Learning Outcomes In Higher Education Research Articles

Prosocial growth during college: Results of a national study

Ethical growth and prosocial development are increasingly salient learning outcomes in higher education. Previous research has shown that the traditional college years facilitate moral development, especially with respect to moral reasoning. This research examined the impact of college experiences on students’ sense of active responsibility for others—prosocial orientation—via a longitudinal, multi-institutional design through the Spirituality and Higher Education project at University of California, Los Angeles. Data from over 14,000 undergraduates show that key college experiences predict growth on prosocial outcomes. Especially salient predictors include active forms of learning, engagement with diversity and other means by which students encounter multiple perspectives. Implications for higher education are discussed.

Research study from industry-university collaboration on “No Fault Found” events

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to present the successes and barriers from an industry-university partnership on studying the impact of No Fault Found (NFF) events. As a consequence, various opportunities are explored to engage with industry to investigate the problem. A comprehensive training is also outlined to ensure that experience and troubleshooting techniques can be disseminated as guidelines across businesses. Design/methodology/approach – The study was performed by Cranfield University in collaboration with industrial partners on identifying the impact of the NFF problem within engineering services. This includes discussions with maintenance engineers, outcomes from a symposium organised specifically on NFF and the authors’ own experiences with the issue. Findings – The paper discusses the continuing serious problem with NFF events found at various maintenance echelons, and suggests a need for formal postgraduate training to be taught within the field of maintenance management. This includes not just technical issues, but also encompassing organisational structures, cultures and behaviours. Since focusing only on one issue at a time does not suffice in dealing with the NFF problem, an integrated approach is required for modern maintenance services and operations. Research limitations/implications – Higher education learning outcomes have been outlined for competent engineering personnel, to broaden their understanding on the subject area. This is based on discussions with industrial collaborators and recently published material. Practical implications – This paper emphasises the importance of the breath of interaction channels and demonstrates the opportunities for effective knowledge exchange by using the activities at Cranfield University to demonstrate their usefulness. The arguments clearly lead to the necessity of academia in this type of industrial problem. However, the presence of a university in this case is not as the sole problem solver, but the rather to act as a collaborative medium between various other outlets. Further ideas proposed, such as constructing guidelines for industries in handling NFF problems and benchmarking tools, can serve as real products that can be benefit industries. The study also aims to promote best practice in the field of maintenance management and outlines the foundations for NFF training material. Originality/value – The originality of the paper is that it presents a structured methodology for engaging with industry. It also outlines a curriculum for NFF training. It essentially serves as a road-map for research and offers a detailed account of areas that need to be taken into account in order to reduce the likely event of NFF.

Assessing College Students' Quantitative and Scientific Reasoning: The James Madison University Story

Quantitative and scientific reasoning is a critical student learning outcome in higher education. Data are presented for large samples of undergraduate students who were assessed as entering freshmen and then again after completing 45-70 credit hours. Results are presented around four key issues that are central to educational assessment. First, entering freshmen with transfer credits for quantitative and scientific reasoning courses that fulfill general education requirements, on average, score similar to entering freshmen without such credit. About 97% of entering freshmen who had transfer credits received their credits through dual enrollment programs. As a sophomore-junior, students who had completed their general education requirements performed similar to students who had started, but not yet finished these requirements. Second, small to moderate correlations were observed between grade-point averages in relevant general education coursework and quantitative and scientific reasoning. Third, students’ quantitative and scientific reasoning, on average, increases from freshmen to sophomore/junior years. Finally, the proportion of students who meet faculty-set standards substantially increases from pre-test to post-test. Taken together, results suggest that changes in quantitative and scientific reasoning are a function of relevant courses. Additional research is needed to examine the role of lower-level versus higher-level courses in student performance. Results also indicate a need to investigate how differences in the quality of dual enrollment courses facilitate quantitative and scientific reasoning.

