How first-year students perceive and experience assessment of academic literacies

Abstract

First-year university students’ underdeveloped academic literacies can lead to dissatisfaction and poor performance. University teachers find it difficult to take action without an understanding of students’ perceptions and needs. This study investigates first-year Chinese students’ perceptions and experiences related to assessment of academic literacies in an English-as-a-foreign-language university context. The datasets include student focus groups at two different time points over their first university year, self-reflective essays written by students at the end of the year, and audio records of nine units of teaching in three teachers’ classes. Findings highlight that fostering students’ academic literacies incorporates both linguistic development and epistemological adaptation. Students held mixed feelings towards alternative assessment other than examinations. Their personal learning goals of using English in everyday scenarios dampened their commitment to teachers’ goals of developing learners’ academic literacies. Findings suggest assessment can be an effective ‘card’ played by teachers to nurture students’ appreciation of new learning goals, communicate areas for improvement in learning strategies, and demonstrate their visible progress.     

The relationship between students’ perceptions of portfolio assessment practice and their approaches to learning

This study focuses on students’ learning approaches in the context of a competency‐based program on Applied Sciences, with portfolio assessment as its core mode of assessment. The study examines students’ perceptions of these assessment practices and the relationships to their learning approaches. Additionally, differences in perceptions and learning approaches between first‐year students and second‐year students, who already have one year of experience with the portfolio assessment practice, are investigated. A total of 110 students completed two questionnaires at the end of the academic year: the Revised SPQ (Study process questionnaire) was used to measure their approaches to learning and the AEQ (Assessment experience questionnaire) was used to measure their perceptions of the assessment practice. The results indicate that, when implementing portfolio assessment, feedback is essential. Moreover, it seems not to be the assessment design, but rather how it is implemented, and how students’ learning is stimulated through the assessment, that influences the quality of learning.     

A Framework for Transition: Supporting 'Learning to Learn' in Higher Education

In this paper, a framework for developing first‐year students' learning is proposed. Its aim is to increase university managers' and teachers' awareness of two issues: (1) that the currently predominant ‘skills’ approaches to the enhancement of student learning are based on a deficiency model and achieve little more than remedying the overt problems of individual students and (2) that a holistic, subject‐specific approach is needed to support all students in the complex process of learning to learn in higher education. The framework aims at facilitating transition to university by helping students to understand what is expected from them at university, by addressing their conceptions of learning and knowledge and by gradually developing their competence as independent learners as well as their competence in constructing knowledge in their discipline. Different contexts are used to apply complementary methods for the development of learning. As the framework relies on the engagement of academic teachers, it is critical that university managers and policy makers give appropriate recognition to effective teaching. This involves instigating changes in conceptions of teaching, providing opportunities for educational development and setting incentives for teachers' commitment to student learning.     

Exploring first‐year academic achievement through structural equation modelling

The purpose of this research was to develop and test a multicausal model of the individual characteristics associated with academic success in first‐year Australian university students. This model comprised the constructs of: previous academic performance, achievement motivation, self‐regulatory learning strategies, and personality traits, with end‐of‐semester grades the dependent variable of interest. The study involved the distribution of a questionnaire, which assessed motivation, self‐regulatory learning strategies and personality traits, to 1193 students at the start of their first year at university. Students' academic records were accessed at the end of their first year of study to ascertain their first and second semester grades. This study established that previous high academic performance, use of self‐regulatory learning strategies, and being introverted and agreeable, were indicators of academic success in the first semester of university study. Achievement motivation and the personality trait of conscientiousness were indirectly related to first semester grades, through the influence they had on the students' use of self‐regulatory learning strategies. First semester grades were predictive of second semester grades. This research provides valuable information for both educators and students about the factors intrinsic to the individual that are associated with successful performance in the first year at university.     

Accuracy of students' self‐assessment and their beliefs about its utility

The purpose of the two studies presented here was to evaluate the accuracy of students' self‐assessment ability, to examine whether this ability improves over time and to investigate whether self‐assessment is more accurate if students believe that it contributes to improving learning. To that end, the accuracy of the self‐assessments of 3588 first‐year students enrolled in a post‐secondary institution was studied throughout a semester during which each student made approximately 80 self‐assessments about his or her own learning process. These self‐assessments were then compared with multiple judgements by peers and tutors. The overall correlations between the scores of self‐, peer and tutor assessments suggest weak to moderate accuracy of student self‐assessment ability. The findings also reveal an ability effect; students judged as more academically competent were able to self‐assess with higher accuracy than their less competent peers. Comparing the accuracy of student self‐assessment averaged over four consecutive periods indicates that the accuracy does not improve over time. In a second study, a questionnaire aimed at eliciting student's beliefs about the effects of self‐assessment on their learning was administered to 936 first‐year students. Based on their responses, sub‐groups of students were identified: those who either believed in the usefulness of self‐assessment or did not. Results suggest that there is no significant association between student beliefs about the utility of self‐assessment and the accuracy of their self‐assessments.     

