National Action Research Network on Researching and Evaluating Personal
Development Planning and e-Portfolio Practice
Year 3 Final Research Report
Name: John Buswell
Organisation: University of Gloucestershire
E-mail address: jbuswell@glos.ac.uk
Contact telephone number : 01242 714883
1. What is your research question?
What impact can a learning inventories like the ESCI-U have on students’ capacity to
understand and regulate their own learning?
2. Progress with research:a) Please provide us with a “Research report”/chapter abstract summarising your
research
The research examined how the use of a learning inventory, and students’ actions in
response, can help to give them the self-awareness and strategic awareness to
make more sense of their experiences and develop their approach to learning. It
focused on the ESCI-U (Emotional and Social Competency Inventory-University
Edition) learning inventory, which is based on Goleman’s work on emotional
intelligence.
The interventions were part of a progressive approach to developing students’ ability
to reflect critically and respond positively through their resultant action planning. The
interventions demonstrated that most students will reflect descriptively unless they
are supported and encouraged to make sense of experiences and relate to their own
learning and self-development. They confirmed that deeper insights and
transformative learning are more likely when the learner is given the opportunity to
interpret the profiles raised by self-assessment questionnaires in learning
inventories. The findings suggest that the ESCI-U helped to develop students’ selfawareness and self-identity and encouraged them to become more self-critical, more
self-regulatory and yet more self-confident. The four main dimensions of the ESCI-U
are especially concerned with the ability of students to make sense of experiential
learning and to perceive themselves (and their strengths and weaknesses) in relation
to others much more clearly.
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Student feedback was also very positive about the impact on their learning and their
employability skills. They have found some aspects a little uncomfortable at the time,
because of what they are learning about themselves, but acknowledged the value
and the benefits of the processes. In particular, they recognised:
 The importance of identifying and reflecting on important events;
 The process of developing more critical reflective accounts through several
stages
 The impact of shared learning and peer support
 The guidance and the understanding provided through engagement in
learning inventories and related self-assessment
3: Reflection:
How has the National Action Research Network supported you in your research
journey and what lessons have you learned in undertaking the research?
( maximum of 250 words)
The benefits of the involvement in the wider project, and the support it provided were
invaluable. Both national and regional events were very helpful and the sharing of
ideas and suggestions as well as the more formal reporting processes were very
positive features. The supportive nature of the wider project and how it was
structured and administered, particularly through the smaller regional groups offered
a form of gentle peer review and opportunities to learn from each other. There was
an important element of staff development throughout the project and the
presentations on, and discussions about, methodology were also a key feature.
Indeed, the regular meetings, national and regional, have also helped to provide
prompts for thought and action including the purpose of the research and the
methodology to be used.
The wider project also benefitted from drawing together a number of different
perspective on researching and evaluating PDP and the sharing of ideas and
progress reports provided the opportunity to make connections between different
aspects
4: Dissemination
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2008 Presentation on the Impact of Learning Inventories on Self-Regulated
Learning, National Meeting, University of Bolton /CRA NTFS Project on
Researching and Evaluating PDP and e-Portfolio, London, October
2009 (with A Tomkins) Metalearning through the Use of Learning Inventories,
in (Buswell, J & Becket, N, Enhancing Student-Centred Learning, HE
Academy HLST and BMAF Subject Centres, Oxford
2009
Presentation on employability through critical reflective learning at
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Oxford Brookes conference on employability, June
2009 ‘Learning about me as well as the subject’. Presentation at the HE
Academy Annual Conference, Manchester, July and paper published on
Evidence Net, He Academy
2009 Presentation on The role of emotional intelligence in PDP and
reflective learning, National Meeting, University of Bolton /CRA NTFS Project
on Researching and Evaluating PDP and e-Portfolio, London, October
2010 Presentation at CRA ‘Researching and Evaluating Personal
Development Planning and e-Portfolios Conference April, Nottingham
5. Any other comments
The project experienced some constraints. The aim was also to examine the impact
of the ELLI instrument (Effective Lifelong Learning Inventory) and the progression
between it and the ESCI-U, but the disruption in its management and administration
at crucial times led to this aspect being abandoned. The project reinforced the
difficulty of measuring the impact of any intervention on student learning and the
student experience, particularly in terms of the evidence in student work and student
performance. It is always difficult to isolate the impact of any variable. However, the
use of proxy measure such as student perceptions is valid and there was some
reasonably clear and appropriate feedback from students about the use of the ESCIU and its use for critically reflective learning.
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