Data informed learning: A next phase data literacy framework for higher education

ABSTRACTAccessing, using and managing data is increasingly recognized as an important learning outcome in higher education. Approaches to data literacy have typically been informed by information literacy. New approaches to information literacy have emerged that address how information is used in the different disciplinary contexts in which people learn and work. Successful approaches to data literacy will also need to address contextual concerns. Informed learning is an approach to information literacy that purposefully addresses contextual concerns by suggesting pedagogic strategies for enabling students to use information in ways that support discipline‐focused learning outcomes. As part of an ongoing investigation, we advance data informed learning as a framework for data literacy in higher education that emphasizes how data are used to learn and communicate within disciplinary learning contexts. Drawing from informed learning, we outline principles and characteristics of data informed learning, and suggest future directions to investigate ways that data are used in real‐world environments.

‘Will I learn what I want to learn?’ Usable representations, ‘students’ and OECD assessment production

Amid growing debates around international assessment tools in educational policy, few have critically examined how students themselves are cast in policy tool production processes and discourse. Drawing on Stuart Hall's concept of representation, we show how higher education (HE) ‘students’ are constructed, fixed and normalized by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes (AHELO) initiative. Based on an analysis of AHELO texts, we argue that the OECD, during the early stages of test production, fixes and circulates the meaning of ‘students’ as represented objects. We identify and analyze two distinct representational practices at work in AHELO texts: classifying and organizing, and marking. We posit that by fixing images of the student as an object of learning and as a consumer–investor subject, the OECD creates ‘usable’ representations of ‘students’ to claim jurisdiction over teaching and learning in HE and to justify intervention through standardized testing.

Using Teacher Questions to Enhance EFL Students’ Critical Thinking Ability

In this era of information and economic globalization, developing critical thinking skills in college students has been set as a primary goal and learning outcome in higher education. Teaching critical thinking, however, is a great challenge to most EFL teachers. This article, therefore, attempts to examine the nature and teachability of critical thinking, analyze and discuss the functions and types of teacher questions as well as Bloom’s Taxonomy of Questions. Its primary purpose is to help EFL classroom instructors gain a deep understanding of teacher questions and get to know how to use higher order questioning to enhance EFL students’ critical thinking ability.

Use and problems in the language of discipline-based qualification statements: learning from Tuning and its analogues

This essay is an empirical account of English language use, across three continents, in 40 Tuning and analogous discipline-based statements of desired demonstrated competences and learning outcomes in higher education. It is primarily concerned with lexical and semantic matters, takes the perspective of the student as the primary reader and beneficiary of these statements, and is as much proscriptive as it is analytical. It provides frequencies of verbs used in such statements, flags commonly but unacceptable verbs and syntax, offers a different grouping of competence-oriented verbs from that inherited from Bloom <em>et al</em>’s Taxonomy, and suggests what we should do in revisiting statements of learning outcomes that have taken root in the literature.

Learning outcomes across disciplinary divides and contrasting national higher education traditions

In many quarters, attempts are underway to identify learning outcomes in higher education which are context-neutral or ‘generic’; such measures could provide new ways to assess and compare outputs from higher education. This paper considers potential challenges in using such broad learning outcomes across contrasting disciplinary and national settings. An empirical contribution is provided by an analysis of data from the international REFLEX survey for Norwegian and English bachelor’s degree graduates. This sheds some light on the relationships between graduates’ broad learning outcomes (general competencies), their national contexts and their disciplinary area. It finds variations in competencies across subjects and countries, suggesting that general competencies of the type often suggested as generic learning outcomes may be unstable and problematic to compare across contrasting settings. It highlights the need for comparative research into variations in learning outcomes and graduate competencies consi...

The legitimation of OECD's global educational governance: examining PISA and AHELO test production

Although international student assessments and the role of international organisations (IOs) in governing education via an evidence-based educational policy discourse are of growing interest to educational researchers, few have explored the complex ways in which an IO, such as the OECD, gains considerable influence in governing education during the early stages of test production. Drawing on a comparative analysis of the production of two international tests – the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) and the Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes (AHELO) – we show how the OECD legitimises its power, and expertise, and defines ‘what counts’ in education. The OECD deploys three mechanisms of educational governance: (1) building on past OECD successes; (2) assembling knowledge capacity; and (3) deploying bureaucratic resources. We argue that the early stages of test production by IOs are significant sites in which the global governance of education is legitimated and enacted.

