Using assessment criteria as learning criteria: a case study in psychology

In this paper it is argued that the current trend of making assessment criteria more explicit in higher education may have a deleterious effect on students' learning. Helping students to concentrate on assessment criteria paradoxically means that they may take a strategic approach and end up focusing on the superficial aspects of their assessment tasks, rather than engaging in meaningful learning activity. One solution might be to re‐conceptualize assessment criteria as ‘learning criteria’ using Biggs' principle of constructive alignment in curriculum development and delivery. To illustrate how this can work in practice, a case study is presented detailing the development of a counselling psychology module over several years to progressively incorporate a text‐based adaptation of the problem‐based learning approach. Student evaluations of the approach are presented together with some examples of feedback given on students' work to demonstrate the effects on students' understanding and functioning knowledge     

Demystifying Critical Reflection: Defining criteria for assessment

Many university teachers in the social sciences and humanities, especially those interested in emancipatory educative practices, wish to see their students develop a capacity for critical reflection, considered essential for the development of higher-order thinking. However, critical reflection is rarely precisely defined nor are clear indications given about how teachers can develop appropriate criteria for assessing how well students reflect. This paper offers a framework for identifying indicators of a capacity for critical reflection in the social sciences, as well as demonstrating how criteria can be developed for assessing students' capability for critical reflection, including making distinctions between reflection on values, beliefs and assumptions. It is argued that offering clear criteria can assist in providing guidance to both students and teachers in developing critically reflective capacities.     

Student responses to criteria‐referenced self‐assessment

This paper reports on a study of undergraduate students’ experiences with criteria‐referenced self‐assessment. Fourteen students who had taken a course involving self‐assessment were interviewed in focus groups segregated by gender. The findings suggest that students had positive attitudes toward self‐assessment after extended practice; felt they can effectively self‐assess when they know their teacher’s expectations; claimed to use self‐assessment to check their work and guide revision; and believed the benefits of self‐assessment include improvements in grades, quality of work, motivation and learning. There were indications that some students sensed a tension between their own standards for good work and some of their teachers’ standards. There was no evidence of differences in the responses of male and female students. The paper concludes with the suggestion that self‐assessment involves a complex process of internalization and self‐regulation, and with implications for research and practice.     

From copying to learning: using exemplars to engage students with assessment criteria and feedback

Feedback is central to pedagogic theory, and if feedback is to be effective, students need to engage with it and apply it at some point in the future. However, student dissatisfaction with feedback – as evidenced in the National Student Survey – suggests that there are problems which limit student engagement with feedback, such as their perception that much of their feedback is irrelevant to future assignments. This article reports on a study which sought to enhance engagement by giving students exemplar assignments annotated with feedback before submission of their final assignments. This was done by providing an online facility where students could view exemplars and post comments or questions to tutors and peers on a discussion board. The exemplar facility was highly valued by students, although there were no quantitative effects such as an increase in students’ assignment marks when compared with the previous cohort. The article reflects on possible reasons for this result and discusses ways to improve the exemplar facility, for example by facilitating dialogue between tutors and students. The article concludes with lessons learned about how to construct exemplars, and considers how exemplars might also be used within marking teams to improve consistency of marking.     

Succession planning in England: new leaders and new forms of leadership

There are concerns about the supply of head teachers in many countries. In England, this problem arises from demographic changes and the perceived difficulty of the job. The National College responded to this problem by initiating a Succession Planning programme. This article reports the main findings from the external evaluation of the programme and links them to the wider literature.     

新课标下高中历史课堂教学的有效性新探

随着高中历史新课改的推行,提高历史课堂有效教学的方法有：明晰教学目标与组织教学内容,是历史课堂有效教学的前提;好的导入,是历史课堂有效教学的奠基石;提供历史细节,是历史课堂有效教学的催化剂;有效的课堂互动,是历史课堂有效教学的核心;促使学生学会学习、科学贯彻能力培养,是历史课堂有效教学的目的;美妙的结尾,是历史课堂有效教学的回味剂;教师的个人素质,是历史课堂有效教学的源头。     

一种新的评价形式——档案式评估

教育是一个长期的过程,人的智能是多元化的,作为教育重要环节的评价,对学生知识和能力的估量亦应该是多元的。在新课程标准的教育改革背景下,我们实践中的评价形式更应多样化,而不能仅限于考试一途。档案式评估完全是一种新的评价方式。因为档案式评估对学生实施真实性的过程评价,可以有效地激发学生的主动性和积极性,改变其在传统教学中被动学习的局面,同时还能有效地转变教师传统的教学观念,进而为升学等高风险的决策提供更翔实有效的参考。     

