Evaluating the Learning Gain of Undergraduate Students.

Abstract

The UK Government will introduce a Teaching Excellence Framework to measure the quality of teaching across the Higher Education sector. One of the proposed methods for assessing teaching quality is the measurement of student learning gain. Consultation was undertaken so that the thoughts and views of key stakeholders could be integrated into the planned policy changes. Concentrating on the views presented regarding the evaluation of learning gain, a qualitative research study was undertaken using an inductive approach and the philosophical position of interpretivism. A non-probability homogeneous sampling technique was employed to identify consultation responses for inclusion, and the recursive abstraction process applied to review the content of sixty responses so that salient points of interest could be identified with the potential to influence emerging Governmental policy. This poster reflects a synthesising of the important issues raised, from which ten key considerations for evaluating student learning gain are proposed.