Assessment of Undergraduate Students’ Learning Outcomes in Finland (KAPPAS 2)

Assessment of Undergraduate Students’ Learning Outcomes in Finland (Finnish acronym KAPPAS 2) investigates undergraduate and graduate students’ generic skills and the development of these skills during studies in Finnish universities and universities of applied sciences.

Opiskelijoita taluttamassa polkypyöriä yliopistokampuksen sillalla

Project duration

17.10.2022 - 31.12.2025

Core fields of research

Learning, teaching and interaction

Research areas

Higher education as a pedagogical and social phenomenon

Co-operation

School of Educational Sciences and Psychology, University of Eastern Finland

Faculty

Finnish Institute for Educational Research

Funding

Ministry of Education and Culture

Project description

What is KAPPAS²?

KAPPAS² investigates undergraduate and graduate students’ generic skills and the development of these skills during studies in Finnish universities and universities of applied sciences. The project aims to use both a cross-sectional and a longitudinal study design.
KAPPAS² produces important information for higher education institutions on the learning outcomes of their students in order to support the development of teaching and learning.
Students participating in the study will receive their own test results indicating the level of their generic skills.
If you are interested in learning more about the project, please see the publications below.

What is studied?

Analytical reasoning and evaluation, problem solving, argumentative writing, and writing mechanics.
Generic skills are measured by the Collegiate Learning Assessment CLA+ International instrument developed by the US-based (CAE).
The instrument includes a 60-minute performance task and a 30-minute section for selected-response questions.

Who are studied?

Undergraduate and graduate students from 5 universities and 13 universities of applied sciences in Finland.

When will the testing take place?

An internet-based testing will be carried out in between fall 2023 and fall 2025.
The results will be reported at the end of 2025.

KAPPAS - Assessments pages

Reports

In Finnish:

Ursin, J., Hyytinen, H., & Silvennoinen, K. (toim.). (2021). Korkeakouluopiskelijoiden geneeristen taitojen arviointi – Kappas!-hankkeen tuloksia. Opetus- ja kulttuuriministeriön julkaisuja 2021:6.

Other language versions of the publication:

In English:

Ursin, J., Hyytinen, H., & Silvennoinen, K. (Eds.). (2021). Assessment of undergraduate students' generic skills in Finland : Findings of the Kappas! project. Publications of Ministry of Education and Culture 2021:31.
In Swedish:

Ursin, J., Hyytinen, H., & Silvennoinen, K. (red.). (2021). Utvärdering av högskolestuderandes generiska färdigheter – resultat från Kappas! -studien. Undervisnings- och kulturministeriets publikationer 2021:12.

Scientific articles

Hyytinen, H., Nissinen, K., Kleemola, K., Ursin, J., & Toom, A. (2023). How do self-regulation and effort in test-taking contribute to undergraduate students’ critical thinking performance? Studies in Higher Education.
Hyytinen, H., Ursin, J., Silvennoinen, K., Kleemola, K., & Toom, A. (2021). The dynamic relationship between response processes and self-regulation in critical thinking assessments. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 71.
Kleemola, K., Hyytinen, H., & Toom, A. (2022a). Critical thinking and writing in transition to higher education in Finland: do prior academic performance and socioeconomic background matter? European Journal of Higher Education.
Kleemola, K., Hyytinen, H., & Toom, A. (2022b). Exploring internal structure of a performance-based critical thinking assessment for new students in higher education. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 47(4), 556–569.
Kleemola, K., Hyytinen, H., & Toom, A. (2022c). The challenge of position-taking in novice higher education students' argumentative writing. Frontiers in Education, 7.
Ursin, J., Hyytinen, H., Silvennoinen, K., & Toom. A. (2022). Linguistic, contextual, and experiential equivalence issues in the adaptation of a performance-based assessment of generic skills in higher education. Frontiers in Education, 7.

Book sections

Ursin, J., & Hyytinen, H. (2022). Assessing the generic skills of undergraduate students in Finland. In D. Van Damme, & D. Zahner (Eds.), Does Higher Education Teach Students to Think Critically? (pp. 179–196). Paris: OECD Publishing.
Zahner, D., Kleemola, K., Hyytinen, H., Ursin, J., & Cortellini, O. (2022). Ensuring cross-cultural reliability and validity. In D. Van Damme, & D. Zahner (Eds.), Does Higher Education Teach Students to Think Critically? (pp. 71–85). Paris: OECD Publishing.

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