Title Looking at Student Needs First

Title Looking at Student Needs First

Abstract

Assessing student needs is considered a first step in designing an ESL/IEP curriculum. Can a student needs research project bring valuable insight into a curriculum and provide usable data? This presentation will present the design, implementation, and findings of one university IEP student needs research project.

Session Description

Meeting student needs in any language program is often discussed, but many educators may not know how to go about assessing student needs in a realistic way.

This session will describe an ongoing student needs research project designed for an IEP program at a major Middle Eastern university. This research- oriented presentation will give a brief overview of the literature on student needs (Nunan, Waters, Hutchinson) and explain why the involvement of student input is key to any curriculum/program design. The ‘student needs research project’ at AUC will be discussed in terms of design, implementation and results. Specifically, this presentation will focus on how student needs can be used to evaluate an IEP/ESL program and bring it closer to the target needs of the institution, instructor and student. Participants will learn how one university is conducting this type of study, and how the findings are being used to evaluate and re-assess the program as a whole with the students’ needs at the core. Additionally, this presentation will show how further triangulation of the study has brought data from current students in the IEP, past students who are now upper classmen, as well as instructors from a wide sample of disciplines within the university.

In 2008,the IEP Curriculum Committee/CEA Accreditation Subcommittee Two decided to conduct its own needs assessment survey. The study is a “situated” approach to investigate students’ needs (Waters, 1996). According to Waters “such an approach attempts to study the phenomenon to the greatest possible extent within its natural ecology, and strives to make the research procedures as unobtrusive as possible within the constraints of the variables”. Furthermore, the IEP study research design is triangulated in terms of types and sources of data, providing both quantitative and qualitative information and taking multiple perspectives into account: current students both at entrance and at exit, former students, and faculty. See C 1 1 for details with regard to the IEP needs assessment study.

Assessing student needs and measuring learning outcomes provides input for the IEP curriculum. In the spring of 2008, the IEP (Student Needs Subcommittee) administered a survey to all undergraduate and graduate students enrolled in the IEP that term. The purpose of the survey was to measure to what extent the academic needs of IEP students had been met by the department. The full results of all surveys are archived and will be available to teachers. Following the pilot spring survey, the IEP continued the needs assessment/situational analysis in both an entering student survey and follow–up exiting survey. In this way closer analysis of student needs can be monitored throughout the term on a continual basis. The decision was made to continue the analysis every semester. Surveys will be placed on Blackboard (which will ensure confidentiality and allow for closer analysis of data). In addition, a triangulation of the research is being conducted via focus group interviews conducted by AUC’s Center for Learning and Teaching (CLT) with (a) past IEP students and (b) a sample of professors across AUC. In this way, the IEP can continue to assess its program and adjust to changing needs in meeting student and teacher needs and expectations.

The ongoing assessment of entering and exiting student needs is based on the following internal question: How is the IEP perceived by students regarding their experiences while attending the IEP? Specifically, both qualitative and quantitative data via questionnaires are being used to examine students perceived needs at the start of each term and compared with student evaluations of their learning experience at the end of each term. The organizational goal is to assure that the curriculum is meeting learners immediate and long term needs. See IEP Needs Assessment Study (document on site).

Overall, the respondents felt that the IEP excelled at providing exiting students with necessary academic skills and meet students’ real and perceived needs and achieve the stated learning outcomes.In addition, the data suggests that students’, instructors’ and administration course objectives are in agreement.

The results of the fall 2008 exiting survey reflect similar findings and suggest that the IEP continues to meet undergraduate and graduate student needs. Data from the research will provide a solid basis on which to monitor and evaluate the IEP curriculum and to present a database of subjective and objective information for use in curriculum updates/changes, materials selection and teaching approaches. The student data will also be used in establishing long-range goals to support student needs during and after their enrollment in the IEP. The continued data collection will also provide a foundation to continuously monitor IEP summative assessment as well