Assessment Indicators of Learning for Junior College Student in Japan : Major Benchmarking from JJCSS2011 <Note>

This paper develops assessment indicators of learning process based on JJCSS2011 and seeks to benchmark them among majors of Junior Colleges in Japan. While the assessment indicators are helpful as a tool for benchmarking, they need to be complemented with other information to grasp reality more deeply. First, Item Response Theory is employed for developing assessment indicators following the CIRP Constructs designed by the Higher Education Research Institute: HERI. The selection of assessment items depends on the Expanded I-E-O model which incorporates psychological dimensions of student engagement postulated by Astin’s Involvement theory. The assessment indicators from JJCSS2011 are as follows: 1. Support from Faculty and Staff, 2. Peer Relations, 3. Student Engagement of Psychological Perspective, 4. Academic Involvement (1) Active Learning, 5. Academic Involvement (2) Disengagement, 6.Learning Outcomes (1) Knowledge and Skills, 7. Learning Outcomes (2) Human Relationship, 8. Learning Outcomes (3) Civic Awareness, 9. Satisfaction with Coursework, 10. Satisfaction Overall. In the CIRP Constructs there are Pluralistic Orientation, Cross-Racial Interaction, and Civic Engagement and so on. These are supplemented by constructs from Indiana University’s National Study of Student Engagement [NSSE] which includes sclaes on Level of Academic Challenge, Active and Collaborative Learning, Student-Faculty Interaction, Enriching Educational Experience and Supportive Campus Environment. In fact, among assessment indicators from JJCSS, “4. Academic Involvement (1) Active Learning” fails to meet the statistical conditions for the IRT procedure. Therefore, new assessment items are developed to recreate a new assessment indicator for active learning. Adding one indicator about the study and learning time in and out of classes, this paper describes the benchmarking of majors with assessment indicators. Those majors are Health and hygiene, Nursing, Humanities, Management, Welfare, Household economy, Nutritional science, Education, and Art. The hypothesis is that if students show high learning gains on key outcomes then their satisfaction with college education will also be high. However, the Nursing students did not support this hypothesis. They study hard and demonstrate high gains on learning outcomes, but they report lower satisfaction with their college education compared to students majoring in other fields