In search of quality criteria in peer assessment practices

With the increasing popularity of peer assessment as an assessment tool, questions may arise about its measurement quality. Among such questions, the extent peer assessment practices adhere to standards of measurement. It has been claimed that new forms of assessment, require new criteria to judge their validity and reliability, since they aim for specific goals and address different aspects of learning. But although new criteria have been formulated, little is known about how they are deployed and operate in actual peer assessment practices. This study intends to explicate the quality criteria relevant to the context of peer assessment. We conducted a survey in vocational education on peer assessment quality criteria applied in classrooms. Fifty-six teachers using peer assessment rated several quality criteria as relevant to their teaching practice. The findings suggest that peer assessment practices entail many of the quality criteria recognized in measurement and evaluation, although in an embedded way: the generic quality criteria are tuned or adapted to the peer assessment setting. The findings also show that peer assessment is very much in the hands of the teacher, who organizes and orchestrates the appraisal process in which students receive clear guidelines to appraise one another's work. Our results indicate that quality criteria hardly differ from the function peer assessment serves in classrooms, either within a summative or formative evaluation context. By gaining insight on the specific criteria of peer assessment and their precise purposes, we believe it becomes possible to help teachers improve its measurement quality.     

Collaborative design of assessment criteria to improve undergraduate student engagement and performance

Student engagement is vital in enhancing the student experience and encouraging deeper learning. Involving students in the design of assessment criteria is one way in which to increase student engagement. In 2011, a marking matrix was used at Aston University (UK) for logbook assessment (Group One) in a project-based learning module. The next cohort of students in 2012 (Group Two) were asked to collaboratively redesign the matrix and were given a questionnaire about the exercise. Group Two initially scored a lower average logbook mark than Group One. However, Group Two showed the greatest improvement between assessments, and the quality of, and commitment to, logbooks was noticeably improved. Student input resulted in a more defined, tougher mark scheme. However, this provided an improved feedback system that gave more scope for self-improvement. The majority of students found the exercise incorporated their ideas, enhanced their understanding, and was useful in itself.     

A history of New York state literacy test assessment: Historicizing calls to localism in writing assessment

Drawing upon archival materials, I describe the history, design, and assessment of literacy tests from early 20th century New York state. Practitioners working with these early standardized writing tests grappled with tensions created by public Nativist sentiment, the legislation of “literacy,” and calls to score the tests in standardized yet locally appropriate ways. These practitioners developed their own constructs for “reading,” “writing,” and “literacy” as they administered and scored the tests. These practitioners were enacting writing assessment theories and methods that are currently valorized in calls to local writing assessment, disrupting some assumptions about writing assessment history as a move from strict standardization to more contextualized, local approaches. Practitioner efforts also provide a way forward as we continue to negotiate between calls to localism and standardization.     

建设中国特色世界一流大学的根本遵循

基于博弈论构建制度生成与演变的解释框架,分析从重点大学到“双一流”建设的历程,探讨“双一流”战略如何打破身份桎梏、重构开放竞争背后的动力机制及创新路径,厘清战略演变的制度逻辑,发现：中央政府战略目标转变等外生环境变化提供了增量资源与资源再分配的机会,为“双一流”建设提供了动力源;引入地方政府、地方大学作为主要博弈参与者克服了计划资源分配弊端,形成多方参与博弈的开放竞争新格局。在新博弈规则的驱动下,中央政府、地方政府、高等院校逐渐改变其主观博弈模式,集中增量资源大力发展优势学科,为进入“双一流”行列提供内生动力。“双一流”战略取得了较好成效,营造了开放、竞争、动态的制度环境,初步构建了中国特色一流大学和一流学科建设模式。未来将面临处理好外部治理与内部博弈之间的关系、一流大学聚集性与高等教育系统均衡性之间的关系的挑战。

     

Implementation of criteria and standards-based assessment: an analysis of first-year learning guides

Assessment expectations are communicated to students in various ways and at different points in the semester. The provision of written information in learning guides given to students at the start of semester articulates what they are to do and how well they are to perform in assessment tasks. This paper examines how assessment expectations at an Australian university were communicated by staff in 159 first-year units (subjects) in the first year of university-wide implementation of criteria and standards-based assessment and learning guides policies. A framework was developed to analyse the extent and types of assessment information provided in learning guides. The paper provides a snapshot of the types of assessment used in the first year, including exams and analytical, reflective and authentic tasks. The paper contributes to an understanding of how university-wide assessment policy implementation can be evaluated through an examination of documents produced by staff.     

