UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Office of Planning, Assessment, and Institutional Research (OPAIR) and the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence (SITE) selected Haruko Iwami as one of three recipients to receive a Learning Outcomes Assessment Grant in 2022-23. The grant, supported by SITE, was used to fund three projects that addressed program learning-outcomes assessment. Iwami and the Japanese language program at University Park received funding for evaluation of academic outcomes of students across the program. Thanks to the award, the Japanese program team was able to gather valuable information on the effectiveness of their current teaching strategies.  

In preparation of applying for the grant, the Japanese program developed seven Program Learning Objectives (PLOs). With the grant, the program instructors assessed one of the seven objectives: reading comprehension. 

The goal of the reading comprehension PLO is that “Students will be able to read, without aid, a variety of everyday Japanese texts and comprehend them. They will demonstrate, in either a written or oral format, their comprehension by identifying and interpreting the main points and some details contained in the texts.” 

An associate teaching professor of Japanese, Iwami, expressed gratitude for the reception of the grant.

“As the coordinator of the Japanese language program, I am thankful to the generous donors of this grant. I am also grateful for the support by the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence — particularly Lori Jennings. Our liaison at OPAIR, Kirsten Hochstedt, was extremely helpful in walking me through the process of applying for and using the grant.” 

This grant allowed the instructors to assess students’ learning experiences and achievements to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of students in the Japanese language program. 

After receiving the award, coordinating the assessment was a straightforward process. The program purchased a nationally accredited assessment tool, the Reading Proficiency Test (RPT), developed by the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL). Twenty-one students of Japanese language — including six Japanese major students — took the test and received ratings. With results in hand, program instructors had a clear picture of students’ Japanese reading comprehension skills as rated using a nationally normed tool and could further analyze the effectiveness of their methods. Using the new data, the teaching faculty met to discuss the individual ratings, language abilities, and learning history of each student. 

“Thanks to this testing tool, we were able to pinpoint the strengths and weaknesses in students’ learning. Our instructors used this valuable data and exchanged ideas on how to improve our teaching strategies in the future,” Iwami added.  

In addition to Iwami, assessment grants were also awarded to two other faculty members in 2022-23: Angela Brown, lecturer in accounting at Penn State Schuylkill, for the Schuylkill Assessment Leader Community Book Project; and Timothy Kelsey, professor of agricultural economics in the College of Agricultural Sciences, for the Agricultural Economics, Sociology, and Education Assessment Training and Planning Retreat.