TV and the Teaching of English

Student learning is greatly enhanced by studying prior to an exam. Allowing students to prepare a cheat sheet for the exam helps structure this study time and deepens learning. The crib sheet is well defined: one double-sided page of notes. An award for the best and most creative cheat sheet allows the instructor to appreciate the students' efforts. Using the cheat sheet also reduces student anxiety during testing.     

Constructive guidance and feedback for learning: the usefulness of exemplars,marking sheets and different types of feedback in a first year law subject

Criteria and standards‐based assessment models are increasingly being adopted by universities as effective practice. However the promise of these models of assessment may not be realised unless teachers can find ways of making criteria and standards understandable to students. Exemplars or examples of previous students’ work of high and low quality can make criteria and standards concrete. Recent research has focussed on the use of exemplars to help students understand criteria and standards, and less emphasis has been given to exemplars simply as guides for students. This mixed methods study explores students’ perceptions of the usefulness of exemplars and different types of feedback for guiding them in completing assessments. A combination of engaging in marking and discussing exemplars, and receiving individualised and standards‐based feedback provides the most helpful guidance for students’ effective learning.     

The influence of student gender on the assessment of undergraduate student work

The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of perceived student gender on the feedback given to undergraduate student work. Participants (n = 12) were lecturers in higher education and were required to mark two undergraduate student essays. The first student essay that all participants marked was the control essay. Participants were informed that the control essay was written by Samuel Jones (a male student). Participants then marked the target essay. Although participants marked the same essay, half of the participants (n = 6) were informed that the student essay was written by Natasha Brown (a female student), while the remaining participants were informed that it was written by James Smith (a male student). In-text and end-of-text feedback were qualitatively analysed on six dimensions: academic style of writing; criticality; structure, fluency and cohesion; sources used; understanding/knowledge of the subject; and other. Analysis of feedback for both the control and target essay revealed no discernible differences in the number of comments (strengths of the essay, areas for improvement) made and the content and presentation of these comments between the two groups. Pedagogical implications pertaining to the potential impact of anonymous marking on feedback processes are discussed.     

Improving marking reliability of scientific writing with the Developing Understanding of Assessment for Learning programme

The Developing Understanding of Assessment for Learning (DUAL) programme was developed with the dual aims of improving both the quality and consistency of feedback students receive and the students’ ability to use that feedback to improve. DUAL comprises a range of processes (including marking rubrics, sample reports, moderation discussions and peer-review activities) which support explicit knowledge exchange between staff, and between staff and students and the development of tacit knowledge of standards in all participants. This paper describes the study which quantified the extent to which the DUAL programme improved reliability and efficiency of marking of first year biology reports by a large team of laboratory demonstrators. Marker reliability increased after participation in DUAL, with demonstrators marking laboratory reports significantly closer to the marks awarded by an expert marker of the discipline. Efficiency was also improved since time taken to mark the reports did not increase significantly, despite the fact that demonstrators were adapting to a new system of marking. Demonstrators valued the programme and nominated the marking rubric, feedback code and moderation discussion as the most useful elements. The community of practice built through joint participation in the DUAL programme created a supportive working environment for demonstrators and strengthened the collaboration between the discipline and academic language and learning lecturers.     

Quantifying the assessment loads of students and staff: the challenge of selecting appropriate metrics

Assessment is central to learning. It is also central to the cost of providing higher education. Choosing how much and what forms of assessment are questions not only of good teaching but of good policy. Measuring the amount of assessment set in each course provides a basis on which to determine equitable and appropriate workloads for students and staff across disciplines and institutions and to use institutional budgets and staff time to best effect. It is, however, more difficult than it might at first appear to select metrics appropriate to this task. This article considers the advantages and disadvantages of four options. It also suggests the potential value of ratios and proposes that further consideration be given to removing the distinction commonly found in student workload formulae between time spent on learning out of class and that spent on assessment.     