Exploring the first year academic achievement of school leavers and mature-age students through structural equation modelling

One of the most noticeable changes to the university student profile over the last decade is the increasing number of mature-age students. This study examined the relationship between previous academic performance, psychological characteristics of the student, learning strategies, and the first year academic performance of school leavers and mature-age students through structural equation modelling (SEM). A total of 1193 first year university students completed a questionnaire at the beginning of their first year of study, and provided consent for their academic results to be tracked over their first year at university. While the overall model of success appeared to fit for both groups, differences were identified in the order of importance of constructs affecting achievement and the strength of some relationships. The most obvious difference occurred in the relationship between previous academic performance, self-reported learning strategies, and achievement in first semester, with previous performance a more accurate predictor of school leavers' performance and self-reported learning strategies a more accurate predictor of mature-age students' performance. This study has implications for the university in terms of the targeting of academic support services for students of different ages.     

What a difference mentoring makes: service learning and engagement for college students

Colleges are increasingly interested in ways to better engage students in their academic careers. This article reports 20 college students' experiences as mentors for at‐risk fourth‐graders through a mentoring program called The Learning Connection (TLC), run by the Community Services Office at Moravian College. The study describes students' voluntary participation in service learning activities as a source of student engagement, the characteristics of the TLC mentoring program, the process by which student mentors reported their experiences over the course of the academic year, and the benefits of the mentoring program through the eyes of the college student mentors. At the beginning of the mentoring experience, mentors reported that the primary reasons for mentoring were to make a difference in a child's life and supplement classroom learning. At the end of the academic year, mentors reported that mentoring taught them important lessons about children, themselves, community work and the value of mentoring. Mentor feedback supports mentoring, specifically, and service learning, generally, as a source of student engagement for college students.     

Writing to learn: can reflection journals be used to promote self-reflection and learning?

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate whether there is evidence of reflection in student-written journals and to investigate whether students show improvements in their reflective skills through journal keeping. To that end, the reflection journals of 3460 first-year students enrolled in a polytechnic were studied by means of an automated coding procedure. Data used in the analyses were students' journals for an entire week, collected once at the beginning and again at the end of an academic year. Outcomes of the content analyses suggest that there is evidence of reflection in students' journals and that students reflected on three general categories related to their learning: critical review of past learning experiences, cognitive learning strategies and summaries of what was learnt. Furthermore, the findings also indicate that students show improvements in their reflective skills as they progressed through the academic year. The findings when taken together suggest that reflection journals can be used to promote self-reflection and learning amongst students.     

Computer-aided authoring of assessment instruments: An activity-theoretical approach

Abstract

Various researches have been conducted on the role and importance of assessment in education as well as its impact on the learner and the overall learning process. In fact, the way assessment is formulated in a particular subject shapes the way students learn. They focus their learning to comply with assessment requirements that they anticipate. In this article, the study is focused on the written examination papers (teacher-made tests) that are normally prepared at the end of a semester or an academic year to assess students of secondary and tertiary levels. The study also investigates how well papers are set and balanced according to the cognitive levels defined by Bloom (1956) and the learning outcomes/objectives as defined for the subjects. A collaborative process model as a framework for the design of such tests that can enhance the evaluation process is proposed. A brief argument is made for a case for a computer-supported collaborative environment to implement such a framework and which is based on activity theory. Such a framework is implemented in the form of MYSTIC; a collaborative authoring software for assessment instruments. The software allows stand-alone as well as collaborative authoring of examination papers and also helps academics' decision-making concerning the examination paper balancing and moderating process by graphically displaying and comparing marks allocated per question paper against the learning objectives     

Student learning in higher education: a path analysis of academic achievement in science

Learning outcomes in higher education are of considerable interest to students, teaching staff, researchers, tertiary education institutions and funding authorities. To improve the quality of learning outcomes may require a better understanding of what happens in the learning process from the perspective of the learner. This study makes use of a number of current instruments for the evaluation of student learning to explore aspects of learning outcomes in terms of academic achievement. The students evaluated were either in their first year of study (N=194) or in the third year of their course (N=118). A causal mode of learning outcomes was developed for each group and evaluated using the PLSPATH program to explore the impact of student‐related causative factors. A number of these factors were shown to have a direct effect on student academic achievement, as measured by annual grade point average (GPA), with some consistency across two year‐levels. The most important factor in predicting academic performance for both groups was students' prior academic performance. Approaches to learning and English language skills were also shown to have some predictive value. Students' metacognitive skills and self‐efficacy, though showing strong inter‐relationships with other factors, did not show a direct effect on academic achievement.     

