Transcript That is for your title - Kwantlen Polytechnic University

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/Assessment2020_propositions_final.pdf
• Assessment Futures – Professor David Boud,
University of Technology, Sydney
http://www.uts.edu.au/research-and-teaching/teaching-andlearning/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
Trustworthiness
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.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Engaging students in productive learning
Actively using feedback
Partners in learning and assessment
Inducting into assessment
Assessment at the centre of design
Assessment as a focus of our development
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 1
Alice
Andrew
Anja
Deborah
Joan
Panteli
Group 3
Amanda
Geoff
Gurjeet
Judy
Robert
Group 2
Barbara
Bruce
Debbie
Gerald
Paul
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
Trustworthiness
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/Assessment2020_propositions_final.pdf
• Assessment Futures – Professor David Boud,
University of Technology, Sydney
http://www.uts.edu.au/research-and-teaching/teaching-andlearning/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.