Measuring what matters: implementing the personal and professional development pulse to capture holistic educational gain in higher education.
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| Title: | Measuring what matters: implementing the personal and professional development pulse to capture holistic educational gain in higher education. |
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| Authors: | Timmis, Matthew A.1 (AUTHOR) Matthew.Timmis@aru.ac.uk, Pike, Claire V. S.2 (AUTHOR), Latham, Keziah1 (AUTHOR) |
| Source: | Frontiers in Education. 2026, p1-12. 12p. |
| Subject Terms: | *Holistic education, *Educational evaluation, *Employability, *Higher education, *Career development, *Student development, Psychometrics, Introspection |
| Abstract: | Introduction: Universities play a central role in preparing students with the essential skills they need to thrive in their future careers and broader life experiences. As society and the labour market continues to evolve, the expectations placed on graduates also change. Consequently, higher education institutions must ensure students develop broad and diverse capabilities required for long-term employability and sustained professional success. Method: This study reports the development and psychometric validation of the Personal and Professional Development Pulse , an institutionally aligned instrument designed to capture a broad, holistic measure of students' educational gain throughout their university degree. The Pulse comprises 22 self-reflective statements, grouped into one of 5 domains of educational development, with statements answered on a rating scale of strongly disagree (1), to strongly agree (7). The Pulse was completed by 5180 new entrants. Responses were Rasch analyzed to determine the psychometric properties of the questionnaire. Results: Results indicated ordered category functioning (i.e., each response category becomes most likely at a progressively higher level of ability/confidence), a strong item hierarchy (item separation = 14.95; reliability = 1.00—Items are consistently ordered from easiest to hardest, and that ordering is reliable and meaningful), and good discrimination between respondents (person separation = 3.00; reliability = 0.90—distinguishing between responders with different levels of confidence/ability), alongside acceptable fit statistics (statements are valid and coherent in what they intent to measure). Principal component analysis supported acceptable unidimensionality, with all items aligning to a single underlying construct. Discussion: The validated Pulse provides a robust, holistic measure of students' educational gain across their degree, capturing key graduate capabilities. Findings identified relative strengths in collaboration , application and empathy. Employability and networking items required higher ability/confidence, indicating that these items take longer to develop. Institutional recommendations include implementing e mployability and networking related opportunities consistently within curricular and co-curricular delivery. Maximising the impact of the Pulse should be considered as a complementary component of a broader, holistic approach to student development, incorporating reflective dialogue, co-curricular engagement, and opportunities to evidence capability development over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
| Copyright of Frontiers in Education is the property of Frontiers Media S.A. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.) | |
| Database: | Education Research Complete |
| FullText | Text: Availability: 0 |
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| Header | DbId: ehh DbLabel: Education Research Complete An: 194730029 AccessLevel: 6 PubType: Academic Journal PubTypeId: academicJournal PreciseRelevancyScore: 0 |
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| Items | – Name: Title Label: Title Group: Ti Data: Measuring what matters: implementing the personal and professional development pulse to capture holistic educational gain in higher education. – Name: Author Label: Authors Group: Au Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Timmis%2C+Matthew+A%2E%22">Timmis, Matthew A.</searchLink><relatesTo>1</relatesTo> (AUTHOR)<i> Matthew.Timmis@aru.ac.uk</i><br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Pike%2C+Claire+V%2E+S%2E%22">Pike, Claire V. S.</searchLink><relatesTo>2</relatesTo> (AUTHOR)<br /><searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22Latham%2C+Keziah%22">Latham, Keziah</searchLink><relatesTo>1</relatesTo> (AUTHOR) – Name: TitleSource Label: Source Group: Src Data: <searchLink fieldCode="JN" term="%22Frontiers+in+Education%22">Frontiers in Education</searchLink>. 2026, p1-12. 12p. – Name: Subject Label: Subject Terms Group: Su Data: *<searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Holistic+education%22">Holistic education</searchLink><br />*<searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Educational+evaluation%22">Educational evaluation</searchLink><br />*<searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Employability%22">Employability</searchLink><br />*<searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Higher+education%22">Higher education</searchLink><br />*<searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Career+development%22">Career development</searchLink><br />*<searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Student+development%22">Student development</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Psychometrics%22">Psychometrics</searchLink><br /><searchLink fieldCode="DE" term="%22Introspection%22">Introspection</searchLink> – Name: Abstract Label: Abstract Group: Ab Data: Introduction: Universities play a central role in preparing students with the essential skills they need to thrive in their future careers and broader life experiences. As society and the labour market continues to evolve, the expectations placed on graduates also change. Consequently, higher education institutions must ensure students develop broad and diverse capabilities required for long-term employability and sustained professional success. Method: This study reports the development and psychometric validation of the Personal and Professional Development Pulse , an institutionally aligned instrument designed to capture a broad, holistic measure of students' educational gain throughout their university degree. The Pulse comprises 22 self-reflective statements, grouped into one of 5 domains of educational development, with statements answered on a rating scale of strongly disagree (1), to strongly agree (7). The Pulse was completed by 5180 new entrants. Responses were Rasch analyzed to determine the psychometric properties of the questionnaire. Results: Results indicated ordered category functioning (i.e., each response category becomes most likely at a progressively higher level of ability/confidence), a strong item hierarchy (item separation = 14.95; reliability = 1.00—Items are consistently ordered from easiest to hardest, and that ordering is reliable and meaningful), and good discrimination between respondents (person separation = 3.00; reliability = 0.90—distinguishing between responders with different levels of confidence/ability), alongside acceptable fit statistics (statements are valid and coherent in what they intent to measure). Principal component analysis supported acceptable unidimensionality, with all items aligning to a single underlying construct. Discussion: The validated Pulse provides a robust, holistic measure of students' educational gain across their degree, capturing key graduate capabilities. Findings identified relative strengths in collaboration , application and empathy. Employability and networking items required higher ability/confidence, indicating that these items take longer to develop. Institutional recommendations include implementing e mployability and networking related opportunities consistently within curricular and co-curricular delivery. Maximising the impact of the Pulse should be considered as a complementary component of a broader, holistic approach to student development, incorporating reflective dialogue, co-curricular engagement, and opportunities to evidence capability development over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] – Name: AbstractSuppliedCopyright Label: Group: Ab Data: <i>Copyright of Frontiers in Education is the property of Frontiers Media S.A. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract.</i> (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.) |
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| RecordInfo | BibRecord: BibEntity: Identifiers: – Type: doi Value: 10.3389/feduc.2026.1831859 Languages: – Code: eng Text: English PhysicalDescription: Pagination: PageCount: 12 StartPage: 1 Subjects: – SubjectFull: Holistic education Type: general – SubjectFull: Educational evaluation Type: general – SubjectFull: Employability Type: general – SubjectFull: Higher education Type: general – SubjectFull: Career development Type: general – SubjectFull: Student development Type: general – SubjectFull: Psychometrics Type: general – SubjectFull: Introspection Type: general Titles: – TitleFull: Measuring what matters: implementing the personal and professional development pulse to capture holistic educational gain in higher education. Type: main BibRelationships: HasContributorRelationships: – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Timmis, Matthew A. – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Pike, Claire V. S. – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: Latham, Keziah IsPartOfRelationships: – BibEntity: Dates: – D: 19 M: 06 Text: 2026 Type: published Y: 2026 Identifiers: – Type: issn-print Value: 2504284X Titles: – TitleFull: Frontiers in Education Type: main |
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