On Knowing what we do

[DFRANK@OREGON.UOREGON.EDU (David Frank)]

Professor Murphy raises some notes of caution about the purpose and function 
of assessment. And his caution is warranted.  However,  the Forensics 
Educational Outcomes Project will serve  a host of productive functions.  
The participants in the project believe in the values of academic debate and 
are responding to the calls that have been sounded for over thirty years 
that we should conduct careful research investigations into what forensics 
does or does not do for students, educators, and the public sphere.  I am 
hopeful that the project will serve an important community building 
function.  We now have more than twenty forensic educators working with us 
on this project and they are a representative lot.

1.  We assume that forensics can be a wonderful and an educational activity. 
 And there may be benefits of an education in forensics that need to be 
catalogued and documented.  At the same time, we need to see what we may not 
do well and what we might do better.  

2.  We will embrace external and internal  standards of assessment.  We need 
to cast a wide net for our standards, and we must include the values and 
opinions of those who are not members of the forensics community.  At the 
same time, our opinions and judgments are important as well.

3.  The assessment project will employ any and all modes of inquiry that 
will reveal the effects of an education in forensics.  And I have some faith 
that we may find benefits we didn't expect, and some problems that we may 
need to better address.  

We need to carefully review the literature on forensics education, create 
appropriate methods of inquiry, and advance our knowledge of  what forensics 
does well.  To embark on the task self evaluation reflects that we care 
deeply about what we do, and that we practice what we teach:  we are 
skeptical of authorities, evidence and data.  To embark on a mission of self 
study demonstrates that we are interested in the careful study of what we do 
or do not do for our students.
David Frank
University of Oregon

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