Assessment strategies for pluralism

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Assessment strategies for pluralism

• Andrew Mearman
• (University of the West of England)
• and Don Webber
• (Auckland University of Technology)

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May create unreasonable certainty
May demotivate those who question
May achieve reduced depth
Teaching one view
May encourage rote learning without criticism
May not aid policy analysis
May not challenge the lecturer
May not provide information useful to the student
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Economic theory and policy

• Aims
• Expose students to theory and policy debates
• Develop students knowledge within and across
  theoretical perspectives
• Demand students display critical thinking and
  find evidential bases for claims
• Demand students recognise limitations of all
  theory and develop judgement

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Assessment and pluralism

• We adopted the following assessment strategy
• Presentations
• These covered topics which built on each other
  during the course of the module
• Students in group presentations were particularly
  encouraged to take perspectives which were in
  stark contrast to other presenters perspectives
• A variety of literature needed to be made
  available for the students. The lecturer needed
  to source the variety of perspectives for the
  students in advance.
• Assessed discussions
• Essay
• Exam

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Assessment and pluralism

• We adopted the following assessment strategy
• Presentations
• Assessed discussions
• Open questions.
• Students knew and prepared for assessed
  discussion in advance
• Students were encouraged to follow their own
  personal thoughts, backed up by theory and
  empirical evidence
• Needed 2 members of staff present
• Essay
• Exam

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Assessment and pluralism

• We adopted the following assessment strategy
• Presentations
• Assessed discussions
• Essay (2000 words)
• E.g. Should we reduce income inequalities if we
  wish to reduce unemployment?
• Economic policy making in open economies
  requires, above all, more sophisticated economic
  modelling. Discuss
• Exam

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Assessment and pluralism

• We adopted the following assessment strategy
• Presentations
• Assessed discussions
• Essay
• Exam
• Needed to make sure all questions were
  interlinked
• Aim was that students display skills of
  criticism, comparison and judgement

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Lomax (2004, p. 1) says that success has many
parents, and the trend to low inflation is no
exception. But there is a broad consensus that
better monetary policies run by more independent
and more open central banks can claim a
significant share of the credit. Constructively
criticise this perspective with reference to a
range of literature.
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Student feedback

• the most difficult module I took, but also the
  most rewarding
• difficult assessment, but an important skill to
  develop
• Students seemed to put in more effort to make
  sure they didnt lose face in front of their
  friends (peer pressure).
• Students marked generally harder but remained
  positive about module

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But

• I do not see the relevance of discussion, apart
  from the building of confidence
• hard to know what was going to come up
• More structure (in assessed discussions)
  neededdifficult to know if a point is being
  laboured
• it took my time away from study for other
  modules
• I think this assessed discussion was a lot
  harder than the last one due to the lack of
  information accessible to me, whereas before
  there were around 50 journals articles, this
  time I struggled to find 5

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Conclusions

• Dont follow this path!
• It takes too much time and effort!
• Try this pluralistic teaching method.
• It might even increase the utility you receive
  from teaching!