Student Portfolio

Scope

All liberal arts and secondary education history majors must submit a portfolio of their work to the History Department for the purpose of programmatic assessment. It is expected that portfolios will provide developmental rather than summary evidence of your performance and that portfolio artifacts will reflect the Department's learning outcomes.

Portfolio Artifacts & Common Artifacts

All student portfolios will include two common artifacts. These artifacts are the main paper from both:

• History 200 The Nature of Historical Inquiry
• History 361 Research Seminar (liberal arts majors)

Or

• History 362 Reading Seminar (secondary education majors)
• Distribution Artifacts

All student portfolios will include three additional artifacts from History courses taken at the 300 level representing the areas of Western, Non-Western, and United States History. These artifacts may include book reviews, precis, research papers, primary source analyses, reaction papers, exams, etc.

• History 3XX Western
• History 3XX Non-Western
• History 3XX United States

Submission Dates

Liberal arts students must submit their portfolios upon the conclusion of their programmatic requirements in History. For most of you, this will occur in your senior year following completion of your History 361 seminar paper. The submission is required for completion of the course. Secondary education students submit their portfolios in a two-stage process. All artifacts, except the seminar paper, must be submitted prior to taking SED 410, the History/Social Studies practicum. The seminar paper must be submitted upon completion of the practicum. Remember, the portfolio is an admission requirement for student teaching.

Secondary education students must also take the Praxis II Content Exam as part of the admission process for student teaching.

Learning Outcomes

As outcomes of their education, within the overall History major, students learn and are able to:

1. Understand how historians gather, interpret and analyze a wide range of primary and secondary source data/material (including literary, geographical, political and socio-economic material) and how historians construct a coherent narrative from this information.
2. Demonstrate the skills of historical analysis and interpretation, such as compare and contrast, differentiate between historical facts and interpretation, consider multiple perspectives, analyze cause and effect relationships, compare competing historical narratives, recognize the tentative nature of historical interpretation and analyze the influence of the past.
3. Think chronologically and comprehensively, identifying temporal structures of historical narratives and comprehending the meanings of historical texts, monographs and documents, including their audiences, goals, perspectives and biases.
4. Develop research capabilities that enable them to formulate historical questions and themes, obtain and question historical data, identify the gaps in available records, place sources in context, and construct reliable historical interpretations.
5. Demonstrate their knowledge of the history, culture and values of diverse peoples and traditions throughout the world and compare patterns of continuity and change.
6. Understand the historical context for the interaction and interdependence of politics, society, science and technology in a variety of cultural settings.
7. Formulate and explain their own interpretations of the past by examining and communicating them with clarity and precision in a variety of oral and written assignments.
8. Demonstrate research skills utilizing the full-range of available materials including those found in libraries, archives, museums and electronic resources.
9. Demonstrate the skills necessary to be an independent and lifelong learner.