Enhancing Assessment Practices in Higher Education: Challenges and Insights
Explore the significance of assessment in higher education, challenges faced, and ways to enhance assessment practices. Delve into crucial questions and practical steps to reshape assessment methods for certifying, supporting, and assessing learning effectively. Gain insights from expert perspectives and proposed reforms for assessment in the year 2020.
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Questions worth asking about assessment: 7 challenges to practice Associate Professor Gordon Joughin Teaching and Educational Development Institute (TEDI) The University of Queensland Kwantlen Polytechnic University, 31 March 2014
Workshop objectives Some of the best current thinking about assessment in higher education A framework for re-shaping assessment practices Actions to enhance assessment: personal & institutional A desire to explore
Agenda Introduction Assessment 2014 Assessment 2020 Cafe conversation 1 & 2: Challenging questions Cafe conversation 3: Practical steps
Resources Assessment 2020: Seven propositions for assessment reform in higher education http://www.uts.edu.au/sites/default/files/Assessment- 2020_propositions_final.pdf Assessment Futures Professor David Boud, University of Technology, Sydney http://www.uts.edu.au/research-and-teaching/teaching-and- learning/assessment-futures/overview Joughin, G. (Ed.) 2009. Assessment, Learning and Judgment. London: Springer
Assessment serves many purposes Certifying learning Supporting learning Learning and assessing after the course and graduation
Why does assessment matter? The single, strongest influence on learning is surely the assessment procedures even the form of an examination question or essay topics set can affect how students study It is also important to remember that entrenched attitudes which support traditional methods of teaching and assessment are hard to change. (Entwistle, 1996, pp. 111 12)
Summative Assessment in Higher Education: practicess in disarray [Peter Knight, The Open University, UK, 2002] Challenges Opportunities
Assessment 2020: 7 propositions for assessment reform in higher education If assessment is working well in 2020, what will it look like?
Learning Trust- worthiness Feedback ASSSESSMENT 2020 Development Partnership Design Induction
Proposition 1. Assessment is used to engage students in productive learning What and how Complexity Assessment tasks as learning tasks Capturing time; scope; focus (Gibbs & Simpson)
Threats to focusing on what is to be learnt Simplistic tasks based on reproduction Range of task types Number of tasks
Proposition 2. Feedback is used to actively promote learning Feedback is capable of making a difference to learning, but the mere provision of feedback does not necessarily lead to improvement. (Sadler 2010, 536)
Feedback conditions (Gibbs & Simpson) Sufficient Focuses on performance Timely Appropriate to the purpose of the assignment Appropriate in relation to students understanding Received and attended to Acted upon
Proposition 3. Students and teachers become responsible partners in learning and assessment. Responsibility for assessment and feedback processes Judging work against agreed standards Dialogue and interaction around assessment and standards
Proposition 4. Students are inducted into the assessment practices and cultures of higher education. In first year you got a lot of guidance on how to do the assessment. Tutors went through it with you and a whole lecture was spent going through what was required.
A transitional pedagogy: Some prompts for assessment (Sally Kift) Aids transition? Early formative? Aligned? AND assessment as and for learning? Foundation for increasing complexity? Variety of assessments, are co-ordinated? Assistance to understand the tasks? Clarity & consistency?
Proposition 5. Assessment for learning is placed at the centre of subject and program design. Align with intended learning outcomes; graduate qualities? Align with learning processes? Building learning around assessment? Holistically organised across courses/complementary integrated tasks?
Proposition 6. Assessment for learning is a focus for staff and institutional development Support: mentoring; peer review; dialogue; moderation; courses Teaching performance factor Graduate and employer perceptions National and international standards
Proposition 7. Assessment provides inclusive and trustworthy representation of student achievement. Be wary of interim results Use evidence of integrated learning for final grades Towards richer representations of achievement
Seven themes 1. Engaging students in productive learning 2. Actively using feedback 3. Partners in learning and assessment 4. Inducting into assessment 5. Assessment at the centre of design 6. Assessment as a focus of our development 7. Assessment we (and others) can trust
Seven questions worth asking 1. How to design assessment tasks that are also learning tasks? 2. How to get students to seek & use feedback to improve learning and work? 3. How to develop students ability to judge their work and others against agreed standards? 4. How to help students transition into university assessment? 5. How to make assessment an integral part of curriculum planning? 6. How to reward professional and scholarly approaches to assessment? 7. How to convincingly assess what students know and are able to do when they graduate?
Cafe conversations In groups of 5 or 6: Select a theme/question Focus on what matters Contribute Listen to understand Link and connect ideas Listen together for insights and deeper questions
Group 2 Barbara Bruce Debbie Gerald Paul Group 1 Alice Andrew Anja Deborah Joan Panteli Group 3 Amanda Geoff Gurjeet Judy Robert Group 1 Andrea Neil Paivi Ross Sabrina
Cafe Conversations: Round 1 In your group consider the question you have chosen OR generate your own group question under the heading. Consider what the question means and what should be done about it: We should be sure to ... We should avoid ...
Cafe Conversations: Round 2 One member of each group (the host ) stays put. The rest of the group moves to the next table or set of posters. The host: Allow your guests to read the question and notes on your sheet and question you about them. Guests: Question your host for clarity; challenge ideas; add more points.
Cafe Conversations: Round 3 Repeat the process but with another member staying put. Discuss the points made so far. Develop an example of an assessment practice that would be the best response to the question. Report this practice to the whole group. The practices will be collated at the end of the session and sent to participants as an important outcome of the workshop.
Learning Trust- worthiness Feedback ASSSESSMENT 2020 Development Partnership Design Induction
Resources Assessment 2020: Seven propositions for assessment reform in higher education http://www.uts.edu.au/sites/default/files/Assessment- 2020_propositions_final.pdf Assessment Futures Professor David Boud, University of Technology, Sydney http://www.uts.edu.au/research-and-teaching/teaching-and- learning/assessment-futures/overview Joughin, G. (Ed.) 2009. Assessment, Learning and Judgment. London: Springer
References Boud, D. and Associates (2010). Assessment 2020: Seven propositions for assessment reform in higher education. Sydney: Australian Learning and Teaching Council. Boud, D. & Falchikov, N. (Eds) (2007). Rethinking assessment in higher education. London: Routledge. Gibbs, G. & Dunbar-Goddet, H. (2007). The effect of programme assessment environments on student learning. York: The Higher Education Academy. Accessed 15 August 2011 from http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/documents/research/gibbs_050 6.pdf Gibbs, G and Simpson, C. (2004). Conditions under which assessment supports students learning. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education vol.1 pp.3-31. Accessed 15 August 2011 from: http://www.londonmet.ac.uk/library/r71034_39.pdf Joughin, G. (Ed.) (2009). Assessment, Learning and Judgement in Higher Education. Dordrecht: Springer.
References (ctd) Kift, S. (2008). Articulating a Transition Pedagogy: The First Year Experience and Curriculum Design.ALTC Forum on the First Year Experience and Curriculum Design Mt Lawley Campus, Edith Cowan University. 2 December 2008. Accessed 15 August 2011 from http://www.altcexchange.edu.au/system/files/KiftWAForumKift021208_p pt.pdf Knight, P. (2002). Summative Assessment in Higher Education: practices in disarray. Studies in Higher Education, 27, 3, 275-286. Rust, Chris. (2007). Towards a scholarship of assessment. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 32, 2, 229 237. Sadler, D. R. (2010). Beyond feedback: Developing student capability in complex appraisal. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 35, 5, 535 550.
