ERIC ED341677: Building a Knowledge Base Using the Computer To Respond to Information Processing Tasks of the NCATE Review.

12 Pages·0.44 MB·English

by  ERIC

SP 033 568
ED 341 677
AUTHOR
Smith, Gary R.
Building a Knowledge Base Using the Computer To
TITLE
Respond to Information Processing Tasks of the NCATE
Review.
Jan 92
PUB DATE
NOTE
12p.
Reports - Descriptive (141)
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Course Descriptions; *Database Management Systems;
DESCRIPTORS
*Databases; Evaluation Criteria; Faculty; Higher
Education; *Information Processing; *Mamagement
Information Systems; Program Descriptions; *Program
Evaluation; Resumes (Personal); *Teacher Education
Programs
Knowledge Bases; *National Assn for Accreditation of
IDENTIFIERS
Teacher Educ
ABSTRACT
This paper describes an approach to information
processing developed by Wayne State University (Detroit, Michigan)
pi.or to a School of Education accreditation review by the National
Association for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE).
Information was needed to provide persuasive evidence in %:esponse to
each NCATE criterion. The information processing task included
building a data base, selecting a search and retrieval system, and
testing the entire system with faculty and administration prior to
arrival of the reviewers. The data base consisted of four components:
(1) course syllabi; (2) faculty resumes; (3) a description of all
programs; and (4) instructional program documentation. The focus of
this discussion is on: technical information with respect to entering
data into the computer; information processing tasks; text analysis
using the Basic Information Retrieval System (BIRS); and the writing
of original computer programs. Five tables are appended: (1) Topics
Included in the Common Format Used for All Course Syllabi; (2)
Selected Topics Included in the Common Format for the Faculty Resume;
(3) Common Format Used To Describe Programs Offered by College;
(4)
Format Used for Instructional Program Documentation; and (5) Terms
Selected from NCATE Criterion #20 and Used in BIRS. (LL)
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Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made
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Computer
the
Using
Base
Knowledge
Building
a
Tasks
Processing
Information
to
to
Respond
tne NCATE Review
of
b y
Professor
Smith,
Gary
R.
Education
of
College
University
State
Wayne
Michigan
Detroit,
January
1992
U S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
-PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS
Office ov Educational Resealth and londrovament
MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY
EOUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION
)
CENTER (ERIC)
IY
1.-rok-LL
This document has Mien reproduced at
_
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Of KOMating it
:- Minor changes have bean made to Improve
repfOdUCtiOn quality
Point of wee of dpInlont Stated in Iffe
TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES
men! dd 01 nemesurffy fOrelnt ofhaal
Of RI polfhoff of pObry
INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)."
2
BEST COPY HANLE
BUILDING A KNOWLEDGE BASE USING THE COMPUTER
TO RESPOND TO INFORMATION PROCESSING TASKS
OF THE NCATE REVIEW
A major part of preparing for an accreditation review by
the
(NCATE) is
National Association for Accreditation of Teacher Education
information about the
programs,
unit's
concerned with collecting
capacity
describing those elements in clear prose, and establishing the
each NCATE criterion.
to provide persuasive evidence in response to
includes
which
task,
processing
information
primarily
an
is
It
appropriate search and
suitable data base, selecting an
building a
system with
faculty
and
system, and
entire
rete-val
testing
the
administration prior to arrival of the NCATE team of reviewers.
of the
During 1989 and 1990, the faculty and administration
documents
College of Education at Wayne State University assembled
and defined procedures which would be used
the
respond
to
to
well as the
challenging tasks of an accreditation review by NCATE as
review
internal
by
of
and
Education
an
Department
Michigan
believe that this brief description of
colleagues at the University. We
information processing task may be helpful
to
our approach to the
reviews.
faculty in other colleges who are preparing for similar
We believe
Major Components in Data Base
that
the
primary indicators of the knowledge base
muse syllabi provide the
insisted that all courses
which is in place at the institution. We have
format which is
offered by the College be described using a common
It contains the essential elements tu describe a
illustrated in Table 1.
to know before
which students are entitled
course and information
the course begins.
thz, course objectives,
For each course, the syllabus must state
text required, suggested
the class assignments or activities, the basic
and grading which the
of evaluation
and the
process
references,
the syllabus should 3lso
will use. As shown in Table
instructor
1,
class, class policies,
provide a schedule of topics to be considered in
and office hours maintained by the instructor.