Students' Perceptions of Literacy Assessment

Students' perceptions of literacy assessment processes and practices were investigated in two year long case studies undertaken in two English classrooms in two state high schools in Queensland, Australia. A range of qualitative data techniques was used to collect information related to students' previous experiences of assessment in primary school, students' responses to the first and last literacy assessment task of the school year, and their perceptions of assessment at the end of the year. The study showed that students' attitudes, beliefs, practices and understandings about assessment varied both within and across student groups and differences in students' accounts were evident both at the start and end of the school year. The findings highlight the role that students play in actively constructing knowledge about literacy assessment through their prior and current experiences with assessment tasks, and in their interactions with each other.     

A Longitudinal-Sequential Study of Perceived Academic Competence and Motivational Beliefs for Learning Among Children in Middle School

The extent to which changes in children's self-assessments of their competence to master academic material are influenced by their developing beliefs about the causes of academic outcomes, goal orientation for learning, and study strategy use were examined in a longitudinal-sequential study. Fifth-, sixth-, and seventh-graders who transitioned to the middle level within the same school were asked to complete a self-report questionnaire for three consecutive years. Nearly two-thirds of the children were members of minority groups and slightly more than half were female students. Results showed that ability attributions for successful outcomes, mastery orientation, persistence, and self-monitoring strategy use predicted concurrent perceptions of academic competence for all grade levels. Initial self-perceived competence strongly predicted perceived academic competence one year later. No significant grade-level differences in self-perceptions of academic competence were found. The results were discussed in terms of a developing academic self-image.     

‘What really matters to freshers?’: evaluation of first year student experience of transition into university

Measuring student experience in terms of satisfaction is a national measure used by prospective students when considering their higher education choices. Increasingly league tables are used as a means to rank universities with a limited interrogation of the reality of students’ experiences. This study explored the question ‘What really matters to freshers?’ during their transition into higher education through to completion. Students on an academic undergraduate Early Childhood Studies degree (n = 530) over a five-year period completed a Student Experience Evaluation in their first term and this data was correlated with the National Student Survey data collected about their cohorts in the final term of their degree. During the five year period, a number of interventions were undertaken by the academic staff to develop a learning community, based on the values linked to ‘being, belonging, and becoming’. The results of this study suggest that three things matter to students about their experience, that is, the academic staff they work with, the nature of their academic study and feeling like they belong. A model is proposed which aims to demonstrate the impact of academic staff, studies and the learning community that develops through social and academic experiences at University.     

The role of feedback in e-assessments for engineering education

The aim of this investigation was to compare two differently designed e-assessments (formative assessments) which supported the same engineering courses for two academic years. In this investigation two group of students participated (Control Group: CG and Experimental Group: EG). The teachers followed exactly the same teaching approach using the same learning tools (apart from the e-assessments) in the same learning environment. The first group of students (CG) had the opportunity to timely receive grades along with the correct answers, when they submitted the e-assessments on-line. The teachers themselves designed these e-assessments in BlackBoard Vista© learning environment. The second group of students (EG) had the opportunity to receive feedback each on their own individual responses having unlimited attempts to participate in the e-assessments designed by PhD students. We will demonstrate that the addition of individual feedback and the unlimited attempts increased the EG group performance at the end of the courses (summative assessment) in comparison to the CG group of students.     

Perception of competence: risk and protective predictors following an e‐self‐advocacy intervention for adolescents with learning disabilities

The purpose of this study was to identify predictors of competence among adolescents with learning disabilities (LD) who participated in a virtual supported self‐advocacy programme within the risk and protective paradigm. The sample consisted of 374 adolescents with and without learning disabilities, students of the 7th to 9th grades, at 15 schools across Israel. The adolescents were divided into three groups, matched by age and gender: 111 adolescents with LD who participated in a five‐month virtual‐supported intervention, and two comparison groups: adolescents with LD (N = 115) who did not participate in the program and adolescents without LD (N = 148). The self‐perceptions of adolescents were assessed using the following questionnaires: basic psychological skills (competence and relatedness); hope and loneliness. Following the intervention, higher competence scores were reported by students with LD who participated in the programme. At that time (the end of the academic year), the predictors of the groups of students with LD for the competence measure were their level of competence at the beginning of the period, their belonging to the group who participated in the intervention, their loneliness and hope. Comparisons with predictors of the group of students without LD, and with predictors of competence at the beginning of the year, emphasized the importance of risk factors (loneliness) and the protective factors (hope) for students with LD. In addition, the results focused attention at the contribution of the participation in an e‐supported self advocacy programme for enhancing competence among students with LD.     

