YUKIKO WATANABE, PhD

Summary: 

The Berkeley Undergraduate Discovery initiative is a campus-wide effort to engage and support more undergraduate students in a wide range of immersive learning projects (“Discovery Experiences”)—from substantial research experiences and artistic production to entrepreneurial initiatives and community engaged projects. While Discovery (e.g., conducting original research, designing innovative products, engaging with community organizations or creating original works of art) is deeply integrated into the graduate student and faculty worlds, the pathways for undergraduate student engagement around Discovery were less clear when the project launched. We needed data to inform campus leadership and departmental choices, directions, decisions, and actions to enhance Discovery Learning for all students. The Discovery Curriculum survey provided an opportunity for all undergraduate-granting departments to become familiar with the educational initiative and to voice what is already in place and challenges in scaling Discovery Learning. Therefore, the survey served as a curricular needs assessment to guide an educational initiative that impacts all undergraduate degree programs and as a way to generate baseline data to later measure the impact of the initiative.

We examined the efficacy of formal and informal training of graduate students in mentoring undergraduate researchers. Evaluation design utilized pre-mid-post surveys of graduate and undergraduate students, observations of research team meetings, and analysis of poster session interactions. We found variations in how teaching moments are taken up by the mentors. 

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​Find out more: NSF IGE grant page, SMART program page 

I have worked since 2005 on the Foreign Language Program Evaluation Project at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, facilitating evaluation case studies, conducting a nation-wide survey study, and engaging in outreach activities (offering capacity development workshops, hosting summer institute, creating resources, presenting on the project, writing book chapters).

Find out more: Toward Useful Program Evaluation in College Foreign Language Education

Between 2010 and 2012, I facilitated and researched outcomes assessment projects in eight college foreign language and literature programs across two U.S. institutions. This dissertation research examined empirically the multiple interweaving organizational factors of foreign language programs that may enhance or hinder initiating, planning, implementing, using, and learning from a utilization-focused approach to student learning outcomes (SLOs) assessment. 

We implemented empowerment evaluation in Japanese as a Second Language program at Toyama University medical and pharmaceutical campus. In my role as an external evaluator (i.e., a "critical friend" in empowerment evaluation framework), I facilitated the empowerment evaluation process and also acted as a researcher on empowerment evaluation practices. The research study unvealed enabling context and factors for empowerment evaluation approach in Japanese academic context. 

At UH Manoa, I facilitated the departments under the College of Languages, Linguistics, and Literature (CLLL) to prepare for program review (accreditation) and program improvement. During 2008-09 academic year, the CLLL Evaluation Resource Team developed student exit surveys for the BA, MA, PhD, Certificate, and 2-year language programs (23 programs total). Find out more: AAUSC 2014 volume