3
i
the second
a common format constituted
rcsumes in
Facility
highest degree
component in our data base. In addition to the name,
information, we
and similar personnel
completed, classes
taught,
refereed
publications
needed information as
recent
in
their
to
in books or chapters
local,
at
speeches
written,
invited
journals,
The faculty resume format shown in
national or international forums.
the
about
information
as
well
items
as
these
includes
Table
2
professional services of the faculty member in
university,
college,
professional organizations, and public agencies.
forir at
A third component in our data base included a common
We made
for the dsjcripiiqn of ail programs offered by the College.
be achieved;
the assumption that programs had long-range goals to
which students
and courses included short-range, specific objectives
given semester. Each program
were expected to achieve within a
description included a matrix of the courses required for the program
course
each
which
to
goals
program
corresponding
the
and
the common
the major elements in
contributed. Table 3
illustrates
format for each program description.
included
base
data
the
component
fourth
Finally,
in
the
of the
instructional program documentation which provided evidence
the programs,
accomplishments or circumstances which influenced
administration of the College. This category
students, faculty or
included items such as minutes of committee meetings, memos or
letters from the Dean or President or professional association, reports
curriculum committee
of student opinionnaires or follow-up studies,
to any
recommendations, and other documents which might pertain
Each document was placed
of the 92 criteria in the NCATE standards.
number was entered
into
the
a numbered folder and
the
into
date, agency or department which
computer file
title,
author,
with
entries
the
produced the document. Table 4 illustrates
typical
in
Often the "TITLE" field was expanded to
program documentation file.
the document which
or major headings
in
include phrases,
topics
relative
could enhance the identification and retrieval of documents
in one of the NCATE criteria.
to a concept or topic stated
4
4
It was decided that the data
Data Entry Into Computer
base would be established on the Wayne State University mainframe,
which provided us with powerful options for word processing, mass
editing of files and sorting routines which could not be duplicated
available from
with even the impressive microcomputing systems
Faculty members may develop their program folie-
IBM or Apple.
IBM or Macintosh microcomputer; and we can download
using either
their final version to a text file on the WSU mainframe. Finally, the
University Computing Center maintains a daily backup of the system
all or part of the data base was
so that the likelihood of losing
minimized.
The accumulation of more than 100 resumes for full-time or
faculty and administrators amounted to more than 600
part-time
of 50 instructional programs, 400
pages of computer text. Descriptions
program
instructional
entries
the
syllabi,
course
800
and
in
a data base with more than
9000
documentation have produced
data base is changing as
pages of computer text. Furthermore, the
faculty extend their professional activities, programs or courses are
are established by
altered, and new requirements
certification
for
local, state and federal agencies.
We used a word processor
Information
Tasks
Processing
for student assistants to learn
on the WSU mainframe which was easy
quickly
and use. With the mainframe computing resources, we can
produce laser printer quality output for review or editing by faculty
a high quality of printing can
or administrators. This means that
faculty and administrators overnight or
produce the resumes of all
the complete set of course syllabi can be printed in the same time.
Retrieval
Information
For text
analysis% we used the Basis
In a
(BIRS) which was developed by Vinsonhaler(1970).
System
typical application, we selected key terms or expressions from the
and used BIRS to find specific courses or documents
NCATE criteria
of a
criterion. Table 5
or part
illustrates
the
which satisfied
all
relationship between the terms in NCATE Criterion #20 and a search
BIRS we scanned
of the "objectives" fields of all course syllabi. Using
the objectives of all courses offered by the College and searched
for
5
5
or
thinking"
"independent
that
indicated
which
courses
those
"effective communication" or "ethics" were ever mentioned in any
In a similar fashion, we identified other key terms in
course syllabus.
other NCATE criteria and attempted to find those required/elective
the concepts or
of programs which stated
courses or
that
parts
competencies were to be achieved in a particular course or program.
maintained in a
Since the information in each component
is
original computer arograms to answer
common format, we can write
requested by NCATE.
For
or to provide information
questions
example, one of the requirements of NCATE is that the institutional
describe each
report must be accompanied by a two-page resume to
existing
faculty member teaching in the education program. Using the
collection of faculty resumes, we wrote a simple FORTRAN program to
of information which NCATE required,
scan and select those categories
publications and areas of
e.g., highest degree, courses taught, recent
research, from the large collection of faculty resumes in the data
base.
A two-page summary was prepared and sent to each faculty
member
for review, revisions or corrections.
accreditation process which
In conclusion, we support the
compels us to describe our professional education programs according
practices. Although it
to standards and to provide evidence of our
is
task, the computer can be used to
an awesome information processing
directly related to the criteria
store, search, and retrieve information
specified for the review.
Perhaps the major benefit of this system will be to provide us
with an opportunity to use the knowledge base and computer system
the impetus of accreditation
for future curriculum planning,
after
identify
to
used
can
system
diminished.
be
The
has
review
omissions of course objectives, and
unnecessary duplication or serious
practices in professional education
to introduce and track innovative
of the
the
ccrnputer
to
application
This
education.
general
or
illustrates
of curriculum planning
a
tasks
processing
information
several years ago (Smith, 1963).
It
process suggested by the writer
and
entails a major learning process for faculty and administration;
probably be slow to
the slope of their learning curve over time will
rise and the experience will be arduous.
