Using a Patchwork Texts approach to curriculum and assessment

1. Using a Patchwork Texts approach to curriculum and assessment A case study of action research into the development of a module in a vocational undergraduate programme at Nottingham Trent University

2. The context • The science specialist module in the final year of the BA Primary Education degree had the aim: • development of knowledge of the syntactic structure of the subject • Previously, students had not integrated various dimensions of their learning as well or as widely as had been hoped. • Their assignments lacked purpose, were ‘safe’ and task oriented. • Professional autonomy was not being realised as fully as had been hoped • Students produced significant writing only for the end-of-module summative assessment by the tutor 29/08/2014

3. The aims of introducing a PT approach • Students writing regularly throughout the module could be a way of: • them expressing their developing thinking, • them learning from each other, • them giving and receiving informal and formative assessment, • allowing the tutor to support such learning through her/his formative assessment. 29/08/2014

4. The approach The metaphor of making a patchwork cloth by stitching patches of different material together is used to suggest the composite format of the final assignment. Each patch has its own characteristics, involving expressions of different kinds of learning about different aspects of the module content. Stitching the patches together enables the student to assemble a coherent text to convey their multiple learning achievements 29/08/2014

5. Justifications • Richard Winter's idea (1999) for Patchwork Text assessment arose as a creative response to four questions: • How do we ensure that the assessment process recognises the variety of ways in which understanding can be represented and thus enable students to draw on their various and differing abilities? • How do we encourage students to integrate the diversity of elements in a course of study in order to grasp its underlying or emergent structure ? 29/08/2014

6. Justifications continued • How do we encourage students to revise their existing personal frames of reference in order to accommodate new knowledge, as a genuine process of assimilation? • How do we encourage students to make their learning into a process of constructing meaning (as opposed to merely mastering information)? 29/08/2014

7. The Action research methodology 1 • the pedagogical aim embodies an educational ideal that the research is committed to realising • research focuses on changes in practice to make it more consistent with the pedagogical aim • evidence is gathered about the extent to which practice is consistent with the aim, • evidence is gathered from many sources, particularly the students, seeking triangulation by comparing and contrasting the tutor’s accounts of her/his own practice with those of observers and students. 29/08/2014

8. The Action research methodology 2 • evidence is used to identify inconsistencies, and to problematise assumptions and beliefs tacitly underpinning practice • the research aims to generate and test new forms of action while simultaneously reconstructing the theories that guide practice • the research has reflexivity, that is participants try to reflect on their own actions • the teaching is seen as a form of research and vice versa 29/08/2014

9. The pedagogical aim • The aims of this module arise from three sources: • the statutory ‘A-levelness’ requirement (Circular 4/98) • an ideal of higher education as induction into a process of becoming critical • a broad vision of science education • assumptions about learning that are constructivist in character • Such aims need to be considered interdependently with anticipating the means by which they might be accomplished. 29/08/2014

10. Changes in practice 1) • The module retained most of its previous structure and content, notably: • Illustrated lectures on key areas of conceptual knowledge of science • Collaborative reading and discussion in seminars on knowledgeabout science • A study visit to the Natural History Museum in London • A peer teaching exercise • An individual science inquiry project 29/08/2014

11. Changes in practice 2) • The two main changes introduced in 2000 – 2001 were: • The Directed Learning Task requirement for each student to write several ‘patches’ during the module • The reorganisation of the contact time which is generally allocated to tutorials, so as to establish a small group seminar programme spread across the whole module 29/08/2014

12. Changes in practice 3) • Six pieces of writing are required, three of which are compulsory (a, b & c) and the other three chosen from the following types • a critical, evaluative or analytic response to published writing such as an account of your understanding of a specific concept or theory • a reporton your own science inquiry project • a journal(the so-called Jotter) for frequent reflective writing • a critical, evaluative or analytic response to a media piece • a story of scientific endeavour or a pen portrait of a scientist • a critical incident analysis • an account of some professional applications or implications of development of your understanding of science 29/08/2014

13. Changes in practice 4) • In seminars, students • discussed their choices for what and how to write, • shared their pieces of writing in preliminary and final drafts • gave and received peer comment • received tutor responses, (which were constructively to criticise, not to mark) • discussed the development of each others’ patches as indicators of the emergent, individual learning journeys, culminating in the Patchwork text assignment. 29/08/2014

14. Changes in practice 5) • The Jotters were written regularly by students as: • a stimulus for, and record of, current reflections on experiences and ideas • an accumulating record of the student’s learning journey • communication of 1 and 2 from the student to the tutor and to peers • communication of formative feedback from peers and the tutor to the student 29/08/2014

15. Changes in practice 6) Later in the module, students’ reflections on their accumulating portfolio of patches focused on what is/are the underlying and, possibly unifying theme(s) which are at work in my writing? The Jotter was a resource for stitching the edited patches together into the assignment 29/08/2014

16. Changes in practice 7) The assessed assignment is an edited selection of the patches with an interpretive, reflective and critical commentary, and a framework which brings out and explores overall theme(s). Such themes may, but do not need to converge on answers to questions, or solutions to problems, nor do they need to seek a contrived simplicity or clarity. They may contain alternative points of view, dilemmas, residual contradictions, unanswered or new questions and unsolved or new problems. 29/08/2014

