“I Have a Few Questions”: Reframing Assessment Practice as Asking and Answering Questions That Matter

Abstract

Student affairs educators are asked fundamental questions about programming and its effectiveness. Stakeholders (e.g., students, parents, accreditors) ask what programming (e.g., activities, strategies, curriculum) is offered, why it is offered, and who benefits in terms of learning and development (e.g., Carpenter, 2001; US Department of Education, 2006). Given these questions are typical and expected, I illustrate how outcomes assessment can be represented as a process of answering common and pertinent questions that matter in higher education. In turn, the assessment process is presented as a valued activity to student affairs educators, not something novel or an add-on. Moreover, a question-answering approach has been shown to be less controlling than direct appeals (Walton & Wilson, 2018), prompting subsequent task engagement (Wood et al., 2016). Therefore, processing assessment-related questions should prompt engagement in outcomes assessment.