Designing games in the classroom: Learning benefits

Designing games in the classroom: Learning benefits

Innovation pedagogy and desired learning outcomes in higher education

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to describe the desired learning outcomes of innovation pedagogy which supports innovations and regional development in higher education.Design/methodology/approachThe study is based on the socio‐cultural theory and the constructivist view of learning developed to encompass the social and cultural customs of a particular community and its ways of operating.FindingsThe study extends the individual‐based learning used in many contexts to include collaborative and networked learning to support innovations.Originality/valueThe results are useful for those who want to outreach and engage in regional development and increase the external impact of the higher education institution.

Coloniality and a global testing regime in higher education: unpacking the OECD’s AHELO initiative

The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is currently engaging in a worldwide feasibility study entitled International Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes (AHELO). This feasibility study seeks to develop measures that would assess student learning outcomes that would be valid across different languages, cultures, and higher education institutions. Drawing on anticolonial perspectives, this article provides a critical policy analysis of the AHELO project. Based on a review of the AHELO texts, it presents two themes: (1) crisis and imperial logic in policy production and (2) Anglo-Eurocentrism as global designs and colonial relationships. It argues that, through AHELO, OECD is striving to construct a global space of equivalence for teaching and learning in higher education, and in so doing, perpetuates coloniality in global higher education. It concludes by noting some comparative observations between AHELO and Programme for International Student Achievement in terms of the increasing role of global knowledge for policy tools in educational policy.

Integrated Information Literacy and Student Outcomes in Foundational First-Year Writing

Abstract Information literacy is becoming widely established as an assessed and reportable student learning outcome in higher education, yet it is often poorly integrated into the undergraduate curriculum at points where applied knowledge in particular is measured. The current study discusses a collaboration between a librarian and several English Studies faculty to integrate information literacy content more thoroughly into an undergraduate foundational writing course and to assess information literacy outcomes in student artifacts from a pilot group versus a control group using an information literacy rubric. The results indicate that significant gains occurred in all aspects of information literacy when these concepts were broadly integrated into course content and reinforced at multiple points in the course.

Integrated Information Literacy and Student Outcomes in Foundational First-Year Writing

Abstract Information literacy is becoming widely established as an assessed and reportable student learning outcome in higher education, yet it is often poorly integrated into the undergraduate curriculum at points where applied knowledge in particular is measured. The current study discusses a collaboration between a librarian and several English Studies faculty to integrate information literacy content more thoroughly into an undergraduate foundational writing course and to assess information literacy outcomes in student artifacts from a pilot group versus a control group using an information literacy rubric. The results indicate that significant gains occurred in all aspects of information literacy when these concepts were broadly integrated into course content and reinforced at multiple points in the course.

Measuring Learning Outcomes in Higher Education

With the pressing need for accountability in higher education, standardized outcomes assessments have been widely used to evaluate learning and inform policy. However, the critical question on how scores are influenced by students’ motivation has been insufficiently addressed. Using random assignment, we administered a multiple-choice test and an essay across three motivational conditions. Students’ self-report motivation was also collected. Motivation significantly predicted test scores. A substantial performance gap emerged between students in different motivational conditions (effect size as large as .68). Depending on the test format and condition, conclusions about college learning gain (i.e., value added) varied dramatically from substantial gain ( d = 0.72) to negative gain ( d = −0.23). The findings have significant implications for higher education stakeholders at many levels.

