Adopting the principles and practice of Assessment for Learning AfL in Higher Education HE'

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• Adopting the principles and practice of
  Assessment for Learning (AfL) in Higher Education
  (HE).
• Martin Cook UWIC

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• Sources
• Assessment Reform Group
• Black and Wiliam
• Higher Education Academy
• SENLEF (The Student Enhanced Learning Through
  Effective Feedback)
• LATHE Learning and Teaching in Higher Education
• Mary James, University of Cambridge (ACCAC
  Conference)
• UWIC Conference AfL June 2005, Mary James

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• Aims of the presentation
• AfL in Higher Education
• Background to the project
• Initial findings
• Ways forward

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• Assessment for Learning a definition
• a process of seeking and interpreting evidence
  for use by learners and their teachers to decide
  where the learners are in their learning, where
  they need to go, and how best to get there.
• Assessment Reform Group, 2001.

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• Four research-informed practices underpinning
  AfL
• Providing appropriate feedback, with emphasis on
  how to improve
• Helping learners to gain information about
  knowledge, skills and understanding, especially
  through questioning
• understand what counts as quality in learning,
  with reference to criteria and exemplars
• Engaging in peer and self-assessment
• Mary James, University of Cambridge

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AfL within Higher Education

• Immediate objectives
• To enhance the student learning experience.
• To raise standards of achievement.
• To fine tune teaching strategies to meet the
  needs of all students.
• To demonstrate to students the link between
  theory and practice.
• To model good practice in assessment methodology
  so that students can adopt this practice in their
  own teaching.
• To involve students in the AfL process and
  encourage them to take increased responsibility
  for their own learning.
• To foster students skills of reflection and
  critical awareness.
• To increase students motivation and self esteem.
•  

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• Approaches to assessment in
• HE are predominantly driven
• by a need for marks/grades
• and the accumulation of credit
• points.
• This doesnt necessarily lend itself to formative
  methods of assessment.
• However, this project set out with the aim of
  investigating the possibility of incorporating
  AfL within a modular framework.

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• Torrence and Pryor (1998)
• Formative assessment
• convergent formative assessment - behaviourist
  view
• divergent formative assessment - constructivist
  view
• Convergent - What William et.al.(2003) describe
  as
• micro-summative assessment.

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Background Information

• BA (Hons) Primary Education Level 2 Module
  looking at teaching and learning in the primary
  sector (120 students)
• The module content covers a range of issues and
  topics including, classroom management, pupil
  management, brain compatible learning, cognitive
  theories on learning and assessment.
• One major aspect being AfL.

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The Ed200 assignment

• A series of short reflective reports based on the
  module content.
• Originally handed-in at end of module.
• Now handed in during the module to receive
  formative feedback.(Brought in for 2003/4)

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Mirroring good practice

• Comment-only marking
• Focused marking
• Explicit reference to criteria
• Suggestions on how to improve
• Scaffolding i.e. not giving complete solutions

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Gains within categories

• 2003/4 (Mean Improvement ) 2004/5
• Fail 0 15.1
• 3rd 10.3 5.07
• 22 5.4 4.1
• 21 1.5 -1

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Incorporating Further Elements of AfL into the
Education Module

• Self assessment became a focus for 2004/5.
• We also incorporated stronger elements of peer-
  assessment into this years module and used
  student feedback to evaluate its impact.
• We included elements to help clarify good
  performance.

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1. Looking at a 1st class example produced by a
previous student teacher.
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2. Being given the assignment specific criteria.
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3. Having in course handbook UWIC general
criteria
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4. Using both general and specific criteria to
make judgements about a piece of work in a taught
session.
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6. Using general and specific criteria to assess
a friends piece of work (peer assessment).
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7. Formative written feedback and targets for
improvement by self and peer assessment.
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8. Formative written feedback and targets for
improvements by team tutors.
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9. How effective do you consider these practices
might be in helping you achieve success in other
module assignments?
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11. Will being involved in Assessment for
Learning practices change your approach to future
course assignments.
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• 11. Sample of comments
• Yes, it definitely helped having more feedback
  from tutors.
• Yes, I will take more time to read the
  criteria and ask others to read through my work
  beforehand.
• Yes, I spend more time checking the marking
  and assessment criteria to make sure I am on the
  right lines.
• Yes, it already has. I have used some of the
  Assessment for Learning practices in the Science
  assignment.

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12. Has being involved in the Assessment for
Learning practices changed the way in which you
complete the School of Education assignment pro
forma?
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13. Has being involved in the Assessment for
Learning practices affected your motivation
towards assignments?
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• 14. Other comments linked to Assessment for
  Learning and the completion of your assignment
• I wish every subject could provide formative
  feedback.
• I really enjoyed and learnt a lot from the 3
  reports, and even found revision for the exam
  relatively enjoyable!
• I thought that withholding the marks for the
  reports was a good idea. This made me read the
  comments and try and make improvements.

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The aim within ITET courses is to produce
reflective thinkers. However, within the HE
assessment structure, the use of summative
assessments continually impresses the importance
of the assessments on the students. Paris et.al.
(1991) claims that test taking strategies
reduces higher order thinking, this is supported
by GTCW (2004). The challenge, therefore, is to
continue to look for innovative approaches to
incorporating AfL into the HE assessment
framework.
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• Ways forward and possible barriers
• Review specific criteria
• Look at motivation and goal-orientation
• Continue to develop AfL within the Education
  element of our BA year 2 programme
• Disseminate within the School of Education and
  UWIC as a whole
• The summative nature of HE assessment
• The new credit framework