如何提高网络环境下形成性评价的反馈质量——北外网院的实践

形成性评价在远程教学中发挥了重要的作用。科学的形成性评价不仅可以帮助学生理清课程学习重点,还可有效地督促学生学习。反馈是形成性评价的重要环节,及时有效的反馈对于远程学习者尤为重要。本文介绍并评估在北京外国语大学网络教育学院(以下简称"北外网院")开展的一项旨在提高形成性评价反馈质量的教学实验。结果表明,实验教师认识到反馈的重要性并能够提供有效反馈。研究提出的基于网络的教师反馈监控机制对于保证和提高远程教学质量的探索将有重要的启示作用。     

Doctoral supervision . . . a view from above,below and the middle!

Doctoral supervision is a complex process, and a critical success factor is the supervisory relationship. The aim of this article is to share experiences of doctoral supervision from three different perspectives, offering a view from above, below and the middle. The author was inspired by the activities associated with a recent conference. It presents reflections from three researchers at different stages of their research careers.

Key themes to emerge were: the problematic transition from being an undergraduate/postgraduate student on a taught programme (a star performer) to a doctoral candidate (novice researcher, and to some extent ‘peer’), with associated issues of developing independence; the potentially problematic aspect of giving and receiving feedback, where genuine constructive critique can often be perceived as being ‘negative’ or ‘positive’ when it could be argued that all feedback is positive in its attempt to improve performance; and the development of relationships from tutor/student to critical friends and beyond, for example into mentoring roles, although again there are issues of (in)dependence.     

Providing formative assessment to students solving multipath engineering problems with complex arrangements of interacting parts: an intelligent tutor approach

Problems faced by engineering students involve multiple pathways to solution. Students rarely receive effective formative feedback on handwritten homework. This paper examines the potential for computer-based formative assessment of student solutions to multipath engineering problems. In particular, an intelligent tutor approach is adopted and tested out on problems of truss analysis, studied in engineering statics. With a cognitive model for solving the class of problems, the tutor allows the student wide latitude in solution steps, while maintaining sufficient constraints for judging the solution and offering feedback. Proper selection of judging points prevents interference with productive student work, while avoiding accumulated errors. To monitor student learning, efforts to apply distinct skills were extracted on the fly from student work. Using statistical methods developed for intelligent tutoring systems, metrics of the effectiveness of the feedback and areas for further improvements were gleaned from error rates in successive opportunities to apply distinct skills.     

Assisting transition to university: using assessment as a formative learning tool

This study explores the effectiveness of an intervention involving formative assessment in a first‐year core business subject. Students were invited to receive feedback on a draft of their first written assessment during the early weeks of the semester. Consideration is given to the economic and ethical issues raised by the intervention. A multi‐method approach of qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis is used. The research finds that the intervention facilitates significantly higher marks in assessments and grades, while assisting student learning overall. Findings are reinforced by comparison with a subject where the intervention was not offered.     

博士生对导师指导满意吗?——基于Nature全球博士生调查

导师是博士生培养的关键。在与高等教育发达国家比较视野下,从博士生体验和评价视角探析当前我国博士生导师对博士生指导现状及相对水平,可为优化研究生导师指导行为提供支持。经选取Nature调查中代表性发达国家对比发现,我国博士生对导师总体满意,但对导师指导分项满意度还有较大提升空间。具体到导师指导行为上,我国博士生对出版发表、合作机会、资金支持的满意度略高于或接近于发达国家,但在导师学术指导频次,给予心理支持和职业发展指导方面与发达国家存在一定差距,尤其是对导师给予其学术指导,提供参加学术会议、会议报告机会等培养支持满意度处于对比8国的较低水平。基于数据分析和讨论,建议导师遴选应加强对导师指导能力和指导质量的考察,高校对导师的岗位要求和岗位评价等应细化导师指导行为,多渠道为博士生开展同行学术交流创造条件。     

