Teaching and Assessing Soft Skills - MASS - Measuring and ...

8.5 Suggestions
The rationale behind the form for data collection template is given below:
1 Framework of operation and target groups of the organization in general: This part has
the intention to collect information about the business case of the various institutions
which participated in the project. This way the general framework of operation is
made clear and comparisons among the institutions can be made.
2 Educational Framework: The intention of this part is to collect information on the
educational framework under which the MASS courses have been delivered. It
contains sub parts which deal with subjects concerning both teaching and evaluation.
2.1 Targets: The educational targets each institution had when they decided to
participate in the project and deliver the MASS courses.
2.2 Success Criteria: The criteria each partner uses to decide the degree of
success of MASS courses.
2.3 Teaching methodologies: Description of the most frequently used methods of
each partner (e.g. brainstorming, discussion groups, role play etc). This
indicator suggests whether active learning methodologies were used.
2.4 Assessment: A description of the assessment methodology each partner used
in order to measure against the success criteria. Both assessment plan and
assessment methods are requested, as subparts. Each partner had the
freedom to use the methodology that best fits into its framework of
operation.
2.5 Context/Target group: Information regarding the context of MASS courses,
such as number of classes, number of students, number of teachers and
course conditions that may influence the success of the trial.
3 Characteristics of the MASS students: Several indicators that may characterize the MASS
target groups.
3.1 Comparison with the general target group: Is an indicator whether the MASS
target group might be representative of the institutions’ target group.
3.2 Statistical Indices: Demographics of the MASS students (age, gender,
employment etc).
3.3 Socio-economic factors: Some quality of life factors (poverty, crime, drug
abuse etc.) that might correlate with the success of the MASS approach. The
original SkillZone target group was a disadvantaged one. We want to estimate
whether the degree of success of MASS approach depends on the degree of
disadvantage of the target group.
4 Selection procedure: The rationale behind the partners’ choice of selecting the specific
group. Sub topics about why and how the selection had been made are included.
5 Initial Soft Skills Assessment: Feedback about the method and the result of the initial
MASS students’ soft skills assessment, to serve as a basis of comparison with the
results after the courses. Sub topics for the process of initial evaluation and why
partners think their target groups needed more soft skills training are included.
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