I
,
Referencep
NCATE Standards, Procedures and Policies for the Accreditation
of Professional Education Units (1990). Washington: National
Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education.
Smith, G.R. (1963). Computer Program Sketches Curriculum Design.
Elementary School Journal, 63(4), 201-206.
Smith, G.R. (1966). 'crow ledge Explosion Engulfs Science Curriculum.
Education, 87(4), 199-203.
SJccesses and Failures With Some Data Bases.
Smith, G.R. (1987).
Resources in Education (ERIC Doc. No. ED279310), 22(7), 1072.
Computer-based Information System Cultivated
Smith, G.R. (1988).
Education (ERIC
to Support a College of Education. Resources in
Doc. No. ED289478), 23(5), 728.
Vinsonhaler, J.F.(1975). Users Manual for MRS. East Lansing, MI:
Michigan State Lniversity.
Table
1
All Course Syllabi
the Common Format Used for
Topics Included
in
EmsrAmAICX
Course Tit
Credit Boum
Tenni Year;
Cousc_Lacatisin;
litarfLourss_Macts;
Instructor's Name.,
Office Location -
Office Hours -
Office Phone -
Bulletin)
(descripion
University
CaarscDsraizionl
from
each objective
separately)
(list
Course Cbjectiyes;
in WSU Bookstore)
title, available
(author,
journals)
of supplementary
books.
References;
(bibliography
(cite specific tasks and due dates)
Assignments;
papers)
weighting,
Evaluation and Grading;
(examinations.
attendance, make-up examinations.
Cluj Policies;
...)
(class
the semester)
to be considered each week throughout
Schedule;
(topics
8
Table 2
Selected Topics Included In the Common Format for the Faculty Resume
Date Pmpared: (month, year)
NAME:
(last name, first name)
Social Security No.
Office Phone:
Office Address:
(present rank, date achieved)
RANK:
FACULTY APPOINTMENTS AT OTHER INSTITUTIONS:
PROFESSIONAL SOCIETY MEMBERSHIPS:
(list award title, institution making award, dales)
HONORS/AWARDS
(list citations in national, regional or professional clirectories)
BIOGRAPHICAL CITATIONS:
EDUCATION: (name and date of rialration from high school)
(institution and date of award of bachelor and graduate degrees)
(list courses taught at Wayne State during past five years)
TEACHING:
(list doctoral dssertations or masters projects directed during past five years)
(list new couse develoment or other curriculum development activities)
(fist cuniculum materials developed and indicate published or unpublished)
(list research projects undenvay, but not funded at this time)
RESEARCH:
(list research projects funded during past five years - agency, amount, dates)
(list fellowship or other spedal awards during past five years)
(list scholarly books mashed as author or co-author)
PUBLICATIONS:
(list chapters published as author or o3-author)
(list editorship of books or conference proceedings)
(list journal articles published in refereed journals or in conference proceedings )
(fist abstracts published in academic journals, book reviews published)
(list articles or papers in non-refereed journals)
(list creative shows or exhibits which are refereed at national, regional, local competition)
(list textbooks, study guides, other instructional material formally published)
(list papers presented at invited or refereed for intematilonal or national conferences)
(list papers presented at invited or refereed for regional or local conterences)
(list administrative appointments at Wayne State rArring last five years)
SERVICE:
(list University committees chaired, University committee membership and dates)
(fist College committees chaired, College committee membership and dates)
(list positions held in professional associations in last five years)
(list positions held in public or private agencies related to discipline during past five years)
(list professional consultation , expert testimony before public bodes)
(list professional journal editorships, editorial board membership )
4
Table 3
Describe Programs Offered by College
Common Format Used
to
Program Coordinator
Program Area:
Check Levels at Which Program is Offered:
Specialist Certificate
Masters Degree
Post-Master's Level
Doctorate
I. INTRODUCTION
Need for Program(s)
A.
B. Career Paths
(Include all programs at
levels.)
all
2. KNOWLEDGE BASE
for Program
Basis
Philosophical
in Program
Assumptions and Values Implicit
Relationship to College Theme
Theory
(list by degree level and reference)
3. GOALS OF DEGREE PROGRAM(S)
(list by degree level)
4. STUDENTS' COURSE(S) OF STUDY
5. MATRIX SHOWING RELATIONSHIP OF THE COURSES TO THE PROGRAM GOALS
(list by degree level)
6. DESCRIPTION OF FIELD EXPERIENCES
7. LIST OF FACULTY WITH PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITY IN THIS PROGRAM AREA
8. LIST OF REQUIRED COURSES IN MATRIX
a forced choice.)
for which there
(include list of appropriate electives
is
9. PLEASE ATTACH COURSE SYLLABI FOR ALL REQUIRED AND FORCED-CHOICE
ELECTIVE COURSES