1. Evaluating the Common Good Curriculum
AshokaU Exchange April 2018 ~ Boston, MA
Evaluating the Common Good Curriculum
Karen MacFarlane
Educational Research and Evaluation
Glasgow Caledonian University

2. University for the Common Good
Mission and vision
University for the Common Good
By 2020, GCU will have a global reputation for delivering social benefit and impact through education, research and social innovation
As the University for the Common Good, in terms of our Vision, what we want to achieve is that by 2020 we have a global reputation for delivering social benefit and impact through education, research and social innovation

3. Strategic goal To develop graduates who are …
Proficient in their discipline as well as entrepreneurial, confident, responsible and capable of fulfilling leadership roles in different organisational, cultural and global contexts.
Thus, one of our strategic goals is to develop graduates who are … ‘Proficient in their discipline as well as entrepreneurial, confident, responsible and capable of fulfilling leadership roles in different organisational, cultural and global contexts.’

4. Here are some of our student's standing next to our university crest and mission

5. Common Good Curriculum
How are we pursuing this goal? Well, our aim is to embed our Common Good Curriculum
What is the aim of the Common Good Curriculum? ……. The aim is to Support, recognise and embed Common Good Attributes within the curriculum and as part of the wider student experience, both Formally within the taught curriculum and Informally through co- and extra- curricular activities
Support, recognise and embed Common Good Attributes within the curriculum and as part of the wider student experience
Formally within the taught curriculum
Informally through co- and extra- curricular activities

6. Embedding Common Good Attributes
So by ‘Curriculum’ I’m referring to the totality of the student experience, both what we provide in terms of what we teach and how we teach and assess, but also activities that that complement, in some way, what students are learning in class but are not part of the formal curriculum and extra curricular activities such as volunteering or being a student mentor, for example.
Taught curriculum
Co/extra
curricular
Common Good Attributes

7. Common Good Attributes
Confident
Active global citizens
Responsible leaders
Entrepreneurial mind-set
What are the attributers we want to embed with the curriculum? Our four Common Good attributes aim to reflect students who, by the time they graduate and are moving onto further study or into employment are: are confident, active global citizens who are responsible leaders and have an entrepreneurial mind-set.

8. How do we do that? We aim to provide as many opportunities for students to further develop Common Good attributes by participating in co and extra-curricular activities aligned to our Common Good mission. Some opportunities are tailored to students on particular programmes of study; others are open to all students across the University – our Vision Sciences students have the opportunity to travel to South Africa to volunteer on the custom-built ‘train of hope’ that delivers healthcare to remote areas of the country.

9. The Law Clinic is a service which provides free and confidential legal advice and assistance to individuals within the Greater Glasgow community who do not qualify for legal aid and cannot afford professional legal advice. This picture was taken at the University where the Law Clinic is base but our students also take this service out into the community and do their work via pop-up stands in shopping centres, for example.

10. Some examples of the extra- curricular activities that allow our students to demonstrate that they have developed Common Good Attributes are:
From top left clockwise: Being a student mentor; getting involved din community event such as the Homeless World Cup; Being a student ambassador or working as a mentor with very young pupils in our Caledonian Club which works with children from as young as three years old to make universitya part of their life expereince and which provides literacy support to primary school aged children.

11. https://youtu.be/I7QamzmLJek
A brand new development, only being piloted this year is the Common Good Award which … gives formal recognition to students who are able to demonstrate the Common Good Attributes via their co- and extra-curricular activities (paid or unpaid), so that they have a formal of their achievements to provide employers with evidence of the skills you have developed. And, this is one of the employers we’ve been in consultation with who makes the beenfits of gaining scuh n award quite clear… You’ll see that he says…

12. Evaluation approaches often…
Moving on to the research aspect of the Common Good Curriculum…
I’ve been involved in evaluating institutional projects and initiatives for many years and have used various theoretical approaches to evaluation (e.g. Kirkpatrick’s model). Now, many approaches to evaluation in this area tend to …. (1) Happen towards the end of a development (2) Have a focus around the challenges and the issues met in the course of their development so they employ a kind of Deficit language and they are retrospective, in other words they look back the way and examine what went well and what didn’t go so well and why. Therefore what they tend not to have, is any influenced on the development itself at the time of impelemntation.
Focus on concerns, issues and problems to find solutions
Use deficit language
Retrospective
Implemented at the end of a project

13. Methodology Appreciative inquiry Cooperrider (1995)
Preskill & Coghlan (2003)
Pati (2010)
For the Common Good Curriculum evaluation I decided to use a different approach – Appreciative Inquiry – Why? Because I wanted my evaluation work to have some impact on the development as it happened

14. An asset-based approach What is working particularly well?
Appreciative inquiry
Appreciative Inquiry, as an evaluation method, came out of organizational psychology and organizational development starting with David Cooperrider in 1987 and what Cooperrider and others wanted to do was in terms of how to improve organsisations, was to shift the focus away from finding problems to solve to asking new kinds of questions that would generate new ideas which could be taken forward for the benefit of the organsiation. Thus, Apprciate Inquiry is an Assets-bases approach which asks about What is working well (in order to generate more of the same kind of activity); It’s Forward-looking and (this is the most interesting part for me as the person carrying out the institutional research and evaluation) – it’s Implemented for the Start of the Project.
An asset-based approach
What is working particularly well?
Forward-looking
Implemented from the start of the project

