Prospects for Career Planning Course

What is the best way to measure the influence of  teaching focused on changing students’ behaviour and attitude towards job market orientation

Career prospects

The Executive Board has nominated career orientation as one of the key themes  in the University’s plans for innovation in teaching and learning. In addition, the National Student Survey (NSE) showed that, of all the dimensions measured, the Psychology bachelor’s programme could score better on career orientation. The results supported the previous decision of the Board of the Institute of Psychology to develop a new module for the bachelor’s programme, where career orientation is a core theme. This module, called Prospects for Career Planning (POCP) will be taught in the second year of the Psychology bachelor’s programme. POCP’s aim is twofold: The first goal is to help students develop strategic skills which should support them in making choices throughout their studies and for activities that could improve their future career perspective; the second goal is to change students’ attitude with respect to the importance of thinking about and steering their future career development at the right time. A positive attitude results in increased behavioural intention to effectively utilise the study programme and the possibilities offered  for career orientation. As an LTA Fellow, the question I would like to answer is the following: In what way can we measure the usefulness of this module with respect to the second goal?

Feedback loop

The knowledge component can be tested by conventional means. The attitude component cannot be tested this way, while it is a crucial element of the module. Therefore, it is necessary to develop a new feedback loop to measure the change in attitude. Not only does it provide insight into the effects of the module; it also offers input for any improvement processes. The evidence-based development of educational programmes is a vital but unfortunately very under- developed area. By measuring attitudes as well as testing the knowledge component, we gain new insights into the effect of particular aspects of education on our students.

Added value

Should it be successful, the evaluation method will offer important starting points for evaluating other educational modules. Naturally this method is not necessarily restricted to the Institute of Psychology; if the added value can be proven, this method can be implemented where relevant in all Faculties or even university-wide,. In this way, the proposed evaluation method can make a significant contribution to improving the quality of our education.

Jop Groeneweg, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Institute of Psychology

‘I would like to share my knowledge and experience as a teacher and researcher in this project with other LTA colleagues. I hope to not only help bring innovation to Leiden University’s teaching programmes; I also want to work on my own ‘continuing education’.