UAB Jemison Lecture Series - Dr. Yukiko Watanabe

The University of Alabama at Birmingham College of Arts and Sciences Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures UAB Jemison Lecture Series:

Dr. Yukiko Watanabe

Center for Teaching & Learning – University of California, Berkeley Monday October 28, 2019 – 5:00-6:00 PM, UH2100

Design Decisions: Creating A Proactive Assessment Culture

Current university accountability and accreditation systems require second/foreign language programs to engage in assessment of program-level outcomes, though often such activities are seen as daunting and bureaucratic. How can departments build an assessment system that is meaningful and useful to faculty and students, and develop a proactive assessment culture? In order to advance useful outcomes assessment practices, empirical observation is needed to examine the lived realities of what works, what does not, and what factors impact sustainable, educative, and systematic outcomes assessment. This talk will highlight recent research on assessment practices in U.S. college second/foreign language programs and suggest some principles that can guide your assessment process and design decisions.

Yukiko Watanabe is a senior assessment and evaluation consultant at the Center for Teaching and Learning, University of California, Berkeley. She cultivates assessment and program evaluation capacity, culture, practices, and policies across academic departments. She has consulted on numerous program evaluation and outcomes assessment projects in domestic and international universities, including college foreign language programs in the U.S., library information literacy programs in Japan, and online graduate programs. Her research on evaluation and assessment culminated as an edited book in 2009: “Toward useful program evaluation in college foreign language education” (National Foreign Language Resource Center, University of Hawaii). Her current research focuses on (a) evaluation theory and assessment practices in higher education, (b) assessment capacity building and competency articulation, and (c) organizational learning around pedagogy in academic departments. She holds a PhD in Second Language Studies from the University of Hawaii at Manoa with emphasis in foreign language assessment, measurement, and program evaluation. This event is free and open to the public Sponsored by the Jemison Visiting Professorship in the Humanities