B. Assessment

The following section contains descriptions of key student development tools and topics. These will help your program equip Bonner Students to successfully take advantage of the opportunities presented to them.
Note: For the sake of brevity, we do not reiterate the descriptions of tools found in the “Community Partnership” section that have direct student development implications here.

1. Student Self-Assessment
A student coming into college is ready in varying degrees (or, in rare instances, not ready at all) for the challenges and stresses that college and a developmental experience such as the Bonner Program bring to bear on their lives. One of the ways that we can enable students to address their strengths and challenges is by helping them to determine their “developmental readiness.” By assessing periodically a student’s experience in the program, we hope that student better understand why they are having trouble or success in relation to their own or the program’s expectations.

There are numerous ways to account for developmental readiness among participants and target those areas that a student may need extra assistance. There are four primary "factors" you will want to examine. These interdependent factors are trait, state, environmental, and socio-cultural factors.

Internal factors can be broken down into four categories:

• Traits of the student, including: (a) character such as introvert/extrovert, aggressive demeanor, need for mastery, openness, difficulty with integrating or forming coherent thoughts or meaning, facilitator, initiative, and (b) chronic problems that may inhibit development.
• State of affairs for the student, including: age, developmental stage, stability of life structures, life-story, and satisfaction with situation.
  Similarly, external factors can be broken down into two categories:
• Current environmental issues for the student, including: employment, family, academics, stressful events, fortuitous events (sickness), and community service challenges.
• Socio-cultural and background issues, including: (a) family and home community, and, (b) developmental norms related to age, gender, race, class, ethnicity, religion.

These criteria are important to understand the whole person. Having only one diagnostic tool whether in your selection or recruitment process, in your leadership course, or in an exit interview will be insufficient. That is why we utilize a planning and assessment process that attempts to incorporate and integrate different tools and program mechanisms at different times. When we integrate and utilize several tools then we can support a program that is intentional and systematic in helping the student maximize their potential. Below we list example tools both developed by those in our network and others. Note that this list is only a sampling. There are several leadership and self-understanding tools available. We recommend finding the ones that fit your needs. The Bonner Foundation does not require use of these tools, but rather offer them as examples of the types of tools that campuses in our network recommended.

The example tools are:

Bonner Program Application:
this document should not be overlooked when trying to understand what interests and motivates a student in the program.

Personality Type Inventories:
A personality test like the Myers Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a psychological instrument that stems from the work that was done by Isabel Briggs Myers and Katherine Cook Briggs who based their work on the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung. Jung observed that human behavior was not random but presented itself in identifiable patterns. The MBTI helps participants to identify these patterns or types. Once the participant recognizes their own personality type(s), they are better prepared to accept others and ultimately address their own strengths and challenges. A test like the MBTI is simple to administer and yields information about personality if it is correctly administered.

If you administer an instrument like the MBTI to Bonners, it is important that you follow through with an interactive workshop to illustrate ways they should use the information it produces. In this forum, all participants should have an opportunity to self select their own personality style before they take the test. Following the administration of the inventory, the MBTIs are returned so participants can compare their self selection with the MBTI scores. Participants are encouraged to ask questions and are given additional material to assist their search to determine their true type(s) according to this instrument (see Myers Briggs website www.Myersbriggs.com for more information).

Leadership Styles Inventories:
Waynesburg College has had success utilizing leadership inventories to supplement reflection activities on service leadership styles and motivations. These tool packages often have resources that help the administrator teach students the importance of understanding one’s own leadership styles, motivations, commitments, strengths and challenges, and how to develop an action plan or next steps strategy. These inventories sometimes incorporate 360-degree feedback strategies and instruments which utilize information from peers, relatives, a self-assessment by the participant, and one-on-one pre- and post-inventory discussions with a program or instrument administrator. The Leadership Practices Inventory (LPI) is an example of this type of tool that is used by a few of our campuses. It was developed by Jim Kouzes and Barry Posner, authors of The Leadership Challenge. The LPI is a 30-item inventory which allows leaders to gain a clearer picture of their leadership strengths and areas for development. The LPI is pre-work for their series of activities entitled: “The Leadership Challenge Workshop,” “Leadership Is Everyone's Business,” and “The Challenge Continues.” The LPI may be ordered through Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer.

It is important to recognize that profiling tools have disadvantages. One should carefully review how the tool is going to be used within your Bonner Program by consulting experts who have used the tool(s), as well as conducting your own research and pilot testing the tools. Other departments or individuals on your campus may be able to assist you in identifying and using one of these tools.

2. Portfolios
Using personal portfolios as an education tool stem from the popular social philosophies of Paulo Freire and Myles Horton. They both contend that education is a social justice issue and that by, increasing skills and knowledge, individuals increase their power. Participatory education involves the student in his or her own learning environment achieving his or her own personal developmental goals. Participatory education moves beyond learning how to do linear equations and into developing critical thinking skills that will lead people to better understand their communities and the world in which they live. Participatory education calls for learner-centered instruction to achieve learner's goals and objectives. Therefore, it is only through a learner-centered assessment that progress can be accurately chartered.

A portfolio can assist your Bonner Scholars Program in the following ways:

• Increases ownership of personal developmental processes and assessment by student, therefore increasing the student’s chance for success as defined by their goals;
• Improves communication lines between student, peers, BP Directors and Coordinator, and Site Supervisors;
• Encourages site supervisors, peers, and Bonner Program staff each to have a role in facilitating the student's setting of objectives, development of strategies, and assessment of their progress.

A number of campuses have begun using electronic portfolios to supplement the academic advising students receive while in school. Waynesburg College has developed a component of their system that deals specifically with service related activities.