Evaluating a technology supported interactive response system during the laboratory section of a histology course

Monitoring of student learning through systematic formative assessment is important for adjusting pedagogical strategies. However, traditional formative assessments, such as quizzes and written assignments, may not be sufficiently timely for making adjustments to a learning process. Technology supported formative assessment tools assess student knowledge, allow for immediate feedback, facilitate classroom dialogues, and have the potential to modify student learning strategies. As an attempt to integrate technology supported formative assessment in the laboratory section of an upper‐level histology course, the interactive application Learning Catalytics^TM, a cloud‐based assessment system, was used. This study conducted during the 2015 Histology courses at Cornell University concluded that this application is helpful for identifying student misconceptions “on‐the‐go,” engaging otherwise marginalized students, and forming a new communication venue between students and instructors. There was no overall difference between grades from topics that used the application and grades from those that did not, and students reported that it only slightly helped improve their understanding of the topic (3.8 ± 0.99 on a five‐point Likert scale). However, they highly recommended using it (4.2 ± 0.71). The major limitation was regarding the image display and graphical resolution of this application. Even though students embrace the use of technology, 39% reported benefits of having the traditional light microscope available. This cohort of students led instructors to conclude that the newest tools are not always better, but rather can complement traditional instruction methods. Anat Sci Educ 10: 328–338. © 2016 American Association of Anatomists.     

Student perceptions of their learning and engagement in response to the use of a continuous e-assessment in an undergraduate module

Student engagement is an important issue in higher education, and is related to the quality of the student experience. Increasing student engagement is one way of enhancing quality at a higher education institution. An institution is able to influence student engagement in a number of ways, one being through curriculum design. The use of a low-stakes continuous weekly summative e-assessment had a positive influence on student engagement in an optional level 5 (second year) undergraduate geography module. Students considered their increased engagement was a direct consequence of this assessment method. It was also found that students thought they improved their learning, particularly their understanding, as a result of the continuous assessment. This study suggests that carefully designed assessments can be used to increase student engagement and learning, and, as a result, contribute to improving the quality of the overall student experience.     

Evaluating the quality of work-integrated learning curricula: a comprehensive framework

There are many different forms that work-integrated learning (WIL) takes and variants go by a range of different names. Based on current literature, key dimensions, shared by the various and disparate forms of WIL curricula, were identified and operationalised in a measurement model. The key dimensions identified were: authenticity, integrated learning supports (both at university and the workplace), alignment (of teaching and learning activities and assessments with integrative learning outcomes), supervisor access and induction/preparation processes. It is suggested that variations in the way that WIL courses or subjects are designed within these dimensions are the basis for different expressions of the quality of such courses. A latent construct measurement model was developed and validated with a sample of Australian and UK students. This paper presents the model and discusses the results of the validation study. It is proposed that the measures validated in this study will be useful for evaluating a wide variety of WIL curricula.     

Evaluating the efficacy of using sentence frames for learning new vocabulary in science

Science students are increasingly challenged to use technical language related to the topics that they are studying, and therefore, science teachers benefit from knowing which tools are effective to support students in learning to use new terms. This study examined the impact of using one such tool—sentences frames—to teach science vocabulary, as measured through a science-writing task. Using an experimental approach with extant middle school science classes that offered a sample of 75 mainly Latino school students from grades six through eight, the researcher together with participating teachers identified 10 essential terms per science unit. The teachers used vocabulary-focused sentence frames for teaching the terms in one science unit, and a more traditional science text-based approach for teaching vocabulary in another unit. The writing task required at the end of the units consisted of essays in response to science-based prompts that directed students to use as many target science words as possible; matching/cloze format quizzes were also used to measure pretest and posttest receptive vocabulary knowledge. Findings indicated that there were advantages for teaching new science vocabulary via sentence frames as measured by use of the words in writing, but there were no advantages for sentence frames on quizzes measuring receptive vocabulary. Advantages of sentence frames for writing approached but did not reach statistical significance. There was some evidence that current and previous English language learners benefited more than initial English speakers from sentence frames, implying that utilizing sentence frames to teach science vocabulary might offer needed support especially for these subgroups. Limitations of the study included the sample size and the possibility that the strategy utilized in the comparison group might have offered some of the same advantages in producing language with technical vocabulary that the sentence frames unit offered.     

