Contested discourses: assessing the outcomes of learning from experience for the award of credit in higher education

When mature students enter higher education they bring with them a wealth of knowledge and experience gained in their lives outside of education. A majority of higher education institutions in the UK and elsewhere around the world have now set up systems for recognizing and accrediting such learning. However the processes of assessing learning from experience tend to conform to other higher education assessment processes, originally devised for the assessment of learning gained through study in an educational context. This poses a dilemma for the students presenting their learning for assessment, those advising or guiding them and those assessing the learning. How can learning gained in a life/work setting be quantified and evaluated in academic terms? What happens in this process? This paper takes a discourse analysis approach to examine the process from both student and assessor perspectives, and proposes some strategies for bridging the gap in discourse between the outside world and academia.     

Examining increased flexibility in assessment formats

There have been calls in the literature for changes to assessment practices in higher education, to increase flexibility and give learners more control over the assessment process. This article explores the possibilities of allowing student choice in the format used to present their work, as a starting point for changing assessment, based on recent studies and current examples of flexible assessment practice in higher education. The benefits of this flexible assessment format approach are highlighted, along with a discussion of classic assessment considerations such as validity, reliability and marking concerns. The role of technology in facilitating assessment method choice is considered, in terms of new opportunities for providing student choice in the way they evidence their learning and present their work. Considerations for implementing flexible assessment choices into the curriculum are presented, along with a call that further research into such practice is needed to develop a comprehensive set of practical recommendations and best practice for the implementation of flexible assessment choice into the curriculum. The article should be of interest to curriculum developers and academics considering implementing changes to the assessment process to increase student ownership and control.     

当代认知心理学的"学习观"及教学启示

认知心理学是当代心理学发展的主流，对教育产生了巨大的影响。认知心理学学习观主要有：学习是个体主动构建的过程，学习者已有的知识经验是学习的充分条件，对信息的认知加工和相应的策略是学习的必要条件，元认知对认知过程的意识和调控影响学习的顺利进行，动机指导着个体的学习。据此，现代教学实践应改变传统的学生观，教学过程中要加强学生的研究、学生学习策略和元认知能力的培养，教学评价也应注意学生学习过程的评价。     

“I ‘feel’ like I am at university even though I am online.” Exploring how students narrate their engagement with higher education institutions in an online learning environment

This article outlines a collaborative study between higher education institutions in Australia, which qualitatively explored the online learning experience for undergraduate and postgraduate students. The project adopted a narrative inquiry approach and encouraged students to story their experiences of this virtual environment, providing a snapshot of how learning is experienced by those undertaking online studies. The study explores what impacted upon students’ engagement in this environment and how different facets of their learning experience made a qualitative difference to how individuals enacted engagement. Drawing upon Sharon Pittaway’s engagement framework, the article seeks to foreground student voice as the learners define their engagement in learning, the strategies they employed to assist this process and how engagement was enacted at an individual level. The students’ reflections presented in this article can be used to inform teaching and learning strategies designed to improve engagement in the online environment within the higher education sector.     

Authentic assessment of teaching in context

The demands of teaching more challenging content to more diverse learners suggest a need for teacher education that enables teachers to become more sophisticated in their understanding of the effects of context and learner variability on teaching and learning. Instead of implementing set routines, teachers need to become ever more skillful in their ability to evaluate teaching situations and develop teaching responses that can be effective under different circumstances. This article examines how a growing number of teacher education programs are using authentic assessments of teaching – cases, exhibitions, portfolios, and problem-based inquiries (or action research) – as tools to support teacher learning for these new challenges of practice. Using specific teacher education programs as examples, the article examines how and why these strategies appear to provide support for teacher learning and avenues for more valid assessment of teaching. The authors also discuss circumstances in which these strategies may be less effective and suggest features of the assessments and programmatic contexts that are associated with more and less successful use.     

Motivational strategies to enhance effective learning in teaching struggling students

The challenges presented by students who struggle to connect with curriculum learning in school constitute an issue that confronts education systems worldwide. This article reviews ways in which such students can be encouraged to engage more positively in their own learning, a process that benefits both the child and the whole school community. In this article a range of strategies to do this is proposed, based on a set of theoretical considerations.     

Enhancing Quality of Higher Education for World-Class Status

Aspiring to become an international city in Asia, the government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) has been investing more in higher education. In order to enhance its global competitiveness, all public universities in Hong Kong have gone through different forms of quality assurance exercises, including teaching and learning processes reviews, research assessment exercises, management and governance reviews, as well as quality assurance council reviews. In the context of the significant emphasis placed by Hong Kong on the internationalization of higher education, this article examines the major approaches and strategies that the HKSAR has adopted in enhancing quality in teaching, learning, and research in higher education, and also discusses the major challenges for quality assurance confronted by the city-state.     

‘Learning Careers’ or ‘Assessment Careers’? The Impact of Assessment Systems on Learning

Two increasingly important strands in current educational thinking are reflected in growing interest amongst researchers, policy‐makers and qualification designers in formative assessment strategies that motivate learners and enhance their educational attainment. In addition, a body of research suggests that learners develop ‘learning careers’ from primary education, through the National Curriculum into post‐compulsory education and beyond. This article engages with this work in order to highlight some key factors in ‘learning careers’, particularly in relation to the impact of formative assessment practices. It aims to relate findings from research on formative assessment in primary and further education, carried out by the authors, to studies which use Bourdieu's notions of ‘habitus’, ‘field’, ‘cultural capital’ and ‘social capital’ to explore learning careers and learning identities in different sectors of education. The article evaluates whether the concept of ‘assessment careers’ illuminates a specific strand within young people's ‘learning careers’. In particular, it asks whether the concept might offer more precise insights about how practices produced by different assessment systems, particularly those purporting to promote formative assessment, affect learners' identities and dispositions for learning.     

