Reviewing Assessment Faculty of Medicine Health & Life Science

1. Reviewing AssessmentFaculty of MedicineHealth & Life Science Dr Kate Exley

2. Outline Programme • Introduction • Assessment for learning • Assessing Different kinds of knowledge • Staff / Student partnerships in Assessment • Enhancing feedback

3. Course Design What do you want them to learn ? Aims and Learning outcomes How will you help them to learn it ? Teaching and learning opportunities How will you know if they have learnt it ? Assessment methods and Assessment criteria

4. Why assess? Formative Assessment Progression Classification Warranty “Assessment of complex outcomes” EPC report 2002

5. Assessment concerns • Validity • Reliability • Feasibility and amount • Fairness • Educational Impact • Cost-effectiveness • Acceptability • Defensibility

6. What do you assess? • Products - e.g. An essay, a report a design drawing, a poster. • Processes - e.g. Group working, Communication skills, Problem solving.

7. 1. Assessment for learning “The indispensable conditions for improvement are that the student comes to hold a concept of quality roughly similar to that held by the teacher.” Sadler (1989)

8. 1. Assessment for learning “The indispensable conditions for improvement are that the student comes to hold a concept of quality roughly similar to that held by the teacher.” Sadler (1989) How can ‘Assessment’ processes help your students achieve this?

9. Formative Assessment • What are the purposes of formative assessment? • Give 3 examples of formative assessment from your modules that are effective in achieving these goals?

10. e.g.Front loading assessment (e.g. Scaife and Wellington, 2010) Stage1 –student’s assignment is formatively self-assessed, tutor-assessed (detailed guidance but no grade) and possibly formatively peer-assessed. Student improves assignment based on this feedback Stage 2 – student submits revised assignment for summative tutor assessment (a grade and summary feedback Benefits: • ensures that the students receive their main feedback in time to act upon it, • benefits staff by spreading the marking workload

11. 2. Different kinds of knowledge Miller’s Pyramid

12. Different kinds of Knowledge • Factual Knowledge e.g. Terminology Specific facts

13. Different kinds of Knowledge • Factual Knowledge • Conceptual Knowledge e.g Classifications Principles Theories Structures, frameworks

14. Different kinds of Knowledge • Factual Knowledge • Conceptual Knowledge • Procedural Knowledge e.g Algorithms Techniques & methods When to use How to use

15. Different kinds of Knowledge • Factual Knowledge • Conceptual Knowledge • Procedural Knowledge • Metacognitive Knowledge e.g Strategy Self Awareness Reflection

16. The Cognitive process domain(Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001,) developed from Bloom’s hierarchy of cognition Create (Generate, plan) Evaluate (Check, test) Analyse (Differentiate, find) Apply (Implement, use) Understand(Interpret, explain) Remember(Recall, Identify)

17. Assessing for different kinds of Knowledge • Factual Knowledge • Conceptual Knowledge • Procedural Knowledge • Metacognitive Knowledge

18. 3. Staff / Student partnerships “Students can perform a variety of assessment tasks in ways which both save the tutor's time and bring educational benefits, especially the development of their own judgement skills.” (Rust, 2001)

19. Involving students in assessment - WHY? • Ownership of the process • Develops evaluative skills • Supports autonomous learning • Encourages deep learning • Can learn from both giving and receiving peer feedback

20. Involving students in assessment There are many ways that students can be involved in their assessment, e.g. • Choosing tasks • Discussion & design of criteria • Self assessment • Giving feedback to others • Moderating marks • Assigning marks to self and others Which do you (or could you) use in your assessment?

21. A marking exercise • Read the published article provided • Write a 300 word critique of the paper • Email your critique to me - I will then email you two critiques written by 2 (imaginary) students. • Please read these and provide helpful feedback on their work • We will discuss your critique and those of the 2 students in the tutorial. Nick Brown (in Bioscience Bulletin No. 22, 2007)

22. Rethinking assessment to support curriculum change • e.g Kyle Galloway (Chemistry,Nottingham) • Re-designed first year • New year long modules (increase integration) • Need support (aid revision, identify Knowledge gaps etc.) • Use PeerWisesystem https://www.youtube.com/watchv=2hfa2MMhe9U

23. 4. Enhancing feedback Student Views • Written feedback valued more than oral • Feedback relevant to topics is no longer current (even when returned <3 weeks) • Students rarely act on feedback to improve work / learning Results of Formative Assessment in Science Teaching Survey, 2006

24. What goes wrong in feedback? Writing or saying the feedback Providing the feedback for learners Enabling learners to consider, engage with and respond to feedback Designing the curriculum so learners can act on feedback

25. Giving Useful Feedback Honest Specific and Clear (use examples) Timely (21 days, Quality Manual) Constructive (feed-forward!) Balanced, praise and criticism Prioritised if appropriate Encouraging tone Verbal and written reinforcing each other

26. How can you encourage students to engage with feedback? Please compare experiences, practices and ideas

27. Assessment Scenarios • Please read through the three scenarios • Select one that you would like to work on

28. Useful Readings Boud and Falchikov (2007) Rethinking Assessment in Higher Education Grace and Gravestock (2009) Inclusion and Diversity Chapter 9. Assessment Time Fisher, Exley and Ciobanu (2014) Using Technology to Support Learning and Teaching Chapter 5. Technology for Assessment and Feedback