Evaluating Impacts with Schools and Young People Seminar Programme – 29 June 2012 Session Title Description Speaker Begins 10.30am (Arrive from 10:15) 10:15 Coffee/Tea available upon arrival 10:30 Welcome and Overview of Seminar The morning part of the seminar will focus on schools per se, while the afternoon focuses on impact evaluation with adolescents. Dr Eric Jensen (University of Warwick) 10:40 Evaluating impacts: why and how? This presentation by Sir John Holman focuses on the current context for measuring the impacts of engaging schools and young people with science. He will also discuss some of his experience with the task of measuring learning in schools and getting feedback from teachers, with a focus on Wellcome’s interest in informal learning and why evaluation is important. John will also discuss how to do effective evaluation at the teacher and learner level – drawing on experiences from the Science Learning Centres evaluations. Sir John Holman (The Wellcome Trust) -­‐ 20 minute presentation plus 15 minutes discussion time. 11:15 Teacher feedback forms: The good, the bad and the ugly This presentation covers the principles of good questionnaire design relevant to teacher feedback forms, providing some examples of good, bad and particularly ugly questions designed for teacher feedback. Key issues include the extension of self-­‐report to ‘other’ report and timing of data collection. Dr Eric Jensen 15 minute presentation, plus 10 minutes discussion time. 11:40 Workshop in small groups Examples of teacher feedback forms are circulated to small groups in this session for delegates to critically discuss. Delegates are asked to identify invalid / bad questions, good questions, potential good questions if tweaked, and to reflect -­‐ on any general points they might have about teacher feedback forms. Each group will be asked to present at least one of each category to the plenary. 20-­‐minute workshop-­‐style activity, plus 20 minutes of discussion time. 12:45 13:30 Small group discussion: ‘Is 15-­‐minute discussion in small groups, there anything distinctive plus 15 minutes discussion time as about evaluating plenary. engagement and informal learning programmes and activities aimed at young people’? 14:00 14:25 LUNCH The importance of effective evaluation within the planning and continuous development of public engagement and informal learning programmes aimed at young people. Evaluating the practice of engaging young people It is always the case that public engagement and informal learning practitioners are mostly in the dark with regard to their impacts. While some basic nonverbal cues may indicate attention, discovering whether impact has occurred requires empirical verification. With young people, rapid changes in tastes and interests implicate an even greater need than usual to ensure that practice is well-­‐grounded in empirical evidence. This presentation discusses a best practice model for programme development designed to integrate evaluation within a long-­‐term framework. 15-­‐minute presentation, plus 10 minutes discussion time. Sarah Thomas (ZSL) is presenting on evaluation of programmes aimed at young people. 20-­‐minute presentation, plus 15 minutes discussion time 15:00 15:30 -­‐ Trying out different approaches with adolescents: Annotated drawings in surveys, experimental design, focused activities, observation. COFFEE / TEA BREAK -­‐ Dr Eric Jensen Sarah Thomas, Head of Discovery & Learning, Zoological Society of London -­‐ This presentation discusses the toolkit of Dr Eric Jensen options for impact evaluation with young people, and related methodological issues. Other ideas for data collection with adolescents are raised but not pursued, including: online and social media-­‐based forms of evaluation aiming to establish direct link between institution and young person unmediated by the school, use of age-­‐appropriate compensation, deciding between data collection within the visit or later on. 15-­‐minute presentation, plus 10 minute discussion time. 15:55 Stand up and share! Open space for very brief presentations from delegates on the day’s topic. 2-­‐5 minute presentations, plus up to 5 minutes of discussion time per speaker. 16:15 Delegate-­‐led discussion time. 10 minutes of open discussion time, with delegates setting the agenda. 16:25 Closing Remarks from Organiser and preview of next seminar Post-­‐seminar drinks downstairs until 5pm. Dr Eric Jensen (Warwick University) 16:30 END Location: Dana Centre, next to the Natural History Museum in London http://www.danacentre.org.uk/aboutus/location Seminar Series Official Website: http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/sociology/news/scd/publicengagement/ For further information, contact the seminar series organiser Dr Eric Jensen (e.jensen@warwick.ac.uk) and seminar series support officer Monae Verbeke (m.verbeke@warwick.ac.uk).