Inquiry in Support of Student Learning

Dr. Jo Beld, Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of Academic Research and Planning, is coordinating the preparation of Chapter Four, "Inquiry in Support of Student Learning." In addition to her teaching and research in public policy and social science research methods, Beld has spent several years as a program evaluation consultant to the Minnesota Department of Human Services. She also developed and piloted an instrument to assess student learning outcomes in St. Olaf's instructional program in oral communication across the curriculum, funded by the U.S. Department of Education.

In its proposal for a special emphases self-study, St. Olaf identified the improvement of student learning as one of the three critical issues it wished to address. Assessment, or "inquiry in support of student learning," remains an important, but as yet elusive, means to achieving such improvement. The purpose of Chapter Four of the self-study is thus twofold: (1) to evaluate the implementation of the assessment plan the College submitted to the North Central Association in 1995; and (2) to develop, and document the initial implementation of, a coherent and sustainable strategy for conducting inquiry for the purpose of improving student learning.

Chapter Four recasts assessment as "inquiry in support of student learning" to emphasize the disciplined, faculty-driven, programmatically-embedded, and utilization-focused character of the strategy the College needs to develop. To support this effort, the chapter will examine the ways in which inquiry in support of student learning is already being conducted and used at the College; identify the obstacles to full implementation of its 1995 assessment plan; consider successful assessment practices in comparable institutions; and describe the financial and organizational support needed to implement its new plan.