Research Report: Developing Evaluative Cultures

Education Enhancement Sabbatical report.

Processes of evaluation operate in various ways depending on what is being evaluated; many formal evaluations take place for the purposes of reporting to stakeholders and institutions.

In the teaching and learning arena evaluation plays an important but less defined role; this is partly because it is closely integrated with the day to day practices of staff. This research project explored ways to developing understanding of evaluation and processes that can be easily implemented while capturing evidence of what does and doesn’t work.

This report presents primary data collected during a Teaching and Learning Enhancement sabbatical which involved: external interviews to build case studies with organisations including the V&A and evaluation research centres as at Sheffield Hallam, as well as around projects including Leap Frog (Lancaster and Glasgow School of Art); 12 in-depth interviews with staff at LCC and 1 focus group with students at LCC.

The results have led to an extensive literature review, a set of criteria for effective evaluation that can be embedded into teaching and learning and which engage both staff and students in meaningful and iterative evaluative processes.

Rigorous and creative approaches to data collection, co-creative evaluative environments as sites to capture student voice, as well as a supportive wider culture helps to increase understanding of evaluation as a positive tool for growth and development, supporting student experience and attainment. These approaches build robust methods which can the be used to evidence the development of teaching and learning excellence in formal impact reporting situations (eg APP).

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