A case study on written comments as a form of feedback in teacher education: so much to gain

In Higher Education, much of a lecturer’s time is spent on supplying students with written comments as a form of feedback on assignments. Although it is clear that students use these comments to make adjustments to their assignments, it is doubtful that these comments create a learning effect. This may indicate that the way feedback is supplied and/or the quality of the feedback lacks information for improving future performance. In this case study, written feedback has been analysed and the perception of students on the quality of written feedback in relation to their learning behaviour has been taken into account.     

Student and teacher co-navigation of a course: following the natural lines of academic enquiry

Using the mountaineering metaphor of ‘natural lines’ this article describes the co-navigation of an honours course by students and teachers. It suggests the benefits and possibilities of going beyond the confines of conventional teaching and learning wisdom (as canonised in the notion of constructive alignment) and offering just and joyful ways for students to explore disciplinary knowledge. We openly explore issues of power between students and teachers in the construction of so-called partnerships, recognising the inherent challenges in moving beyond the prevailing mainstream. We suggest that a natural lines approach enables students to act as genuine co-navigators and to experience disciplinary knowledge in authentic ways and provides rich opportunities for personal reflection and development.     

Using statement banks to return online feedback: limitations of the transmission approach in a credit-bearing assessment

Electronic marking tools that incorporate statement banks have become increasingly prevalent within higher education. In an experiment, printed and emailed feedback was returned to 243 first-year students on a credit-bearing laboratory report assessment. A transmission approach was used, students being provided with comments on their work, but no guidance as to how they should use these remarks. A multiple-choice question test, undertaken before and after the return of feedback, was used to measure learning. Although returned comments included model answers, test scores showed no overall enhancement, even when students’ marks for their laboratory reports were initially hidden. A negative and significant (p = .010) linear trend between relative test scores and test date suggests that even modest improvements in subject knowledge were lost over time. Despite this, students could accurately guess their mark based on emailed feedback alone, estimated and awarded marks being linearly correlated (p < .001). It is concluded that statement banks organised according to published assessment criteria can ultimately help students to appreciate how their work was graded. However, students should be encouraged to produce a structured response to received feedback if self-assessment is to occur.     

Understanding the learning of values using a domains-of-socialization framework

The narratives that emerging adults wrote about a time when they learned an important moral, value or lesson were explored in order to determine the characteristics of events that lead to internalized values as well as to compare the way different kinds of moral values are socialized. Lessons resulting from misbehavior were reported most frequently. Those involving direct teaching of values were most highly internalized, with internalization assessed by importance and current impact. Self-reflection and self-generation of values was identified as a key means to value learning and was reported more frequently than any other source of values (e.g., parents, peers). Finally, it appears that a framework for understanding socialization that involves different domains can reflect how individuals categorize their value-learning experiences.     

The effects of the use of a school self-evaluation instrument

School quality care has become important in many Western countries. A number of self-evaluation instruments have been developed in response. The goal of these instruments is improving the quality of education. One such system, ZEBO, was developed for performing quality assessment in Dutch primary schools. The use of this self-evaluation instrument was studied in 79 primary schools in The Netherlands over a period of 5 years. The results of the multilevel analyses with repeated measures show that the use of the self-evaluation results had no effect on pupil achievement scores (so far). However, it did have other effects, for example, an impact on the professional development of teachers.     

Quantifying participation in,and the effectiveness of,remediating assessment in a university mathematics module

In Maths for Business, a large first-year mathematics module, the continuous assessment component comprises 10 weekly quizzes which combine to contribute 40% of the final module mark. If students did not receive the full five marks on their weekly quiz, they were provided with the opportunity to resubmit their corrected weekly quiz with an explanation of their error(s) for one additional mark. We refer to this process as ‘remediation’. Of the students who had the opportunity to remediate, ～70% did. Through examining learning management system data, we show that the remediation process encouraged students to access module resources. Furthermore, by using a Bayesian hierarchical model to account for students’ level of participation, achievement and prior knowledge, we show that participation in the remediation process positively impacted the final examination marks of moderate to high-achieving students (based on initial continuous assessment marks). However, participation in the remediation process provided limited benefit to low-achieving students. We conjecture this is because these students had not achieved a level of understanding whereby participation in the remediation process could progress their knowledge.     

