1. LECTURE 2 - DTLLS Assessment

2. Research into the impact of assessment tells us that students learn best when assessment is:  Evenly timed  Represents or simulates real life  The fear of failure is minimised  Perceived by students as relevant and appropriate to their needs as learners (Ramsden, 1992, Entwistle et al 1987)

3. Assessment We know that individual learners tend to favour one learning style above another and that some forms of assessment favour particular approaches

4. Assessment Students take topics more seriously if they know that they are to be assessed Learning and teaching are greatly enhanced when the assessment is seen to be integrated and relevant to the course rather than tagged onto the end of a module as an afterthought

5. Self Assessment Fosters the concept of development and reflection Elevates the status of the student to one of assessor It places the student in a position where he/she must acknowledge strengths and areas for improvement and be able to make plans for the future It is based on the theory of experiential learning advocated and developed by Kolb (1984) and Schon (1984)

6. Kolb’s learning cycle

7. Self Assessment It allows the student to develop  The capacity to learn  The capacity to know how to learn  The capacity to know what he/she has learned

8. Self Assessment For Boud (1988) self assessment involves 2 key elements:  The development of knowledge and an appreciation of the standards, and the criteria for meeting those standards  The capacity to make judgements about whether or not the work meets those standards

9. Self Assessment Sadler (1989) Argues that it is important that the student is able to monitor and make changes to work during the ‘act of production’ It is a way of providing feedback which can be directly and immediately applied to work in progress

10. Self Assessment Schon (1987) A process of development which involves taking stock of existing knowledge, identifying gaps and acquiring new knowledge which can be applied to future behaviour Gaps in learning are traditionally filled by the tutor in the form of feedback

11. Negotiated Assessment Bridging the gap between traditional teacher led assessment and self assessment is ‘collaborative’ or ‘negotiated’ assessment This is an intermediate stage between dependency and autonomy of judgement Teacher and student meet to clarify objectives and standards

12. Self assessment The student needs opportunities to practice making judgements and to feel the responsibility of making a judgement against criteria It exposes the student to subjectivity

13. Self Assessment Boud offers two arguments for involving students in self assessment:  The reality argument based on the view that learning is context and situation bound and students need to practice interpreting requirements  The expediency argument based on the view that many tutors do not have the time to offer qualitative feedback and that self assessment is a way of reducing time spent on meaningless marking exercises

14. Boud Quotation ‘If students mark their own work, either with respect to specified standards or their self established criteria, they not only release staff for more educationally worthwhile activities, but they are encouraged to reflect on their own work and the standards which can be applied to it’ (1995, p169)

15. Criticisms of Self Assessment Both arguments are quick and easy responses to:  Increasing student numbers  A diverse student body  There are also issues concerning reliability in a system where learners not only define their own criteria but assess their own work by that criteria  Rather than consider self assessment as simply an assessment tool, it should perhaps be seen as a learning experience in itself

16. Activity Consider where you could include self-assessment across the modules/subjects you teach In what ways could your learners benefit from self- assessment?

17. Self Assessment Boud and Falchikov (1989) When tutors and students selected the assessment criteria through a process of mutual collaboration, there was an 80% agreement of grades This suggests that whilst factors such as experience, maturity and simplicity of task play an important task in securing agreement on grades, perhaps the single most important factor is the role students play in the selection of criteria Studies suggest that self assessment is successful because it is perceived by students as ‘real’

18. Reflective journals Atkins (1995) One of the key characteristics of a critical learner is ‘to be able to reflect on one’s own practice and to use feedback to assess and manage one’s own performance’

19. Self reflection McGill and Brockbank (1998) Reflection draws on both cognitive (knowledge skills) and meta-cognitive (behaviour and feelings) which is its great strength. An assessment system which addresses reflective learning should do so in terms of both outcome and process

20. Outcome and process reflection Self reports – reflective diaries, log, reflective evidence Other reports – learning contracts, evidence from a mentor or vocational tutor When self reports and other reports are confirmed by the judgement of the tutor, triangulation and validity can be made This means that students are co-dependent on tutors, peers and their own self-knowledge to provide the feedback they need for improved learning

21. Oral presentations Are we assessing content knowledge or the ability to articulate an argument in front of an audience? Oral assessment is more likely to lead to a deep approach to learning since it requires a personal commitment and engagement with the subject matter

22. Oral Assessments – a deep approach to learning Students do not want to make a fool of themselves Speech is transparent to waffling In order to answer questions, the student has to understand the topic (reducing the opportunity for plagiarism) Speaking inevitably means that you are heard (eradicating the possibility of confusion) Oral assessment involves body language (conveys more than the written form) Personal involvement and ownership of the spoken word

23. Oral Assessment Written assessment provides the opportunity for students to submit and deny responsibility for their work. (They are not there when it is marked) The physical distance created between the student’s production of written work and the assessor’s judgement appears to promote an intellectual separation in the mind of the student Improving student learning therefore necessitates a closure of the perceived gap between feedback and action