With constant innovation in educational practice and beyond, it can be difficult to know whether what we do is working. This workshop will introduce delegates to principles of good evaluation, and will cover some tools and techniques for identifying appropriate evaluation methods. It will also explore some of the key challenges of meaningful evaluation, and how we might go about tackling these in real life settings.

Presenter: Dea Nielsen

Dea is a Research Fellow for the Better Start Bradford Innovation Hub, and is based at the Department of Education at the University of York. Dea completed her BSc and MSc in Research in Psychology at the University of York, before going on to gain her PhD at the University of Sheffield. Her doctoral worked focused on the development of language and literacy skills in young children learning English as an Additional language (EAL). This longitudinal project examined EAL children’s skills from preschool through to early education, and compared the literacy skills and the predictors of these skills for monolingual and EAL children. Dea’s research interests centre on early language development and its links to literacy, multilingual language development, as well as methodological approaches to intervention evaluation. She has worked on numerous evaluations of community-based interventions, and is passionate about supporting evidence-based practice.

This workshop is funded by an excellence and innovation fellowship from the Leeds Institute for Teaching Excellence.

@EAL_children www.EALchildren.org

Directions: From level 10 of EC Stoner, take staircase 4 to level 9, go through the door at the far left round the corner, the door to the room is straight ahead at the far end of the corridor.

Parking: If you would like to park in the university car park, we will be able to reserve a place for you in advance for payment of £7. Please email us at Language@leeds.ac.uk with your full name and car registration number. Once the reservation has been processed, you will be sent a code number which you will need to use in the pay machine before exiting, rather than on arrival. Pay machines are located on level 1 of the multi storey car park, outside the Ziff building and in The Edge car park. You do not need to display a permit on the windscreen as the ANPR cameras will verify the booking. The reservation is valid for anywhere in the Orange Zone on campus (which includes the multi-storey).

Alternatively, the nearest car park is the multi-storey on Woodhouse Lane, LS2 3AX, which is a 5 min walk from campus. There is also off-street parking around the campus on St Mark’s Street, just off Woodhouse Lane opposite the School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering or near the Burley end of campus on Lyddon Terrace, Clarendon Road and Woodsley Road, for example, depending on availability.