Approaches in course design, view of knowledge, purpose of assessment and methods

The summary table offers some interesting connections between course design approaches and view of knowledge-assessment purposes and methods.View at:

http://holyroodpark.pbworks.com/CD10_Approaches-Summary-Table
or saved as Toohey table.

Toohey (1999) a must reading about beliefs, values and ideologies in course design.
'The most accurate picture of the educational values and beliefs inherent in a course is allocated to different topics and learning activities and in the nature of the assessment.' (p.49)

Curriculum as product: which problems arise for assessment

Education is most often seen as a technical exercise. Objectives are set, a plan drawn up, then applied, and the outcomes (products) measured.

Fundamental questions: a) What educational purposes should the school seek to attain?, b) How can we determine whether these purposes are being attained?

1) There are questions around the nature of objectives. This model is hot on measurability. It implies that behaviour can be objectively, mechanistically measured. There are obvious dangers here - there always has to be some uncertainty about what is being measured. We only have to reflect on questions of success in our work. It is often very difficult to judge what the impact of particular experiences has been. Sometimes it is years after the event that we come to appreciate something of what has happened. In order to measure, things have to be broken down into smaller and smaller units. The result, as many of you will have experienced, can be long lists of often trivial skills or competencies. This can lead to a focus in this approach to curriculum theory and practice on the parts rather than the whole; on the trivial, rather than the significant. It can lead to an approach to education and assessment which resembles a shopping list. When all the items are ticked, the person has passed the course or has learnt something. The role of overall judgment is somehow sidelined.
2) There is the problem of unanticipated results. The focus on pre-specified goals may lead both educators and learners to overlook learning that is occurring as a result of their interactions, but which is not listed as an objective.

I believe there is a tendency, recurrent enough to suggest that it may be endemic in the approach, for academics in education to use the objectives model as a stick with which to beat teachers. 'What are your objectives?' is more often asked in a tone of challenge than one of interested and helpful inquiry. The demand for objectives is a demand for justification rather than a description of ends... It is not about curriculum design, but rather an expression of irritation in the problems of accountability in education. (Stenhouse 1974: 77)

Copied from
Smith, M. K. (1996, 2000). Curriculum theory and practice. The encyclopedia of informal education. Retrieved: 11 January 2010. http://www.infed.org/biblio/b-curric.htm

Innovative assessment methods and benefits/challenges when using them

Presentations and other oral/non-written assessments (group/individual presentation, discussion-debate, audio-video, role-play)

Benefits/motivation to use them:

• offer opportunities to engage students with learning, to develop communication skills and to simulate authentic situations not available with traditional written coursework and examinations. 
• Group presentations facilitating group working skills. 
• Oral assessment methods are likely to foster deep learning and lead to better engagement of students with assessment tasks. 
• A common theme was the notion of a public performance being particularly motivating (as well as scary) for students, and the idea of openness and interactivity in questioning leading to critical understanding. 
• Furthermore, students may be involved in the negotiation and setting of assessment criteria, as well as the marking of the presentations (democratising assessment or changing power relationships). 
• Students with special educational needs and from minority backgrounds are likely to perform better in these assessments than in more traditional written ones.

challenges/hindrances

• there is a call for clear criteria because of the subjectivity and unreliability of oral versus written assessment. 
• Students fear and apprehension before oral assessments are maybe scarier than other types of assessment. 
• The public aspect of oral assessments, such as presentations before peers, as crucial in fostering greater engagement with the task, but also in adding to the stress. 
• These types of assessment are likely to be very time-consuming and thus restricted to relatively small classes. 
• While it is trivially true that oral assessment methods are likely to improve oral communication skills more than written assessments, it does not follow that they will also engender deep learning, as was often claimed in the literature reviewed. It is likely that methods that allow more open dialogue (discussion and vivas) will do this better than more closed unidirectional methods (presentations). (p.35)

Portfolios and other unconventional writing assignments (learning journals, project documentation, diaries, reading logs and reflexive notebooks)


Benefits/motivation to use them:
The impetus to use portfolios, learning journals or diaries was related to principles of lifelong learning, active learning and in particular this form of assessment provided a place reflection on experience. This form of assessment was process driven and considered to foster metacognitive skills, self-directed learning and to
integrate learning.

challenges/hindrances:
clear criteria referenced frameworks are necessary to underpin the process. Some question the marking of portfolios and the inter-rater reliability of markers.


Assessment of groups and collaboration (students may work on projects leading to reports, posters and/or presentations)
Benefits/motivation to use them:

• group assessment is seen as helpful for developing learning skills or to instil in students the notion of a learning culture which is collaborative rather than competitive
• produce graduates who have transferable skills, including the ability to work in teams and collaborate
• Collaboration and group assessments may help students to see new perspectives and provide a fuller consideration of issues, helping them to develop their ability to understand, analyse and interpret. Self- and peerassessment is often seen within this context as helping students to reflect on their experiences of group work. And providing an assessment element may encourage participation in group tasks.

challenges/hindrances:

• Giving grades for group work was considered important if students were to take the task seriously
• how to allocate marks to groups and in what sense marks could be considered 'fair' for any individual student.
• how far group work might benefit weaker students or hinder brighter students, and whether that mattered. 
• The issue of what was being assessed, whether it was the product or the process or both, was considered and whether the skills needed to produce good group assignments were as valid as those that produce good individual work.

