1. Assignments: the purpose versus the perception
Harriet Lowe University of Greenwich
SHIFT Conference 5th January 2018
@HarrietLoweGRN

2. What’s the point?

3. “promotion of student-centred learning” (Brown, 1997)
“promote critical and reflective thinking skills” (Bahous, 2008)
“potential to drive students’ learning” (Davis et al., 2008)
“improve subject knowledge (…) while endorsing critical thinking skills” (Conrad, 2008)
Provides opportunity for individuals to identify their own strengths and weaknesses (Bloom & Bacon, 1995)

4. Academic Writing Foundation Course
Essay
Portfolio
About degree subject
Academic style appropriate to level 4
Set of tasks completed throughout course:
Bibliography of research
Topic sentences/linking phrases
Writing an introduction
Writing a paragraph
Writing a conclusion
Editing

5. Research questions
Do students completing the assignment understand the intention or purpose of the assignment?
How does this understanding of the intent of the task affect engagement with the assignment?
How does this understanding of the intent of the task affect the final score received by the student?

6. Participants & Questionnaire
11 level 0 students from various degree disciplines (MET, Childhood studies, Public Health, International Relations, Public Relations)
Questionnaire with Likert scale (positively- and negatively-worded questions) and open-ended questions
Over 30 questions regarding (1) overall attitude towards the portfolio; (2) how the students related the portfolio tasks to their essay; and (3) a breakdown of the tasks themselves.

7. Student perception: results
Strongly agree
Agree
Disagree
Neither
I related the portfolio tasks to my essay
C, E, I, J
D, K
A, B, G, H F
I consciously thought about the link between the portfolio tasks and the essay
I, J
C, D, E, F, K
Students C, G & H scored ≤62 on their portfolio and ≤50 on their essay
Students B, D, F, I, J scored >65 on the portfolio and >70 in their essay
Students A & E scored ≥69 on their portfolio and ≤59 on their essay
Student K scored 65 on their portfolio and essay

8. Student perception: results
“How did the portfolio tasks and essay connect for you?”
H did not;
D portfolio pushed me to do the essay;
B the tasks helped while writing the essay (…) [and] improved my essay;
A I didn’t think the essay really connected with the portfolio.
Students C, G & H scored ≤62 on their portfolio and ≤50 on their essay
Students B, D, F, I, J scored >65 on the portfolio and >70 in their essay
Students A & E scored ≥69 on their portfolio and ≤59 on their essay
Student K scored 65 on their portfolio and essay

9. Student perception: results
Yes (or most of it)
No (or some small parts)
Did you use Task 1 in your essay?
B, D, E, F, H, I, K
A, C, G, J
Did you use Task 2 in your essay?
B, D, F, H, I, K
A, C, E, G, J
Students C, G & H scored ≤62 on their portfolio and ≤50 on their essay
Students B, D, F, I, J scored >65 on the portfolio and >70 in their essay
Students A & E scored ≥69 on their portfolio and ≤59 on their essay
Student K scored 65 on their portfolio and essay
Yes No
Yes but I didn’t use it
Did you refer back to Task 4 in your essay?
B, E, F, I, J, K
D, G
A, C, H

10. Student perception: results
G “Would have preferred to edit and improve a previous essay for the course”
I “It honestly helped me get through the essay”
B “To do the tasks separately was helpful when writing the essay”
Students C, G & H scored ≤62 on their portfolio and ≤50 on their essay
Students B, D, F, I, J scored >65 on the portfolio and >70 in their essay
Students A & E scored ≥69 on their portfolio and ≤59 on their essay
Student K scored 65 on their portfolio and essay

11. Research questions
Do students completing the assignment understand the intention or purpose of the assignment?
How does this understanding of the intent of the task affect engagement with the assignment?
How does this understanding of the intent of the task affect the final score received by the student?

12. Limitations to the research
Small scale study
Academic writing
Some students had not received the feedback from the portfolio in time for the essay submission which may have affected their perception on the usefulness of the tasks
The students who responded may be the engaged students

13. How do you currently engage with your students regarding assignments
How do you currently engage with your students regarding assignments? How might you ensure there is a connection between the intent of the assignment and how the student approaches it?

14. Learner-Centred Teaching (LCT) approach
LCT = active, cooperative/team-based, inquiry-based, project-based, and problem-based learning.
LCT approaches outperforms teacher-centred instruction (Felder & Brent, 2017; Hanewicz, Platt & Arendt, 2017)
Would you consider a LCT approach for assignments in the future?

15. Thank you for listening Any questions?
“Teaching is and always will be a challenging and time-consuming occupation, the point is that good teaching is far more satisfying and not much harder than poor teaching” (Felder & Brent, 2017)
Thank you for listening Any questions?
Harriet Lowe
@HarrietLoweGRN

16. References
Bahous, R. (2008). The self-assessed portfolio: A case study. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 33 (4), 381–393.
Bloom, L. & Bacon, E. (1995). Using Portfolios for Individual Learning and Assessment. Teacher Education and Special Education. 18 (1) 1-9.
Brown L. (1997) Portfolio Assessment: Missing Link in Student Evaluation. ERIC Clearinghouse: pdf. [Accessed 26 November 2008].
Conrad, D. (2008). Building knowledge through portfolio learning in prior learning assessment and recognition. The Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 9 (2), 139–150.
Felder, R. & Brent, R. (2017). Learner-Centered Teaching: How and Why. Learning Abstracts. 20 (5) 1- 5.
Hanewicz, C., Platt, A. and Arendt, A. (2017). Creating a learner-centered teaching environment using student choice in assignments. Distance Education, 38 (3) 273 – 287.