Questions worth asking about assessment: 7 challenges to practice Associate Professor Gordon Joughin Teaching and Educational Development Institute (TEDI)

Questions worth asking about assessment:7 challenges to practice

Associate Professor Gordon JoughinTeaching 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

Feedback

Partnership

InductionDesign

Development

Trust-worthiness

ASSSESSMENT

2020

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 learning2. Actively using feedback3. Partners in learning and assessment4. Inducting into assessment5. Assessment at the centre of design6. Assessment as a focus of our development7. 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 2

Barbara

Bruce

Debbie

Gerald

Paul

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

Feedback

Partnership

InductionDesign

Development

Trust-worthiness

ASSSESSMENT

2020

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_0506.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_ppt.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.