Assessment Methods

Portfolio Development»Guidelines by Curriculum

CRJS401U: Understanding Violence

The portfolio developed for this course should demonstrate the student's understanding of their relevant experience with policing and /or law enforcement agencies.

Experience Requirements
Minimum of five years documented relevant experience.

Expanded Resume
Description of relevant experience. Student should detail the formal positions held, kinds of experiences, activities and problems encountered in these positions.

List of Questions Student Has About Her/His Experience
These questions should draw on the student's "reflections" about their experience. (As Plato said "An Unexamined life is not worth living"). Questions should refer to problems, observations, experiences that the student wishes to understand. These should be described in detail along with the experiential contexts from which they were derived.

Documentaiton of Learning
Analysis of experience integrating readings and demonstrating understanding. This section should demonstrate an understanding of concepts, explanations, and analysis from related readings and how those help the student understand various questions and facets of their experience described in 2 and 3 above. Students should integrate related reading into the analysis of their experience. For students who have done no related reading, they can use the following reading list:

• Judith Herman. Trauma and Recovery: the Aftermath of Violence--from Domestic Abuse to Political Terror. NY: Basic Books, 1992.
• Dave Grossman. On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society. Boston: Back Bay Books, 1996.
• James Garbarino. Lost Boys: Why Our Sons Turn Violent and How We Can Survive Them. NY: The Free Press, 1999.

10 Item Annotated Research Bibliography
This should include a review of academic research (not included in required readings below) related to the student's experiences. This must include:

• Bibliographic Citation
• Summary of the findings of the of the research
• Relationship of the research to the student's understanding of his / her experience