Self-assessment to incite learning in higher education: developing ontological awareness

Incorporating self-assessment tasks in higher education involves a conceptual shift of the function of assessment for both learners and teachers. Self-assessment is an innovative assessment initiative that foregrounds ontological knowledge and professional identity in higher education, especially where external professional bodies require additional competencies for learners to be work-ready. As a tool to develop learners’ metacognitive strategies, self-assessment challenges views around learning and assessment. The defined task that constitutes ‘self-assessment’ is considered for two key reasons. First, it is essentially a tool to reflect student-staff partnership in learning and assessment if students are positioned as agentic in the assessment process, and, second, it challenges the relationship between assessment and learning; no longer dichotomous, and more culturally relevant. This paper outlines the introduction of self-assessment over three years in a university postgraduate programme. Using cultural historical activity theory, a framework of analysis that recognises multiple networks of activity, the question ‘what constitutes a self-assessment task?’ is addressed. Results show that the development of self-assessment tasks needs to be considered in the learning-assessment nexus. While these forms of assessment initially unsettle students, they are designed to enable students to participate with an eye on their learning, not the grade.     

The use of exemplars in English writing classrooms: from theory to practice

Recent literature on the use of exemplars in the context of higher education has shown that exemplar-based instruction is implemented in various disciplines; nevertheless, how exemplar-based instruction can be implemented in English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) writing classrooms in higher education institutions remains under-explored. In this connection, this article reports on a textbook development project which adopts an exemplar-based instruction approach to be used by university English instructors to prepare students for IELTS writing (academic module). The goal of the textbook is to cultivate students’ understanding of the assessment standards of the two IELTS writing tasks through the design and use of exemplar-based dialogic and reflective activities. In this article, theoretical underpinnings of the use of exemplars, namely tacit knowledge, assessment as learning and dialogic feedback, will first be discussed in detail. Then, an overview of an ongoing project which aims to develop an exemplar-based IELTS writing textbook will be given. The last section of this article suggests practical strategies for ESL writing teachers who are interested in using exemplars to develop students’ understanding of assessment standards.     

Exploring learning goals and assessment approaches for Indigenous health education: a qualitative study in Australia and New Zealand

In higher education, assessment is key to student learning. Assessments which promote critical thinking necessary for sustained learning beyond university are highly valued. However, the design of assessment tasks to achieve these types of thinking skills and dispositions to act in professional practice has received little attention. This research examines how academics design assessment to achieve these learning goals in Indigenous health education. Indigenous health education is an important area of learning for health practitioners to help address worldwide patterns of health inequities that exist for Indigenous people. We used a constructivist qualitative methodology to (i) explore learning goals and assessment strategies used in Indigenous health tertiary education and (ii) examine how they relate to higher education assessment ideals. Forty-one academics (from nine health disciplines) involved in teaching Indigenous health content participated in a semi-structured interview. Thematic analysis revealed learning goals to transform students’ perspectives and capacities to think critically and creatively about their role in Indigenous health. In contrast, assessment tasks encouraged more narrowly bounded thinking to analyse information about historical and socio-cultural factors contributing to Indigenous health. To transform students to be critical health practitioners capable of working and collaborating with Indigenous people to advance their health and well-being, the findings suggest that assessment may need to be nested across many aspects of the curriculum using a programmatic approach, and with a focus on learning to think and act for future practice. These findings accord with more recent calls for transformation of learning and assessment in health education.     

当今英国研究生教育规模和结构的变化与走向

本文通过分析20世纪90年代以来英国研究生教育在规模与结构上的变化,反映出英国研究生教育与职业市场紧密结合的趋势,揭示了高等教育二元制结束的结构性调整、男女平等思想、终身学习需求对研究生教育的影响以及英国在高等教育国际化方面所采取的战略措施.     

Inquiry-Based Learning and Undergraduates’ Professional Identity Development: Assessment of a Field Research-Based Course

Innovative strategies in inquiry-based learning are recognized as improving the quality of higher education learning, but there is a need to explore whether and how these strategies promote the development of professional identity among undergraduates. In this article we describe an inquiry-based course, situated in a European context, which is designed to support students’ professional identity development through reflective practice; and we present the assessment of students’ learning outcomes. Results highlight the key roles of field research, peer groups, and a narrative approach in promoting positive student attitudes toward reflecting on their production of knowledge and in developing their professional identity.     

Formative and shared assessment in higher education. Lessons learned and challenges for the future

Formative assessment is the process by which teachers provide information to students during the learning process to modify their understanding and self-regulation. An important process within this is shared assessment, which refers to student involvement in the assessment and learning practice, a process of dialogue and collaboration between teacher and students aimed at improving the learning process, both individually and collectively. The purpose of this paper is to review the current state of affairs in depth. This paper therefore highlights, on the one hand, the lessons learned through research and development in higher education (i.e. providing clear learning goals and feedback, guiding learning, involving students in learning and assessment, promoting feedback as a process of dialogue, and making processes viable). On the other hand, these lessons also suggest some challenges and difficulties that must be addressed in the future in order to further improve formative and shared assessment in higher education. These include the need for more research on its effects, further conceptual clarification, the intersubjectivity of the process, recognition of the divergent processes and ethical principles, students’ involvement not only in assessment but also in determining academic grades, and broading learning goals and objetives in FA & SA.     

提高我国高等教育人才培养质量的思考

高校提高人才培养质量主要应采取以下策略:推行"宽进严出"模式,实行弹性学制;实施课程教学制度改革;树立多元化的人才评价观,培养创新型人才;建构柔性化的教师管理制度,提升教学水平.