“The very ugly duckling” meets Minecraft: identity work and interpretive competence

Picturebook discussions are commonplace literacy events in contemporary classrooms. The different experiences, backgrounds and ways of being that individual students draw upon during talk around texts prompt a broad range of ways to make, negotiate and share meanings. In addition to developing students' literacy skills such as oral language, vocabulary and comprehension, these discussions have been shown to be instrumental in developing students' interpretive competence which is important for achieving learning outcomes. In this article, we report a study that investigated how four diverse groups of 10‐ and 11‐year‐old students and teachers from two schools experienced such reading events. The study found that making sense of these books was more productive when students were given permission to switch identities and make connections to their out‐of‐school cyber and popular culture worlds. Using discourse analytic techniques, we uncover the identity work during a number of discussions around two different picturebooks and show how this enabled these learners to enter the academic space and demonstrate interpretive competence.     

Assessing ‘inexperienced’ students' ability to self‐assess: exploring links with learning style and academic personal control

The study sought to establish the level of students' self‐assessment skill—particularly inexperienced students—and to examine the relationship between self‐assessment skill and learning style, student perceptions of academic locus of control and academic self‐efficacy. Students were asked to evaluate and provide estimated marks for their own work, were which compared with tutors' actual marks. Students also completed measures of learning style, academic locus control and academic self‐efficacy. Comparisons of student estimated and tutor marks indicated a good level of self‐assessment skill in the majority of students. A significant minority of students did however fail to exhibit such skills. There was also some evidence of a tendency for students to underestimate their performance. While both strategic and deep approaches to learning were shown to be positively correlated with tutor mark, only surface approach was negatively correlated with students' estimated mark, suggesting that surface learners are inclined to provide lower evaluations of their own performance. Deep approach was also correlated with accuracy of student self‐assessment skill, suggesting that deep learning is associated with self‐assessment competency. No clear or convincing associations between self‐assessment skill and perceptions of academic locus of control or academic self‐efficacy were identified. Findings suggest that while self‐assessment skill undoubtedly develops, becoming more effective during students' academic career, inexperienced students do have the capacity for self‐evaluation and should therefore be included in self‐assessment activities. In the light of findings related to learning style and the heterogeneous nature of student groups, student monitoring and skill development are proposed in order to allow the integration of self‐assessment into the learning and assessment process.     

Motivational Profile and Academic Achievement Among Students Enrolled in Different Schooling Tracks

From the contextual perspective, researchers argue that the relevance and weight of motivational variables of students' functioning vary depending on different dimensions related to individual, cultural or situational characteristics. The first objective of this study examined this contention by comparing self-perceptions of competence, learning goals and judgments of usefulness of school subjects as motivational determinants of high school students' commitment and achievement according to their assignment to their learning abilities. The second objective was to compare how these variables related to academic commitment and achievement according to the type of student and two school subjects. Two-hundred-and-twenty-six high school students from a same school participated sixty-one were learning disabled students, 60 were high achievers and 105 were average students. Findings suggest that the relevance of the motivational variables did not vary much across either the type of student or the school subjects. They also support Bandura's view about the primary role of self-perceptions of competence in students' academic commitment and achievement.     

The Role of Students’ Personality Characteristics, Self-Perceived Competence and Learning Conceptions in the Acquisition and Development of Social Communicative Competence: A Longitudinal Study

An important purpose of higher social work education is to guide students to acquire and develop social-communicative competencies. The purpose of this study was to investigate the role students’ personality characteristics, self-perceived communicative competence and learning conceptions play in the acquisition and development of social-communicative competencies. We designed and tested a hypothetical model on the student-related variables – self-perceived communicative competence, learning conceptions and reported learning activities regarding communication – in relation to performance scores. We were interested in developmental trends in the above mentioned variables. We also wanted to gain insight into the relationships among the variables. The study was set up according to a longitudinal, within-subjects design in order to study intra-individual changes. One-hundred and twenty-three first-year social-work students participated in this study. Many changes were found in students characteristics, reported deployed learning activities and study results during their first academic year. Except for confidence in “showing sympathy”, which was already relatively high at the beginning of the study, all scores on aspects of students’ self-perceived social-communicative competence increased. Assessment scores on comparable communication tests also increased significantly. Extraversion and emotional stability were the only two personality characteristics, which seemed rather stable. Agreeableness decreased while autonomy increased continuously during the first academic year. It seemed to be possible to set up a model, which may serve as a starting point for further research into the development of social-communicative competence.