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Assessing the Assessors: Critical Thinking. Shazad Khan Birmingham International Academy. Overview. Assessments International Students Critical Thinking/Analysis. The Quality Assurance Agency states that:.
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Assessing the Assessors: Critical Thinking Shazad Khan Birmingham International Academy
Overview • Assessments • International Students • Critical Thinking/Analysis
The Quality Assurance Agency states that: • “…assessment is not a linear process; it is an ongoing cycle through which staff design, set, mark, engage in dialogue about performance, review and develop… (QAA, 2013: 3).
We need to be transparent and clear about what it is that is being assessed (Haggis and Pouget, 2002) • Students need to understand the rules of the game (Bloxham and West, 2004).
International Students • Teacher-centred • Conformity vs. Originality (Andrade, 2006)
“Assessment is derived from assidere to sit with or beside. It is something we do with and for a student, not something we do to them’ (Wiggins, 1998)
International Students (IS) literature: • Language challenges • Cultural challenges • Critical Thinking complexity of definition. • Nothing on CT from an IS perspective.
Critical Thinking (CT) in HE: • There is consensus on the value of CT • It manifests differently across the disciplines. • No standard definition of what it is (Riggs & Hellyer-Riggs, 2014)
Ontology of CT • Discipline-specific or discipline-general? • Discipline-general: Formal logic; deductive reasoning; taught outside of a context • Discipline-specific: non-transferable; contextual (Nicholas & Raider-Roth 2016)
Epistemology of CT: • Disciplinary epistemological assumptions • Knowledge • Truth • Validity
Students fail to demonstrate CT because tutors do not explain what is required of them (Elander et al, 2006)
What does this mean for international students? • What challenges are international students face with when expressing criticality?
Bibliography • Andrade, M. S. (2006) 'International Students in English-Speaking Universities: Adjustment Factors', Journal of Research in International Education, 5(2), pp. 131-154. • Bloxham, S. and West, A. (2004) 'Understanding the Rules of the Game: Marking Peer Assessment as a Medium for Developing Students’ Conceptions of Assessment', Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 29(6). • Elander, J., Harrington, K., Norton, L., Robinson, H. and Reddy, P. (2006) 'Complex S kills and Academic Writing: a review of evidence about the types of learning required to meet core assessment criteria', Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education. , 31(1), pp. 71-90 • Haggis, T. and Pouget, M. (2002) 'Trying to be Motivated: Perspectives on Learning from Younger Students Accessing Higher Education,' Teaching in Higher Education, 7(3), pp. 323-336. • Nicholas, M. C. and Raider-Roth, M. (2016) 'A Hopeful Pedagogy to Critical Thinking', International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 10(2). • Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (2013) UK Quality Code for Higher Education. Gloucester: QAA. Available at: http://www.qaa.ac.uk/en/Publications/Documents/quality-code-B6.pdf (Accessed: 6 August 2014).
Riggs, L. W. and Hellyer-Riggs, S. (2014) 'Development and Motivation in/for Critical Thinking', Journal of College Teaching & Learning, 11(1), pp. 1 • Wiggins, G. 1998. Educative Assessment: Designing Assessments to inform and improve Student Performance. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers.