Good cop, bad cop? Cracking formative, using

summative well

Tansy JessopSLTI Workshop

17 March 2017

This session

• Data about formative and summative balance• Implications for student learning• The bitter divorce• Why we need formative• Why we struggle• Distilling principles from five case studies

Assessment patterns (n=73 programmes)Characteristic Low Medium High

 

Volume of summative assessment 

Below 33 40-48 More than 48

Volume of formative only  Below 1 5-19 More than 19

% of tasks by examinations Below 11% 22-31% More than 31%

Variety of assessment methods

Below 8 11-15 More than 15

Written feedback in words Less than 3,800 6,000-7,600 More than 7,600

Deep and Surface Learning (Marton and Saljo (1976)

Deep Learning• Meaning• Concepts• Active learning• Generating knowledge• Relationship new and

previous knowledge• Real-world learning

Surface Learning• External purpose• Topics• Passive process• Reproducing knowledge• Isolated and

disconnected knowledge• Artificial learning

Biggs 3P model

Measures of educational process predict learning gain:• Class size, • the level of student effort

and engagement, • who undertakes the

teaching, • the quantity and quality of

feedback to students

Gibbs 2010

Good cop, bad cop?

1) Low-risk, more frequent opportunities for students to learn from feedback (Sadler, 1989)

2) Helps students to fine-tune and understand requirements and standards (Boud 2000, Nicol, 2006)

3) Feedback to lecturers from formative tasks helps to adapt teaching (Hattie, 2009)

4) Engages students in cycles of reflection and collaboration (Biggs 2003; Nicol & McFarlane Dick 2006)

5) Encourages and distributes student effort (Gibbs 2004).

Why formative matters

What is formative assessment?

Process of …..short-circuiting the randomness and inefficiency of trial-and-error learning

(Sadler 1989, p.120).

TESTA – ungraded, required, eliciting feedback

Why we struggle to do formative

Theory 1: Content drives our view of curriculum

Theory 2: Summative competes for time and effort with formative

If there weren’t loads of other assessments, I’d do it.

“I’m sorry, but we can’t afford to stay here. We’re off to do our assignment” (Harland, 2014).

Theory 3: Students are grades-oriented

It’s good to know you’re being graded because you take it more seriously.

I always find myself going to the library and going ‘These are the books related to this essay’ and that’s it.

Although you learn a lot more than you would if you were revising for an exam, because you have to do wider research and stuff, you still don’t do research really unless it’s directly related to essays.

Theory 4: Academics struggle with systemic problems and low student interest

I found the consequence of it not being officially part of the diet being that a hard core did it and no more.

At any particular assessment point... somebody in our department would probably have to read something between 300,000 and 0.5 million words.

You end up assessing for assessment’s sake rather than thinking about what the assessment is for.

We’re finding formative assessment more difficult as the numbers grow on the courses, and a lot of us now are thinking I can’t do this because it’s just so much extra time....

So, how do we do it?

Five case studies of successful formative

Your task will be to identify the principles that make them work

How could you adapt them?

Case Study 1: Business School

• Reduction from average 2 x summative, zero formative per module

• …to 1 x summative and 3 x formative• Required by students in entire business school• All working to similar script• Systematic shift, experimentation, less risky

together

Case Study 2: Social Sciences

• Education, Sociology and PGCAP degrees• Problem: silent seminar, students not reading• Public platform blogging• Current academic texts• In-class• Threads and live discussion• Linked to summative

Case Study 3: Media degree

• Media degree• Presentations formative• Students get feedback (peer and tutor)• Refines their thinking for…• Linked summative essay

Case study 4: Film and TV

• Seminar• Problem: lack of discrimination about sources• Students bring 1 x book, 1 x chapter, 1 x

journal article, 2 x pop culture articles• Justify choices to group• Reach consensus about five best sources

Case study 5: Engineering

• Engineering• Problem low averages• Course requirement to complete 50 problems• Peer assessed in six ‘lecture’ slots• Marks do not count• Lectures, problems, classes, exams unchanged• Exam marks increased from 45% to 85%

Your task

• In groups, identify five principles for making formative work. Write them down on flipchart paper.

• Devise one or two adaptations for your discipline, using the principles, and make one poster which outlines/draws your adaptation. You can be creative!

Becker, H. (1968) Making the grade: the academic side of college life. Boud, D. (2000) Sustainable Assessment: Rethinking assessment for the learning society, Studies in Continuing Education, 22: 2, 151 — 167.Gibbs, G. & Simpson, C. (2004) Conditions under which assessment supports students' learning. Learning and Teaching in Higher Education. 1(1): 3-31.Hattie, J. (2007) The Power of Feedback. Review of Educational Research. 77(1) 81-112.Harland, T. et al. (2014) An Assessment Arms Race and its fallout: high-stakes grading and the case for slow scholarship. Assessment and Evaluation inn Higher Education. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02602938.2014.931927Nicol, D. J. and McFarlane-Dick, D. (2006) Formative Assessment and Self-Regulated Learning: A Model and Seven Principles of Good Feedback Practice. Studies in Higher Education. 31(2): 199-218.Jessop, T. (2017) Inspiring transformation through TESTA’s programme approach. In Carless (2017) Scaling up Assessment for Learning in HE. Singapore. Springer.Jessop, T. , El Hakim, Y. and Gibbs, G. (2013) The whole is greater than the sum of its parts: a large-scale study of students’ learning in response to different assessment patterns. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education. ifirst.Jessop, T, McNab, N and Gubby, L. (2012) Mind the gap: An analysis of how quality assurance processes influence programme assessment patterns. Active Learning in Higher Education. 13(3). 143-154.Sadler, D.R. (1989) Formative assessment and the design of instructional systems, Instructional Science, 18, 119-144.Yorke, M. (2003) Formative assessment in higher education: Moves towards theory and the enhancement of pedagogic practice. Higher Education. 45

References