Post on 14-Aug-2020
Assessment and Feedback in Higher Education
Summative and formative
Clarification via:• Gibbs G (2010) Dimensions of Quality, pp 34‐5• Gibbs also wrote a follow‐up paper in 2012 entitled Implications of 'Dimensions of Quality' in a market environment which is available on the HEA website: https://www.heacademy.ac.uk/implications‐dimensions‐quality‐market‐environment#sthash.SM0ol0GW.dpuf
A Marked Improvement: Transforming assessment in higher education Section 2: a Manifesto for Change’ 6 tenets:
1: Assessment for learning 2: Ensuring assessment is fit for purpose3: Recognise that assessment lacks precision4: Constructing standards in communities5: Integrating assessment literacy into course design6: Ensuring professional judgements are reliable
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A Marked Improvement
a) Rate the extent of evidence1 = none or very little2 = some but insufficient3 = just adequate4 = considerable but still some gaps5 = full and comprehensive.
b) What evidence is there to support your rating? c) What further evidence is needed? Develop
appropriate actions.
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Assessment review tool
B1.3 Do you ensure an appropriate balance between summative and formative assessment at the programme level?
B4.1 Are there opportunities to engage in dialogue about standards among staff?B4.2 Are there opportunities to engage in dialogue about standards between staff and students?
B5.3 Are students supported to practise monitoring and supervising their own learning?
B6.1 Are opportunities taken to share the rationale for assessment judgements among colleagues to give confidence in such judgements?
B6.2 Are there support mechanisms, such as mentoring to help staff build confidence in the formation and reliability of their assessment judgements?
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Stimulus question examples
Identifying Personal Understanding of assessment using concept
mapping
Lecture
Lecture
Information
Lecture
Information
What is a Concept Map? A concept is an idea that can be linked in a meaningful way
to another idea
i. Write down the next word that comes to mind when you think of this idea, similar to a word association test
ii. Identify a link label between Lecture and the concept you originally associated with this to create a phrase or proposition
iii. For the concepts associated with ‘lecture’, consider if there is a hierarchical order
Concept mapping
What is your own personal understanding of Assessment?
Assessment for Learning
1. Familiarise participants with Assessment for Learning (AfL)
2. Consider how aspects of the concept of AfL can be applied in practice
Purpose of assessment
Did your map draw out your understanding of the purpose of assessment?
If so, what do you understand the purpose of assessment to be?
Concepts relevant to assessment
Assessment should be …• Reliable• Valid and support learning• Feasible, both for students and staff• Follow relevant processes• Prevent cheating• Fair for everyone
Multiple dimensions of assessment
• ‘Double duty’ of assessment (Boud 2000):– Grading – Learning
• Assessment of Learning (AoL)– Purpose: to summarise, grade and certify achievement
• Assessment for Learning (AfL)– Purpose: to monitor progress and improve learning– Inseparable from teaching
Illustration of AfL and AoLInstructional activity & Task Ai
Response Ai
Assessed
Feedback
Task Aii
Response AiiAssessed
Grade and Feedback
Task and Response B
Learning
Assessment for Learning & Formative Assessment
Assessment of Learning & Summative Assessment
Learning
Module A
Module B
Assessment for Learning & Formative Assessment
Develops students’ abilities to
evaluate own progress, direct own learning
Is rich in informal
feedback (e.g. peer review of
drafts, collaborative projects)
Is rich in formal feedback (e.g. tutor comment, self review logs)
Offers extensive confidence building
opportunities and practice
Has an appropriate balance of
summative and formative assessment
Emphasises authentic & complex
assessment tasks
Assessment for Learning
Authentic & complex assessment tasks
• Meaningful, interesting, relevant learning• ‘Doing’ the subject• Link to ‘real world’ • Personal involvementNot:• Reproductive• Easy activity to assess• ‘Its always been assessed like this’
Emphasises authentic & complex
assessment tasks
Theory and Practice• Student perception of LTA environment influences approach
to studying (Ramsden 2003)• Assessment with ‘low level’ demands can result in surface
approaches (Gibbs and Simpson 2004)• Does assessment do what we want it to do in terms of
promoting the kinds of learning that are desired for the long term? (Boud 2010)
Balance of summative and formative assessment
• Summative and formative assessment working together
• Time and space for embedded formative activities
• Summative assessment as a source of learningNot:• Dominance of summative assessment• Teaching to the test
Has an appropriate balance of summative
and formative assessment
Theory and Practice• Assessment tasks send powerful implicit/ ‘backwash’ messages to students about the skills we want them to develop (Biggs and Tang 2011)
• If there is little formative, students look to summative in terms of how to get through the module – surface level / ‘faking good’ (Gibbs 2006)
Confidence building opportunities and practice
• Low stakes activities• Finding out how one is doing and improving • Trial and error, learning from mistakesNot:• Mocks• Chasing marks
Offers extensive confidence building
opportunities and
practice
Theory and Practice• Students with high self efficacy tend to do better in
attainment, perseverance and academic ability Bandura (1997)
• Students need help to produce high quality forethought, self regulation of their own learning (Zimmerman 2002)
• Feedback that is totally focused on errors damages students confidence (Orell 2006)
• The ability to regulate one’s learning and to have confidence in ability takes practice and encouragement and requires setting of short term goals to act as cognitive motivators
• Links to retention of students (not just undergraduates)
Reflection on personal understanding
• A number of concepts in relation to assessment have been introduced so far
• In pairs/groups return back to your concept maps and discuss:– if these concepts are on the map– how are they understood– what other concepts or practice do they relate to– any aspects of understanding you might want to re‐think
