Making anthropology relevant: Collaborative assessment in support of graduate and undergraduate success beyond the university

Abstract

While team‐based and interdisciplinary research is increasingly common for anthropologists and other researchers, pedagogical strategies for integrating hands‐on training in this area is underexplored. As anthropologists reflect on how to prepare the next generation of researchers, this article addresses a strategy for designing and assessing undergraduate assignments that provides undergraduate and graduate students experiences that are transferable to interdisciplinary and team‐based projects. I argue that a collaborative assessment approach to undergraduate applied anthropology assignments based on a model for developing team‐based codebooks by MacQueen et al. (2008) can support graduate and undergraduate students in acquiring skills for their future careers. Drawing on several years of experience teaching medium‐to‐large enrolling introductory cultural anthropology courses, this article illustrates how a collaborative assessment approach offers graduate teaching assistants hands‐on experience with navigating team‐based projects and codebook development as well as supports undergraduate students in refining their critical thinking and writing skills interdisciplinarily.

Mapping Assessment in Anthropology: Using Team‐Based Qualitative Methodology to Create Learning Objectives and Evaluate Outcomes

“…The result is a framework that retains context and situational knowledge, two important tenets of the discipline. In terms of its potential to narrow the learning gap for some students, the examples and criteria for complete and incomplete responses that make up the grading guidebooks can be used to create practice worksheets and in‐class support materials that target those areas that students struggle with the most (Ricke ).…”

“…As Ricke () illustrates, the examples and common problems outlined in the grading guidebooks can easily be turned into practice worksheets for undergraduates to help target the areas in which they struggle. In addition, the grading guidebook that is created in conjunction with the assessment can be used as professional development to concisely and consistently introduce new faculty and graduate teaching assistants to department expectations for a particular course while retaining their creativity and autonomy in the course assignments and content (Ricke ).…”

“…As Ricke () illustrates, the examples and common problems outlined in the grading guidebooks can easily be turned into practice worksheets for undergraduates to help target the areas in which they struggle. In addition, the grading guidebook that is created in conjunction with the assessment can be used as professional development to concisely and consistently introduce new faculty and graduate teaching assistants to department expectations for a particular course while retaining their creativity and autonomy in the course assignments and content (Ricke ). Just as anthropologists recognize patterns in their data and use those to propose strategies to address real‐world issues, basing assessment on team‐based qualitative data analysis techniques can lead to discussions at the department and discipline level of how best to maximize the learning of complex anthropological concepts in one semester and better support students, especially those who have been historically underrepresented at universities.…”

“…Thus, there is both a need to explicitly connect the use of team‐based qualitative data analysis methodology to the assessment process and introduce faculty in different departments to a potentially useful set of team‐based strategies for their own research. While not a replacement for actual training in the methodology, the exposure to the steps and procedures as argued in Ricke () can still be a beneficial introduction.…”

Building Bridges: Using a Local Conference to Facilitate Conversations and Collaborations Around Applied Anthropology

“…[Program Development, Conferences, Networking] I n t r o d u c t i o n D eveloping professional skills is critically important for students planning applied careers. From a programmatic standpoint, applied skills can be taught through classroom instruction; hands-on experiences such as service learning, field schools, or internships; and applied thesis projects and other student-led research (see Copeland et al 2016;Ricke 2018;Schalge, Pajunen, and Brotherton 2018;Stein et al 2016, for example).…”