Co-Discovery: Student & Staff Evaluation of the Value of Broadening

Caroline Campbell, Languages, Cultures and Societies & Dr Karen Llewellyn

Co-Discovery – a student and staff collaborative evaluation of the value of Broadening within the undergraduate student journey; the case for language learning

Overview

This was a collaborative student and staff enterprise between two staff and three UG student researchers  - Akeisha Brown, Chandni Pandya and Robert Irnazarow - who together co-constructed and co-delivered the planning, execution and dissemination of the project’s objectives and outputs.

Bovill and Bulley’s ladder of student participation proved very useful in this reg

Aligned to the broader evaluation of the Leeds Curriculum, this project sought to explore the value of Broadening through Discovery Themes; how students understand this value and its effect on their learning, their choices and their career aspirations; and how their understanding relates to that of employer perceptions of Broadening.

We focussed specifically on language learning. We wanted to better understand how language Discovery modules enhance students’ knowledge, skills and attributes, and how this helps them develop as well rounded graduates.

We also wanted to find out whether employers value graduates having language skills.

We adopted a Developmental Evaluation Approach (Patton 1996, 2008, Saunders 2000, 2012) which focuses on an evaluation’s use, as this aligns with the approach taken by the wider Leeds Curriculum evaluation. Also in alignment we drew on Murray Saunders’s RUFDATA framework.

Our Research methodology was qualitative in nature using inductive content analysis (e.g. Corbin & Strauss 2015, Patton 2015, Silverman 2014).

READ Caroline and Karen's Final LITE Project here.

READ Caroline and Karen's first blog: Understanding the value of a University education

For more information, contact Caroline at C.Campbell@leeds.ac.uk