Evaluating student satisfaction - restricting lecturer professionalism: outcomes of using the UK national student survey questionnaire for internal student evaluation of teaching

Abstract

In the neo-liberal context of a UK university, responding to student feedback in order to raise student satisfaction levels is important in improving National Student Survey (NSS) scores. This article focuses on the impact of a UK university’s new student feedback questionnaire - for individual modules - which used the NSS questions. The research draws on survey data (N?=?101) to identify lecturers’ views and three student focus groups. The outcomes raised issues relating to performativity, professionalism and ‘provision’, the latter defined as the university’s contract with each student, including the aspects that affect the student learning experience but are beyond the lecturers’ control, for example, class sizes and timetables. The results indicate that by recognising the impact of provision university managers may be better able to develop systemic improvements to student experience and (in the UK) a corresponding uplift in NSS and Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) results. The article puts forward a model linking performativity, professionalism and provision to the relationships between university managers, academics and students. This model could enrich understandings of professionalism and performativity, extend the range of issues affecting student experience in SETs and support data analysis in future research studies.     

Easing the transition from school to HE: scaffolding the development of self-regulated learning through a dialogic approach to feedback

High quality feedback is known to be essential for learning, yet in higher education it has been highlighted as a problem area in the UK by both the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) and National Student Surveys. Furthermore, a recent study has shown that there is a fault-line between the highly structured guidance system that exists in schools/colleges and the culture of ‘independent’ learning that is promoted in higher education and suggests that this is a significant barrier to a successful transition. This article reports research to improve the transition for first-year undergraduates by providing a structured set of guidance activities (scaffolding) as a means of an extended induction into the assessment processes in higher education. The activities are based on the dialogic feedback cycle, which encompasses principles of feedback as dialogue, emphasising guidance at the start of and during an assignment rather than summative written feedback. The intervention was evaluated by means of a questionnaire and supported by focus groups. The questionnaire was administered to a control group and an intervention group. Results showed statistically significant improvements (p < 0.05) in students’ perceptions of their understanding of assessment tasks and criteria and increased confidence in terms of completing assessment tasks and self-regulated learning.     

Coping with the Contradictions of Reflecting on Praxis: a Spanish case

Abstract

This paper offers some aspects and conclusions which form a part of a more extensive 2‐year case study carried out by a group of 11 teachers participating in an action‐research project at the University of Oviedo, Spain. The purpose is to analyse the professionalizing potential of action‐research in Higher Education. Professional development and growth are understood to be a pedagogical process through which teachers may increase, and enhance their ability for coping with the dilemmas and contradictions they face up to at work. In considering this conception, the objective is to analyse the specific contradictions of action‐research, as well as its possibilities, as a strategy for professional development of University teachers.     

Evaluating the reliability of a detailed analytic scoring rubric for foreign language writing

The demand for valid and reliable methods of assessing second and foreign language writing has grown in significance in recent years. One such method is the timed writing test which has a central place in many testing contexts internationally. The reliability of this test method is heavily influenced by the scoring procedures, including the rating scale to be used and the success with which raters can apply the scale. Reliability is crucial because important decisions and inferences about test takers are often made on the basis of test scores. Determining the reliability of the scoring procedure frequently involves examining the consistency with which raters assign scores. This article presents an analysis of the rating of two sets of timed tests written by intermediate level learners of German as a foreign language (n = 47) by two independent raters who used a newly developed detailed scoring rubric containing several categories. The article discusses how the rubric was developed to reflect a particular construct of writing proficiency. Implications for the reliability of the scoring procedure are explored, and considerations for more extensive cross-language research are discussed.     

The performative turn in the assessment of student learning: a rights perspective

Active learning and group-based processes in higher education are central to student engagement strategies. Forms of assessment regarded as evidencing student engagement, including attendance, class participation grading and group-based projects, have become commonplace in the university curriculum on an international basis. Whilst the literature has focused on evaluating such forms of assessment in terms of learning gain, analysis of their impact from a student rights perspective has been largely overlooked. This paper will analyse student perspectives of three forms of assessment entailing the measurement of observable student attitudes and behaviour: attendance, class participation and group work grading. The evidence from a survey of undergraduates based in a Hong Kong university suggests that the majority of students are concerned about whether such practices are appropriate and fair, potentially undermining their freedom of choice to learn as adults.