Student involvement in assessment (peer-self assessment)
Benefits/motivation to use them:

• empowering learners
• encouraging attention (relating to oral presentations), dialogue/creating
• partnerships, more proactive strategies in teachers and students,
• reflection
• enhancement of learning, performance, personal development/autonomy
• improvement of affect, student understanding of assessment, student understanding of criteria.

challenges/hindrances:

• the need for preparation and training for both students and teachers
• The need to create a supportive atmosphere to encourage students to air their concerns was also identified. 
• Time allocated to the implementation and experience in carrying it out were also seen as important (the implementation is time-consuming)

Use of new technology in assessment (where assessment is mediated through or delineated by the

technological medium)
examples of this category include: multiple choice type assessment and its variants, computer mediated communication in the form of discussion boards and possible collaborative work by students, and the ways that could be incorporated into assessments, the creation of a website as an assessment, submission of assessment using multimedia.

Emerging themes from the use of new technology in assessment:

• opens the dialogue about assessment and learning
• highlights the importance of feedback and the desirability of swift feedback for a positive effect on learning
• emphasises the value of aligning assessment with learning outcomes
• highlights the importance of staff familiarity with the medium and the possible provision of training and support
• highlights the importance of feedback, support and facilitation for students, including the provision of opportunities to practise assessment tasks
• emphasises the resource implications and the often ‘front loaded’ nature of introducing technologically based assessment.
• highlights the use of computer-medicated communication and collaborative work as a resource base for assessment.
• the value of ICT in diagnostic testing
• creative possibilities in assessment such as web page design
• the need to design assessment to minimise risk.

implications:

• alignment of assessment to learning outcomes
• clarity of purpose of assessment
• the importance of clear and transparent assessment and marking criteria
• the need for adequate resource to establish electronic assessment
• acknowledgement that the design and implementation of assessment using the electronic medium is often ‘front loaded’ and has implications for staff workload and for student support as it is implemented for the first time
• the need for training of both staff and students in the use of electronic assessment and feedback and the management of the ensuing dialogue about learning.

Conclusion:

Apart from some of the work on the use of ICT to allow students to present their work in the form of a website, it can be seen that although the use of technology may be innovative in assessment, the type of assessment being used may not be so.

What guidance and feedback is given, by what means, and when (This theme concerns innovation in the provision of guidance from tutors about expectations for assessed work, and in the generation and provision of feedback to students (in the form of comments and marks, grades or criterion specific ratings) on the quality of the work they have submitted. Guidance and feedback are generally seen as central to the important formative function of assessment, which is crucial in helping students to achieve high-quality learning outcomes)

Benefits/motivation to use them:

• widespread evidence of dissatisfaction on the part of many students with provision of feedback and guidance
• teacher concerns that some students at least seemed to show little interest in engaging with or even scrutinising feedback comments.

References:
Hounsell, D., Blair, S., Falchikov, N., Hounsell, J., Huxham, M., Klampfleitner, M. and Thomson, K. (2007). Innovative Assessment Across the Disciplines: An Analytical Review of the Literature. Final Report. York: Higher Education Academy (HEA).

defining innovative assessment methods

Defining what is meant by innovative assessment is notoriously tricky since its meaning varies from one subject area or institution to another and over time. The present review followed an inclusive and pragmatic approach: innovative assessment was taken to be that which was novel in the eyes of its begetters or beholders; entailed more than a minor modification; was not self-evidently traditional; and had been documented over the last decade.

(Hounsel et al., 2007, p.4)

Innovation in higher education has generally been taken to mean a planned or deliberate process of introducing change, directed towards (but not necessarily achieving) improvements or solving or alleviating some perceived problem. Such changes may be new to a person, course department, institution or higher education as a whole. An innovation in one situation may be something already established elsewhere, but its importance for this discussion is that initiative takers and participants see it as an innovation in their circumstances.

(Hannan and Silver quoted in Hounsel et al., 2007, p.16)

innovation is an idea, product, process or service that adds value, and is useful or transforms current practice in the context to which it is applied.

(Southwell et al. quoted in Hounsel et al., 2007, p.16)


References:
Hounsell, D., Blair, S., Falchikov, N., Hounsell, J., Huxham, M., Klampfleitner, M. and Thomson, K. (2007). Innovative Assessment Across the Disciplines: An Analytical Review of the Literature. Final Report. York: Higher Education Academy (HEA). http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/ourwork/research/litreviews