“evident from the review is that assessment practice remains an integral part of curriculum design and it is a vehicle that can facilitate change in order to better support students to manage the learning requirements of 21st-century environments, both within and beyond HE.”
“Assessment and feedback practices are among the most powerful levers educators have for improving student learning.”
Assessment:
Effective assessment practices should integrate as many powerful learning principles as possible
There are many types of authentic assessment, and their effectiveness depends on how well they are implemented
“Preparing students for novel assessments and clarifying assessment criteria is particularly important. We specifically urge the sector to create more opportunities for group work assessments, as teamwork is so integral to most professional roles.”
Section 3:
“An educational assessment is a procedure for making inferences about student learning. Assessment is when “learners engage in tasks, which generate data. These data become evidence when they are used in support of particular claims” (Black and Wiliam, 2018, 553)
Assessment should focus more on learning and learners. There should be more opportunities for formative assessments and less summative assessment
Principles are central to Assessment for Learning:
- clarifying and sharing intended learning outcomes and criteria for success
- designing effective assessment tasks that generate evidence of students’ achievement against those learning outcomes
- providing feedback that moves learners forward
- engaging students as instructional resources for each other
- and activating students as the owners of their own learning through processes such as self-assessment
(Black and Wiliam, 2018).
High-impact practices (HIPs) are a set of specific, complex, highly effective learning practices
HIPs are defined by eight key elements:
- high expectations of learners
- sustained student effort
- meaningful academic and peer interaction
- working with diverse others
- timely and constructive feedback
- real world application
- public demonstration of competence
- reflection on and integration of learning
(Kuh and O’Donnell, 2013).
“In Wilkin’s (2016) redesign of an assessment task… students were prompted to pay attention to concepts and ways of thinking that had been absent in earlier iterations of the assessment design. The author introduced scaffolding through structured application of a set of principles, followed by class discussion, and found that students reported better engagement with critical thinking and demonstrated better subsequent critical thinking following this scaffolded approach (Wilkin, 2016).
Impacts of group work assessment
Collaboration is a really important skill in the design industry – it helps prepare students for professional practice and develop social and interpersonal skills.
Educators need to be careful when designing group based activities – there should be appropriate scaffolding to prepares the students, any skills they need, so they know how to succeed.
“Student perceptions of group assessments, like other assessment tasks, is improved by clarifying the task and its purpose and value (Sedghi and Rushworth, 2017).“
Group-based assessment showed better student performance HOWEVER those units had lower student satisfaction.
“Qualitative feedback suggested that first year students benefited from learning about different ways to approach such questions, while third year students were already entrenched in their own methods and found it anxiety-provoking to question those methods (Headrick et al, 2021).”
- This is really interesting to think about why certain students benefit from a certain method more than others. Considering where they are on their student journey is equally important in selecting the appropriate assessment process.
“…students tended to see random assignment into groups as fairer than students’ own self-selection. Surveyed students in their study valued group work for helping them learn time management and skills in working with others that would contribute to their employability (Hill et al, 2016).“
Students’ individual contribution must be held accountable to avoid an unequal division of labour:
- I.e a way of doing this is allocating each person a set role
Students should be working towards a group goal and be heard individually accountable
With group work assessment, there should be clear ways to evaluate individual contribution
Group projects can work but do need:
- Random teacher assigned groups
- Scaffolding to support collaboration
- Group goals
- Individual accountability
“Sarka et al (2017) demonstrated the importance of preparing students for new forms of assessment…. the importance of helping students adjust to new assessment demands and build their confidence and awareness. Helping students prepare for a different assessment culture and approach is a general rule of thumb across any new form of assessment and is reflected in research on various kinds of transitions (eg Carter, 2020; Rovagnati, Pitt and Winstone, 2021)… particularly when accompanied by clear criteria about expectations and requirements and personalised, constructive feedback (eg Palmer et al, 2018).” Pg 33
Research prior to the review period suggested that effects of any assessment system on students’ learning processes and learning outcomes are mediated by their perceptions of this assessment system (Struyven, Dochy and Janssens, 2005; Lizzio and Wilson, 2013)… How students perceive an assessment should be considered in future evaluative research on the outcomes of specific assessment designs.
- Running a workshop to gauge students perception on the assessment practice – breaking down the pedagogical reasoning behind it and testing whether they view the assessment as more valuable after?
“…assessment designs and feedback associated with formative assessments can trigger either positive or negative emotional responses which affect learning processes and outcomes. These emotional responses have effects on final grades that are above and beyond the grades on the formative assessments. These effects on emotions and self-confidence, though, may vary depending on the level of intrinsic motivation or interest in the subject that students come in with (Vaessen et al, 2017)” pg34
Competency based learning
“…CBL tends to compartmentalise learning into discrete units, educators need to give further consideration to assessments that ensure students can synthesise and integrate multiple smaller units into a ‘big picture’… portfolios, which were used to enhance students’ motivation, engagement, ability to self-reflect, iterative enhancement of work, and to assess their communication skills in representing their own work.”
“… 360-degree assessments in which feedback from multiple sources (self, peers, experts, teachers) was integrated. This method appeared to enhance students’ learning outcomes and promote professional skills and attitudes.”
Constructive alignment and equivalencies across formats
“Assessing against explicit learning outcomes also supports flexible and inclusive assessments, enabling students to choose different formats for demonstrating their achievement (eg written essay versus presentation). Providing choices that allow students to play to their strengths and preferred learning strategies can result in higher marks (McGahan et al, 2016).”
Co-assessment
“Quesada et al (2019) defined co-assessment more broadly, highlighting different stages and ways in which students might jointly negotiate with teachers toward consensus about assessment: during planning, development or deciding a mark”
- helped them learn from their mistakes
- strengthen their communication and relationships with peers and teachers
Bibliography:
Dr Pitt, E. and Prof Quinlan, K.M. (2022) “Impacts of higher education assessment and feedback policy and practice on students: a review of the literature 2016-2021.” Centre for the Study of Higher Education, University of Kent. Available at: https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/impacts-higher-education-assessment-and-feedback-policy-and-practice-students-review?_cldee=hxYRsJO9HcXlKmsJ_L49nlYSRMeNjDW7IQrFA5FFQgte0LinEFGwwJBKJVBmS54C&recipientid=contact-aae8d45c6694ed11aad10022481b584d-970a21d4cb6e4650ba9ca5f7d079559e&esid=1959bae0-1ea6-4cc8-9a34-9a5df578d08a (Accessed: 14 December 2022).