Feedback
Aims…
1. Identify the importance of feedback within assessment design
2. Review and share practice in relation to assessment design
3. Reflect on principles of assessment and feedback in designing assessment activities
Seven Principles of Good Feedback Practice
1. Facilitates the development of self assessment(reflection) in learning.
2. Encourages teacher and peer dialogue around learning.3. Helps clarify what good performance is (goals, criteria,
standards expected).4. Provides opportunities to close the gap between current
and desired performance.5. Delivers high quality information to students about their
learning.6. Encourages positive motivational beliefs and self‐esteem.7. Provides information to teachers that can be used to help
shape the teaching. (Nicol and Macfarlane‐Dick 2006)
Good feedback in the conventional model
• Timely• Based on criteria and/or learning outcomes
• Feeds forward• Focuses on the task• Includes concrete examples• Suggests what and how to improve• Focuses on some key points
Rich in informal feedback
• Constant flow of information on how you are doing
• By‐product, embedded in dialogue, collaboration and interaction inside and outside classroom
• Feedback rich climate
Is rich in informal
feedback (e.g. peer review of
drafts, collaborative projects)
Evaluate own progress and direct own learning
• Active participation in assessment process
• Self assessment, judging own work• Understanding standards, goals criteria by actively using them
Not:• Self marking
Develops students’ abilities to
evaluate own progress, direct own learning
YSJ Principles of Effective Feedback I. Develop a shared understanding of assessment and feedback within
staff teams to create a coherent programme level approach.
II. Support students to develop evaluative expertise, self‐regulation and be able to articulate judgement about their own work and work of others.
III. Design formative activities that provide students with feedback they can implement within a module.
IV. Empower students to solicit feedback on areas that matter most to them in order to more specifically direct future learning.
V. Design feedback strategies that require students to engage in dialogue with teachers and peers to stimulate reflection on their learning.
VI. Support students to synthesise feedback from a variety of sources to develop longer term personal and professional development plans.
Discussion of Feedback Principles
• In pairs discuss your current feedback practice and complete the Principles of Effective Feedback Self‐Evaluation Tool.
• Consider the 2 items at the bottom of the tool for a whole group discussion.
Return back to the concept map again
Independently, consider:
a) The way in which feedback features on your map
b) How it links to Assessment for learning and the models of feedback discussed this afternoon
c) If your understanding of assessment and/or feedback changed in light of the session
ReferencesBandura, A. 1997. Self‐efficacy: The exercise of control. New York: W.H. Freeman.
Boud and Molloy (2013) Feedback in Higher and Professional Education. Routledge.
Ramsden (2003) Learning to Teach in Higher Education. 2nd Ed. RoutledgeFalmer
Gibbs and Simpson (2004) Conditions under which assessment supports student learning. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education. 1, 3‐31.
Boud (2000) Sustainable assessment: Rethinking assessment for the learning society. Studies in Continuing Education. 22, 151‐167.
Boud, D. et al (2010). Assessment 2020: Seven propositions for assessment reform in higher education. Sydney: Australian Learning and Teaching Council.
Biggs and Tang (2011) Teaching for quality learning at university, 3rd Ed. Open University Press.
Gibbs (2010) Using Assessment to support student learning. Leeds Met University.
Hattie and Timperley (2007) The Power of Feedback. Review of Educational Research, 77, 81‐112
Orell, J. 2006. Feedback on learning achievement: Rhetoric and reality. Teaching in Higher Education 11, no. 4: 441–56.
Zimmerman, B. 2002. Becoming a self‐regulated learner: An overview. Theory into Practice 41, no. 2: 64–70.