15. Appreciative inquiry
The premise that Appreciative Inquiry is based on is to ‘Imagine what it might belike fi the best of what is already happening were to occur more frequently’. And, I was very pleased that I’d chosen this particular model of evaluation for the Common Good Curriculum when in my very first interview (which happened to be with our Deputy Vice Chancellor) and I was aksing her about where the Common Good Curriculum had come from and what was the goal when she told me, ‘It’s part of our mission to make a positive difference to the communities we serve and is at the heart of everything we do. As an AshokaU Changemaker Campus we promote social innovation in our teaching, research and community engagement. The key concept is that when students come to this university they don’t just acquire the requisite skills and knowledge within their own discipline areas and exit with a degree that is attractive and relevant to employers, they also have the opportunity to contribute to something bigger……to make a positive difference to the communities they serve …. it was about garnering what is already going on and mapping examples of where common good attributes can be identified within the taught curriculum and to identify any gaps. And to provide ample opportunities for our students to gain Common Good Attributes as part of their co- and extra curricular activities. So she was very clear, it’s about garnering whats already there to encourage more of the same.
Imagine what it might be like if the best of what is already happening were to occur more frequently

16. what is the focus of the inquiry?
Definition
what is the focus of the inquiry?
Discovery
the best of
what is
Dream
what might be
Design
what should be
Delivery
what will be
In 2001, Cooperrider and Diana Whitney published an article outlining the five principles of Appreciative Inquiry
This is the approach – You start by Defining your focus of inquiry (in this case the Common Good Curriculum); then you set out to Discover what’s already happening in terms of what’s working, what’s successful; You Imagine the Dream – what would it look like to have a fully embedded Common Good Curriculum? Then you Design what you want to put in place (or in this case to embed) and finally you Deliver what you set out as you Dream.

17. Definition: the Common Good Curriculum
Discovery: mapping social innovation in the current curriculum
Agreeing the ‘Dream’ (or vision): a curriculum that is underpinned by social innovation and which develops students who are active global citizens, responsible leaders and who demonstrate an entrepreneurial mind-set
Design of the Common Good Curriculum
Delivery of the Common Good Curriculum

18. AI as an Evaluation Methodology
Just to summarise, the Appreciative Inquiry model focuses on: What’s working rather than what’s not; The future with a focus on the goal;
and All stakeholders as part of the evaluation process.
Thus, the method itself is part of the development and feeds into the outcomes (that’s the exciting bit for me –as an evaluator you are making a contribution and having an impact throuout and not just at the end of an evaluation process)
Focus on:
What’s working rather than what’s not;
The future. It is in itself part of the innovation as its results feed into the development of the goal;
All stakeholders as part of the evaluation process.

19. Interviews with key stakeholders – staff Student focus groups
Method
Interviews with key stakeholders – staff
Student focus groups
Student surveys
Employer interviews
The evaluation is ongoing
Interviews with key staff have taken place; Student focus groups been carried out but more are planned; Student surveys are about to be conducted and employer interviews have started but more are planned

20. Some initial findings Students
In terms of findings, and just by way of example, we know that …..
Students
Over half of undergraduate students surveyed in 2017 agreed that they had had the opportunity to get involved in community engagement and/or volunteering activities;
Pursue the Award in order to have formal recognition for their change-making activities that might otherwise have gone unnoticed; 
Recognize the development of Common Good Attributes within their change-making activities has improved their employability prospects.
Employers
Consultation with employers to date indicates that the Common Good Attributes are aligned to the capabilities, and the underpinning values, they are seeking in graduates.

21. Benefits of the AI model
What’s working well
- to generate more of the same
What’s not working so well
- to develop solutions
One of the main benefits of the Appreciate Inquiry model is that, even with questions that framed to elicit the best of what’s already going on, you still get the feedback about what’s not working so well. That’s just human nature, people can’t help themselves! But, the point is you might not have got to the What’s working well had you not asked that question so you inevitable get both the positive and the negative responses.

22. Examples
The real benefits of being in at an early stage of the development as an evaluator is that you can help to identify the gaps and then do something about these, or somebody else in your organisation can do something about these. For example, while we found evidence of many examples of social innovation embedded within the taught curriculum, there were some gaps. Thus, a programme mapping tool was developed which is now part of the programme quality process. Thus, when a programme comes up for re-approval or a new programme is being approved, the programme leaders have to provide evidence of how the Common God Attributes are being taught, what’s being taught and how these attributes are being assessed.
In addition, it became quite clear interviews with key staff that they felt there was some confusion among staff as to what the development was all about (we had graduate attributes but now we have Common Good Attributes – are these additional attributes or are we replacing one set of attributes with another and why?)
So, we were able to coem up with staff resources to deal with these questions along with a communication strategy.
Many examples of social innovation within the taught curriculum, however…
Gaps identified Programme mapping tool developed
Some confusion among staff
Development of:
Communication strategy
Q n A document
Staff CPD resource

23. References
Cooperrider , D.L ., and Srivastva, S. (2004) Appreciative Inquiry in Organisational Life. Research in Organizational Change and Development, Vol.1, pages
Pati, G. (2010) Appreciative inquiry to evaluation practices in South Asia, Review of Research and Social Intervention, Lumen Publishing House, http//
Preskill, H. and Coghlan, T. (2003) Using Appreciative Inquiry in Evaluation, New Directions for Evaluation, American Evaluation Association, 100, Winter 2003, San Francisco: Josey-Bass.