美国博士生培养质量影响因素的实证研究——基于美国ARDP调查数据的分析

本研究基于美国基于调研评估‘研究-博士’项目(ARDP)调查中关于美国研究型大学与博士生培养质量相关的调查数据,对美国研究型大学博士生培养现状以及培养质量的影响因素进行了分析,研究结论是,美国研究型大学博士生源优秀,具有多样性和国际化程度高的特点;博士生完成学业年限较长且具有学科差异性;博士筛选及选拔机制严格,淘汰率高;博士生导师科研能力突出,学术能力和科研项目是选拔;博士生培养规模一般都比较小;博士生资助面广,资助力度较大。     

Investigating university tutor perceptions of assessment feedback: three types of tutor beliefs

Feedback is a key element in effective teaching and learning. The issue of how teachers perceive the role of feedback will impact significantly their feedback approaches, the amount of the detail of their feedback and the time and effort expended on the feedback provision. This research was designed with the purpose of exploring how a group of over 50 tutors who were supporting an online university English course perceived, understood and interpreted the processes of assignment feedback. A factor analysis study based on questionnaire data revealed three sets of tutor beliefs towards assessment and tutor feedback: traditional–autonomous–global (TAG), student‐centred (SC) and traditional‐local (TL). Follow‐up in‐depth interviews were conducted with tutors. The TAG tutors saw scores as the most important feedback to students, but doubted the value of detailed feedback. SC tutors maintained that good tutor feedback should offer more than mere scores, and that students needed feedback in order to improve. TL tutors tended to underline all the errors and provide detailed feedback. They were negative towards the idea of their feedback being monitored. The authors identified some differing and converging tutor perceptions on assessment feedback, the understanding of which could arguably play an important role in introducing changes in tutor feedback culture.     

Tutor feedback on draft essays: developing students’ academic writing and subject knowledge

Providing feedback on draft essays is an accepted means of enacting a social-constructivist approach to assessment, aligning with current views on the value of formative feedback and assessment for learning (AFL). However, the use of this process as a means of improving not only content but also students' academic writing skills has not been widely studied, despite a widespread perception that there is scope for intervention at university level. This article explores the developmental potential of a drafting/tutor feedback/redrafting process on a first-year undergraduate course for trainee English language teachers at a UK university. The aims of this small-scale, largely qualitative study were to ascertain students' perceptions of the process and to determine the extent to which the process could contribute to the development of students' academic writing. Data are derived from first and second draft essay marks and questionnaires administered to 32 students. Findings suggest that feedback on drafts is acted on and can contribute to improved work when it is timely and detailed and when it raises students' metacognitive awareness, as was the case in this project. Also noteworthy, however, are the students' perceptions that redrafting is cognitively challenging and time-consuming. Comments from a less academically confident student with regard to the quantity of feedback and its detrimental impact are of particular concern. Questions are raised regarding the use of tutor reformulation, the sustainability of AFL and the provision of feedback to – and its interpretation by – weaker students. Finally, some key indicators for improved future practice are presented.     

Learning communities and fair trade in doctorates and development: report of a collaborative project

This article reports the second stage of a study examining an academic partnership in which Bangladeshi doctoral students in a western university focus their research in the grounded context of Bangladesh and investigate the processes for change. After briefly outlining the previous published stage which examined the academic trade in higher education with developing countries, the article builds on the concept of fair academic trade to critically reflect on the development of a doctoral learning community, a publication project and three specific doctoral studies. The methodological approach is one of participatory action research, with focus on critical reflection on practice.     

Students’ Interpretation of Formative Assessment Feedback: Three Claims for Why We Know So Little About Something So Important

If K‐12 students are to be fully integrated as active participants in their own learning, understanding how they interpret formative assessment feedback is needed. The objective of this article is to advance three claims about why teachers and assessment scholars/specialists may have little understanding of students’ interpretation of formative assessment feedback. The three claims are as follows. First, there is little systematic research of K‐12 students’ interpretations of feedback. Systematic research requires gathering substantive evidence of students’ cognitive and emotional processes using psychological methods and tools. Second, there is an overemphasis on the external assessment process at the expense of uncovering learners’ internal reasoning and emotional processes. This overemphasis may be due to vestiges of behavioral approaches and lack of training in social cognitive methods. Third, there are psychological tools such as the clinical interview, pioneered by Piaget and used by psychologists to “enter the child's mind,” which may be helpful in uncovering students’ interpretation of feedback and associated behavioral responses. If the purpose of formative assessment is to change student learning, and feedback is delivered as a conduit to help with this long‐term change, understanding students’ interpretation of feedback plays a central role in the validity of the process.     

