Program Evaluation

Program Evaluation:

  • Developing an Instrument to Characterize Groups in Collaborative Learning Environments
    This project seeks to (1) identify critical differences in peer-led learning groups that should be expected, based on the learning literature, to affect student learning outcomes, and (2) to develop and validate an instrument to evaluate small peer-led learning groups.
  • Impact of Undergraduate Leadership Experiences in a STEM Workshop Program
    This project investigated the experiences of undergraduates acting as peer leaders in an extensive peer-led team learning program in introductory undergraduate sciences and engineering courses. The study identified multiple areas in which peer facilitators reported experiences of growth and the ways in which they understood and responded to this growth.
  • Impact of a Peer-Led Collaborative Learning Program
    This is an evaluation of the Gateway Science Workshop program, a peer-led collaborative learning program designed to improve performance and retention of undergraduates in science and mathematics at Northwestern University. This project includes workshops funded through the Extended Science Workshop (ESW) program, funded by NSF.
  • Graduate Teaching Certificate Program Evaluation
    A small sample of graduate students designed and team-taught interdisciplinary courses as part of a professional development program. This project examines the impact of this program.
  • Faculty Understanding of Improvement of Teaching
    This study addressed inquiry-based, project-based learning in the Searle Fellows program to demonstrate how faculty members understand improvement in teaching.
  • Perceptions of Mentoring in the Faculty-TA Relationship
    This study examined faculty perceptions and practices of mentoring in the faculty-teaching assistant relationship.
  • The Impact of a Year-Long Faculty Development Program on Teaching Approaches
    This project explores conceptions of key academic practices (teaching, learning & mentoring) held by early career and senior faculty in the Searle Fellows program, in order to gauge program effectiveness, to assess change in faculty conceptions over time, and to probe the variation in faculty conceptions. Issues studied include:
    • The Role of Early Career Experience in Later Teaching Approaches/Conceptions
    • The Impact of a Student-focused Development Program on Learning Outcomes
    • The Early Faculty Member's Understanding of His/Her Academic Practices in Terms of Learning and the Relationship Among Research, Teaching, and Learning
    • The Senior Faculty Member's Conception of Mentoring Junior Colleagues
  • Integrating Teaching and Technology: Facilitating Student-Centered Teaching for Graduate Students at a Research University
    This project investigated the ways that graduate students experience teaching, learning, and technology as interrelated practices and how these perceptions can be developed through an intensive teaching, learning, and technology program.