Peer assessment of oral presentations: effects of student gender,university affiliation and participation in the development of assessment criteria

Peer assessment provides a useful mechanism to develop many positive qualities in students studying in higher education (HE). Potential influences on peer‐awarded marks include student qualities such as gender, HE background (e.g. university affiliation) and participation in the development of the assessment criteria. Many studies that have investigated peer assessment have placed great emphasis on marks from a single tutor, or very few tutors, from a single university. This study examined grades awarded by 11 tutors (affiliated with four universities) to oral presentations delivered on a residential field course by second‐year undergraduate students from two universities studying environmental or biological disciplines. Student assessors awarded marks of fairly high precision (correlating strongly with tutor grades) but averaged 5% higher than their tutors (i.e. of only moderate accuracy). Marginally higher marks (circa 1.6%) were awarded by student assessors to speakers studying at the same university. Gender influences were detected as males tended to grade other male speakers very slightly more highly than female speakers. Marks from females were unaffected by speaker gender. Students who participated in the development of the assessment criteria did not achieve higher grades for their presentations. However, when these ‘participants’ were assessing, they awarded lower marks than their peers (i.e. closer to, but not as low as, those awarded by tutors). Lower marks were also awarded during the middle of sessions, possibly resulting from factors associated with motivation and attention of speakers and markers. Overall, the potential biases in marking by naive assessors examined in this study may influence the validity of marks generated by peer assessment schemes, but the experience of this type of assessment had positive effects on those involved.     

Interpretations of criteria‐based assessment and grading in higher education

The increasing use of criteria‐based approaches to assessment and grading in higher education is a consequence of its sound theoretical rationale and its educational effectiveness. This article is based on a review of the most common grading policies that purport to be criteria‐based. The analysis shows that there is no common understanding of what criteria‐based means or what it implies for practice. This has inhibited high‐quality discourse, research and development among scholars and practitioners. Additionally, the concepts of ‘criteria’ and ‘standards’ are often confused and, despite the use of criteria, the fundamental judgments teachers make about the quality of student work remain subjective and substantially hidden from the students’ view. As they stand, none of the approaches identified in the survey is fully capable of delivering on the aspirations of criteria‐based grading. Shifting the primary focus to standards and making criteria secondary could, however, lead to substantial progress.     

Indeterminacy in the use of preset criteria for assessment and grading

When assessment tasks are set for students in universities and colleges, a common practice is to advise them of the criteria that will be used for grading their responses. Various schemes for using multiple criteria have been widely advocated in the literature. Each scheme is designed to offer clear benefits for students. Breaking down holistic judgments into more manageable parts is seen as a way to increase openness for students and achieve more objectivity in grading. However, such approaches do not adequately represent the full complexity of multi‐criterion qualitative judgments, and can lead to distorted grading decisions. Six anomalies in the ways assessors approach the grading task are identified, together with several likely contributing factors. Overall, the conclusion is that explicit grading models do not have as strong a theoretical foundation as is commonly supposed, and that holistic appraisal merits further investigation.     

Explicitness of criteria in peer assessment processes for first-year engineering students

This article will outline the motives for the implementation of peer assessment as put into action at the first year of the Civil Engineering course of the University of Minho. The implementation of new assessment methods was a consequence of the successful implementation of peer assessment at other engineering courses. During the semester, three assessment moments took place, in which students assessed the work of their peers. Assessment criteria were defined in a negotiation process between students and teacher. The students subsequently graded the work of their colleagues and had to provide a clear justification for each given grade. The aim of this method is to involve students in the subject, enhance their motivation and deepen their learning. Advantages and disadvantages of peer assessment are discussed. The results that have been obtained so far draw attention to the nature of assessment criteria and the corresponding explicitness.     

新思想领航全面深化改革新征程

中国特色社会主义进入新时代,改革开放再出发,新征程迫切需要伟大思想的科学引领。习近平新时代中国特色社会主义思想正是领航改革开放新征程的科学指南。     

Comparing two forms of dynamic assessment and traditional assessment of preschool phonological awareness

The goal of the current study was to compare two forms of dynamic assessment and standard assessment of preschool children's phonological awareness. The first form of dynamic assessment was a form of scaffolding in which item formats were modified in response to an error so as to make the task easier or more explicit. The second form of dynamic assessment was direct instruction of the phonological awareness tasks. The results indicate that preschool children's phonological awareness can be assessed using standard assessment procedures, provided the items require processing units larger than the individual phoneme. No advantage was found in reliability or validity for either dynamic assessment condition relative to the standard assessment condition. Dynamic assessment does not appear to improve reliability or validity of phonological awareness assessments when preschool children are given tasks that they can perform using standard administration procedures.