Global learning as general education for the twenty-first century

Global awareness has emerged as a valued learning outcome in higher education. Students need repeated and on-going learning opportunities to develop the global competencies and habits of mind that are necessary to navigate our increasingly interconnected and complex world. This paper argues that situating an introductory global studies course into the general education of all undergraduate students would be advantageous. When taken early as part of the general education curriculum, an introductory global studies course provides all students with the chance to begin making connections across disciplines and to imagine creative solutions to problems in the private and public sectors. An introductory global studies course can jumpstart a process of global learning, where students gain knowledge of world challenges, develop intercultural competencies and learn how to deeply engage complex global issues. Students thus obtain a solid curricular base for going forward in their thinking about global issues and for pulling together insights in a newly integrated way. The experiences of one liberal arts institution are used to illustrate how a required introductory global studies course can support the traditional general education learning outcomes of intentionality, civic engagement, intellectual judgment and integrated learning. Key words: General education, global learning, internationalization, global studies, higher education, intentionality, integrated learning, civic engagement.

Integrating Social Media Technologies In Higher Education: Costs-Benefits Analysis

Social networking and electronic channels of communication are effective tools in the process of teaching and learning and have increasingly improved the quality of students’ learning outcomes in higher education in recent years. The process encourages students’ active engagement, collaboration, and participation in class activities and group work, and provides a flow of information dissemination in a sophisticated method that yields measurable results. Faculty can monitor collaborative and independent activities of their students and can also provide timely feedback. Studies identified some issues associated with social networking and students’ learning ability, but argue that performance assessment and learning outcomes can be adequately managed as a result of social networking mechanism. This paper concludes that electronic media enhance collaborative learning activities, enabling students to engage in an ongoing communication with one another in the process of learning. Effective use of social networking tools in learning environments by faculty can sustain the quality of instructions and skills-development in business education.

The missing link to connect education and employment: recognition of non-formal and informal learning outcomes☆

The concept of learning outcomes is at the heart of many research programmes and policy responses. International surveys (from the International Adult Literacy Survey, back in the mid-nineties, to the forthcoming Assessment of Higher Education Learning Outcomes two OECD surveys), National Qualifications Frameworks or the European Qualifications Framework engineered by the European Commission and the most recent laws and policies on recognition of non-formal and informal learning outcomes (RNFILO), all rely on the concept of learning outcomes. This paper claims that it is no coincidence that the concept of learning outcomes is at the core of these seemingly unrelated policies, programmes and research projects. Learning outcomes provide a base for equitable assessment in the world of education and lifelong learning. Learning outcomes also are relevant to the labour market and the expectations of end-users such as employers. It also claims that, beyond the hype and some misunderstanding, approaches relying on learning outcomes bring more equity to the world of education and training and to the world of work. This paper aims at focusing on RNFILO as a policy tool, and insists on possible applications and policy implementation. It proposes a definition of the key terms, a possible rationale for organising recognition programmes, and a list of pros and cons for doing so.

Social Networking And Pedagogical Variations: An Integrated Approach For Effective Interpersonal And Group Communications Skills Development

Electronic communication and social networking are effective and useful tools in the process of teaching and learning and have increasingly improved the quality of students’ learning outcomes in higher education in recent years. The system encourages and supports students’ active engagement, collaboration, and participation in class activities and provides a process of information dissemination in a unique method that yields measurable results. Faculty members are capable of monitoring and evaluating collaborative and independent efforts and activities of students and can provide immediate and timely feedback to students. While there are some issues and concerns regarding social networking and students’ learning, numerous studies indicate that performance assessment and learning outcomes are adequately and objectively measured and managed as a result of social networking mechanism. Additionally, electronic media enhance collaborative learning activities and experiences. Effective and selective use of electronic and social networking tools in learning environments by innovative-minded and interactive faculty can sustain the quality of instructions and skills-development in communications disciplines.

Applying Social Cognitive Theory to Academic Advising to Assess Student Learning Outcomes

Review of social cognitive theory constructs of self-efficacy and self-regulated learning is applied to academic advising for the purposes of assessing student learning. A brief overview of the history of student learning outcomes in higher education is followed by an explanation of self-efficacy and self-regulated learning constructs and how they can be applied to academic advising. The article concludes with the development of a model for assessing student learning outcomes in academic advising using these theoretical constructs.