17. Changes in practice 8) • The criteria for the assessment of the Patchwork Text assignment are: • The extent to which the account of becoming a science specialist primary teacher demonstrates the qualities of: • Comprehensiveness • Justification • Tentativeness • Conceptual level • Coherence 29/08/2014

18. Culture shock: from ‘spoon feeding’ to autonomy 1 Some students, who were quite frequently seeking implied reassurance that they were achieving what the tutor is looking for, would sometimes compare their tutor feedback with each other and,finding that it seemed to be different, began to doubt its consistency. They did not always appreciate that a tutor’s comment to one student about her achievement and needs would not necessarily be applicable to another’s. In other words, they felt difficulty in overcoming the expectation that there had to be a standardised correct answer to which their work would need to conform. 29/08/2014

19. Culture shock: from ‘spoon feeding’ to autonomy 2 It was initially difficult for some students to gain confidence that what was being valued by the tutoring were their own ideas and interests (provided that they were carefully thought out and well sourced). This may suggest that previous modules and their assessments have been too closed, with convergent, product criteria, to be a helpful preparation for students to engage in learning in which their creativity and individuality could contribute significantly. These difficulties may have contributed to a perception among some students that the workload was heavy. 29/08/2014

20. Writing the patchwork text Groups of students formed communities of learning, acknowledging influences on each others’ thinking in discussion and by reading each others’ work. Sharing of each others’ patches was facilitated by the university intranet. Uncertainties about differences between students surfaced most clearly during the preparation of the PT. There were peer assessment comments were exchanged between students throughout the module, suggesting that their awareness of each others’ strengths developed well, and there was confidence in the mutually supportive learning processes. 29/08/2014

21. The aims of the module A particular aspect of some students’ views about the aims of the module emerged most clearly during discussion with the external examiner. They said that each subject was asking its specialist students to be a scientist, historian, or whatever, as an important part of what they most wanted to be which is a teacher. Another group of students appeared to agree with the external examiner that the more a student is able to become scientific themselves, the more they will be able (as the external examiner put it) to bring some intellectual and practical rigour to the more affective notion of ‘enthusiasm’ for science. 29/08/2014

22. Tutors’ and examiners’ perspectives BA tutor colleagues were drawn in to the PT Project as critical friends as members of the PT Monitoring Group, which met three times. The science external examiner showed much interest in the Project, writing at some length about it from his perspective. Concerns for comparability between this and other specialist modules were expressed by some tutors. Science tutors were augmented by tutors from three other subjects to form a team of five second markers to strengthen the moderation process. 29/08/2014

23. Qualities of the Patchwork Texts The consensus was that high standards of work were reached, with close agreement between markers and the external examiner, across the range. Achievement was comparable to that of students at another University who had been science specialists for all four years of their degree. The external examiner commented that: all show an intelligent and scientific approach to problem solving which is seldom addressed in traditional ‘science’ undergraduate programmes . . . (and is) . . of a high level of scientific rigour. The PT method of assessment enabled best students to gain high marks, while discriminating (in an assessment sense) across the range. Key features: high quality of writing, breadth of reading, depth of understanding shown by the best and notably the interest for 1) the student communicating their learning, and 2) the reader, in being stimulated to think for themselves about the issues raised. 29/08/2014

24. Issues for reflection • Students found the view of knowledge implied by their formal education is not the only or always the most helpful for understanding science or being professional: it is a difficult task because you discover things about your own thinking and also because the answer is never fully reached . . . I never expected to come to the conclusions that I have. • The tutor needs to be: an authority (possessing and using knowledge to be a stimulus to improving students’ ways of thinking and a resource to students’ learning) more than in authority (controlling closely what students think and learn) • Enabling students to make up their own minds, and go through doubts and certainties in the process, requires an atmosphere of openness. 29/08/2014

25. Issues for reflection continued • This is liberating for some students, and the insecurities it prompts for others are accommodated by forms of support which do not short-circuit thinking processes but give affirmation to their inquiring quality. • Knowledge needs to be presented as contestable, notably through the examination of controversy, so that it is not only the relevant concepts which are considered but also the personal and social contexts for using them, the inquiry purposes in which they are relevant and therefore the questions and criticisms that can be included in the exploratory thinking. • It became clear how different students adopted distinctive styles of working and showed particular characteristics in their interim products which revealed their different working preferences, distinct viewpoints and particular values which could themselves become the focus of discussion and development. 29/08/2014

26. Overcoming assumptions of scientism All assignments refer to one of the most profound changes that students achieved, in their image of science, which had been broadly scientistic: believing that science had privileged access to certain knowledge of greater worth than knowledge of other kinds. In communicating the range and, in some cases, the depth of the changes in the images of science during the module, the Patchwork Texts suggest that superficial and dangerous assumptions about science in society are powerful and pervasive. This adds yet more importance to the successful achievement of an aim of this module: to enable primary teachers to enable children to question and criticise scientifically, as part of them being able to think independently about science in society. 29/08/2014

27. Patchwork Texts peterovens69@googlemail.com