terms of causation, context, chronology, and change and continuity. 3. Utilize historical method through posing questions and conducting research, analyzing evidence, and articulating defensible conclusions The AA-T degree in History is a fairly recent development, listed for the first time in the 2012-2013 catalog. Since the 2014 academic year, 30 students have earned the degree. Currently, there are 107 students who have indicated History as their major. The courses that comprise the AA-T degree are also for Butte and transfer General Education. With about eighty sections offered each school year, History serves a significant number of students and meets an array of important General Education and transfer requirements. History course offerings are complimented by 2 courses listed under the Humanities discipline title. Currently, there are 2 full-time faculty in History, and 12 associate faculty. In Spring 2018, 80% of courses offered in History/Humanities are taught by associate faculty. A contributing factor, albeit small, to this percentage is that one of the full-time History instructors has substantial reassign time for other duties on campus.
Current SLO efforts in History center on increasing student engagement. This focus was motivated by oft repeated statements by faculty in their end-of-semester Brief Reflections, such as:
If students would just do all the homework assignments . . .
If students would come to class regularly . . .
If students would (or could) read the assigned materials . . .
My job is to teach History, not to motivate students . . .
There is too much material to cover; I don’t have time to teach them to read . . .In other words, there is a general feeling among History faculty that lack of student engagement is a significant obstacle to achievement of content-related course learning outcomes.
To begin to address this problem, 3 History instructors (along with 2 from Anthropology) formed a professional development Learning Group. In Fall 2017, the Learning Group read from Student Engagement Techniques: A Handbook for College Faculty, by Elizabeth Barkley, participated in online discussions, and met in person. Reading and discussion is continuing this Spring, along with testing techniques in our classes and sharing results.
The Learning Group will report to the larger department in Fall 2018.
Course Success
Course success rates in HIST are at the high end of a five-year range (FA 2012 - FA 2016): 64.7, 65, 62.9, 61.5 and 66.5%. However, the course success rate is significantly lower than the overall college standard of 70%, as well as the course success rate of 72.9% (2015-2016) for all Transfer/GE courses.
Degrees
Since the 2014 academic year, 30 students have earned the AA-T in History. Currently, there are 107 students who have indicated History as their major.
Transfer
According to the CSU Transfer Information website, there has been a total of 30 History transfers for the 2014, 2015, and 2016 academic years.
Findings
In discussions of our low course success rates, History faculty identify a number of teaching strategies that might lead to improvement. However, an obstacle to the effective implementation of new techniques has been our large class size (45). As a first step, History worked with the Curriculum Committee to lower History class sizes to 38 students, effective Fall 2017. As mentioned above, a few History instructors are participating in a Learning Group geared toward increasing student engagement. We will examine course success rates in the next few semesters to gauge if the reduction in class size (along with the use of new student engagement techniques) correlates to improved student outcomes.
Current efforts in the History program are classroom centered. Faculty are committed to excellence in the teaching of rich and rigorous course content. Surprisingly, there does not seem to be anything in the Strategic Direction that directly speaks to this, our core mission. This comes closest:
Creating a culture of meaningful interactions with students. (2.a.1)
To support these classroom efforts, in conjunction with ANTH, GEOG, and POS faculty, instructors in History participate in annual Sociocultural Studies Department Forums. The first forum was held in Spring 2015, and included presentations on Reading Strategies, Helping International Students Succeed, and Tried-and-Test Teaching Ideas. Held in Fall 2015, the second forum included presentations on Helping Student Athletes Succeed, No/Low Cost Textbooks, and Tried-and-Tested Teaching Ideas. Forum topics are "just-in-time" and meant to help instructors with recent and/or ongoing teaching challenges. The October 2016 forum included presentations on "Facilitating Difficult Conversations in the Classroom," "Library Resources," and "GIS Applications in SCS Classrooms." In our October 2017 event, we had two presentations focused on using Canvas as well as a Fair Classrooms presentation. The SCS Department Forum supports the college mission to meet this Strategic Direction:
Employee Development (2.b.1-4)
History completed its most recent Program Review in May 2010, in conjunction with the Humanities and Philosophy disciplines. Of the Validation Team's ten Recommendations, eight are applicable to History/Humanities. Below is an abbreviated version of the Recommendations, with comments.
- Continue and expand offerings of theme-based history classes. *** History's experiment with theme-based classes was short-lived; the effort was abandoned after one semester. This was not due to lack of interest, though, on the part of students and instructors. Rather, there were logistical obstacles within our current systems (scheduling, classroom space, associate faculty seniority). There is hope that the Guided Pathways model under consideration by Butte College might introduce new avenues (and relevance) for theme-based history classes.
- Two new full-time history instructors to replace retirement and resignations. *** Still to be addressed.
- Evaluate the placement and viability of courses in the Humanities discipline. *** All but two courses in the Humanities discipline have been deleted. The two that remain provide content in the history of Western Civilizations -- areas no longer offered in History (due to changes at the CSU) but desired by some students seeking transfer to a UC. Low enrollments in HUM 17 and HUM 22 in recent semesters, and the college's new program-centered approach, mean that further evaluation of the viability of HUM courses is needed.
- Cross-list HIST 18 with MCS and reapply for HIST 18 to meet the U. S. History requirement for CSU and IGETC. *** Cross-listing of courses is now discouraged by the College's Curriculum Committee. In Fall 2017, HIST 18 was submitted to the CSU to meet the U. S. History requirement; we are awaiting approval.
- Complete SLO assessments and Curriculum Review in the Humanities discipline. *** The Humanities curriculum is current. While assessments are conducted regularly in Humanities courses, there has not been follow through in terms of reporting of "deep dives" in CurricUNET.
- Continue to work on assessment of PLOs. *** History did not have true PLOs back in 2010, as we didn't have a program (degree). Since then, we have implemented the AA-T in History with specific PLOs. Our PLOs are aligned with course SLOs, and PLO assessment has occur through assessments at the course level. A goal for 2018-2019 is to re-conceptualize our deep dive assessment schedule to make it more sustainable and to be more centered on PLOs.
- Work with Administration to ensure adequate and appropriate work space for part-time faculty. *** At the time, associate faculty had just lost access to dedicated work space in the LRC building. Since then, several offices in the LRC have been designated as associate faculty offices.
- Consider providing stipends for part-time faculty to help with department work. *** History had a much larger budget at the time of this Recommendation. It is no longer feasible with our existing budget. And besides, an institution-wide policy/fund for stipending associate faculty would be more appropriate and fair.
- In support of Guided Pathways, sustain a well-defined outreach program to guide and support students who have declared or who are considering a major in History. These efforts will be informed by regular tracking of students who have completed the History program, and collaboration with our Chico State colleagues.
- Identify root causes of History's lower than average course success rate and introduce teaching strategies in order to reach the college standard.
- Hire one full-time History instructor.
- Enhance comprehensive SLO/PLO/GELO analysis and reporting by rebuilding the deep dive assessment schedule, and by increasing associate faculty participation in assessment activities and dialogue.
Strategy 1 - Support of Majors
Promotion Strategies:
Tracking Strategies:
To maximize student completion and success, the History degree program must be thoughtfully stewarded. Students must be made aware of the existence of the degree, the potential benefits (and limitations) upon transfer, career prospects, and how best to move through our program and to the next level.
Strategy 2 - Course Success Rate Study
During Fall 2018, the department chair will organize a meeting of History faculty with an institutional researcher to review and analyze student success data, including equity focused data. From the discussion, next steps, strategies and a timeline will be developed for the 2018-2019 academic year.
Course success rates in HIST are at the high end of a five-year range (FA 2012 - FA 2016): 64.7, 65, 62.9, 61.5 and 66.5%. However, the course success rate is significantly lower than the overall college standard of 70%, as well as the course success rate of 72.9% (2015-2016) for all Transfer/GE courses.
Strategy 3 - Hire Full-time Instructor
Hire one full-time faculty member to replace a 2007 resignation and a 2006 retirement in History.
History has 2 full-time faculty. The last full-time hire in History was in 2002. That hire brought the total number of full-time faculty positions in History to 4. Since then, a retirement and a resignation reduced the number of full-time History faculty by half. History had a one-year interim hire for 2006-2007. The interim position ended in May 2007. Finally, full-time instructor Charles Turner is expected to retire in the near future.
The discipline relies heavily on associate faculty. With another full-time instructor, we can better provide the kind of consistency and support for the discipline that is needed: to oversee curriculum matters; to steward the degree program and mentor students therein; to form and maintain relationships with high school and four year programs; to spearhead meaningful assessments and implement improvements; and to meet reporting requirements for Student Learning Outcomes, Unit Planning, and Program Review.
Strategy 4 - Enhance SLO Participation
The department chair will facilitate the semester SLO meeting (before the eighth week) -- giving a complete overview of current processes, sharing SLO work completed thus far in the discipline, providing a guide sheet for faculty participation, and soliciting suggestions for making the work meaningful. A tangible product of this meeting will be a refreshed deep dive assessment schedule/strategy for the program.
At the January 2017 Institute Night meeting, History associate faculty expressed a general unawareness of the assessment schedule and a lack of understanding of the utility of SLOs other than as a checkbox. Additionally, our current deep dive schedule is too complex and difficult to sustain.
The Butte College General Fund is the sole source of financial support for the History discipline. The annual budget allocation is $995.
| Original Priority | Program, Unit, Area | Resource Type | Account Number | Object Code | One Time Augment | Ongoing Augment |
| Description | Supporting Rationale | Potential Alternative Funding Sources | Prioritization Criteria | |||
| 1 | HIST, SCS, Monlux | Personnel | $0.00 | $109,877.00 | ||
| Full-Time Faculty Hire | History has 2 full-time faculty. The last full-time hire in History was in 2002. That hire brought the total number of full-time faculty positions in History to 4. Since then, a retirement and a resignation reduced the number of full-time History faculty by half. History had a one-year interim hire for 2006-2007. The interim position ended in May 2007. Further, full-time instructor Charles Turner is expected to retire in the near future. The discipline relies heavily on associate faculty. With another full-time instructor, we can better provide the kind of consistency and support for the discipline that is needed: to oversee curriculum matters; to steward the degree program and mentor students therein; to form and maintain relationships with high school and four year programs; to spearhead meaningful assessments and implement improvements; and to meet reporting requirements for Student Learning Outcomes, Unit Planning, and Program Review. |
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