Comparing student learning experiences of in-text commentary and rubric-articulated feedback: strategies for formative assessment

This study compares students’ experiences of two types of criteria-based assessment: in-text commentary and rubric-articulated feedback, in an assessment design combining the two feedback channels. The main aim is to use students’ responses to shed light on how feedback strategies for formative assessment can be optimised. Following action research methodology, the study discusses key categories of student responses from three sources: reflective texts, a questionnaire, and interviews. Results show that different functions were attributed to the two feedback channels: in-text commentary to lower-order concerns related to language proficiency, and rubric-articulated feedback to higher-order concerns related to an overview of writing achievement. We argue that the different functions have the potential of creating a sufficiently balanced assessment design with the possibility of serving both short-term and continuous learning goals. On the other hand, some students found it difficult to navigate between the two feedback channels. The article therefore ends with a ‘lessons learned’ section where we list possible ways in which the current assessment design can be improved for optimal use of the synergy effects emanating from a combination of in-text commentary and rubric-articulated feedback for formative purposes.     

Re‐imagining doctoral education: Professional Doctorates and beyond

Portents of the demise of the Professional Doctorate have emerged in some recent policy and institutional circles in Australia, raising questions about the meaning and relevance of the Professional Doctorate in an era of ‘league tables’ and research assessment in Australia. This article argues that such portents, based largely on narrow market‐driven arguments, are premature, reactive and unhelpful, in that they foreclose on a set of critical questions concerning the future purpose, scope and practice of doctoral education. The article argues that the simple re‐assertion of the PhD as the default award represents a restoration of the logics and imperatives of disciplinarity and of older notions of so‐called ‘real’ research. Further, questions of the changing economies of knowledge and practice within, between and beyond the reach of the university, are subordinated and disavowed. The article presents a re‐reading of the emergence of Professional Doctorates, from the perspective of a decade‐and‐a‐half of development and change. It suggests the need to revisit that history critically in the light of the current developments in doctoral education, in knowledge production and in developing different relations around knowledge between universities and different social and professional domains. Such revisitings can bring out emerging issues for doctoral education at a time when anxieties may inhibit taking up opportunities for innovation and linking with new kinds of knowledge production that go beyond Euro‐centric and university‐centric traditions.     

Positive and negative experiences related to doctoral study conditions

ABSTRACT

During their doctoral studies, students undergo an emotionally and intellectually intensive process involving a wide range of positive and negative experiences. This article analyses PhD students’ perceptions of the most positive and negative experiences related to doctoral study conditions. Previous researchers have primarily focused on analysing experiences that negatively affect doctoral work and have related these experiences to institutional, social and individual variables. However, little is known regarding positive experiences and how both positive and negative experiences are interpreted and related to variables connected with doctoral study, such as discipline, funding, enrolment type, and the stage of the doctoral process. In total, 1173 doctoral students from 56 Spanish universities completed an open-ended online survey. The findings indicate that opportunities for PhD students to communicate their scientific advances, receive expert feedback and interact with other researchers have a high positive influence on their doctoral journey. However, funding difficulties, particularly for students in the social sciences, and relationships with the research community, principally with the supervisor, were perceived as the main negative challenges. Experiences related to research design, data collection and analysis were perceived either negatively – primarily for mid-level students – or positively. These results should be considered in future doctoral programme policies to determine when, how and why to provide specific support during the doctoral process.     

"纵横双向"网格化博士生培养质量保障体系探究与实施——以天津大学药物科学与技术学院为例

天津大学药学院积极响应学校作为教育部博士生教育综合改革试点历史性要求,建立"纵向+横向"系统网格化质量保障体系.学生入校始,即"纵向"为每位博士生建立个人培养学术档案,将入学至毕业的各个环节进行跟踪;此外"横向"将所有博士生培养过程进行汇总,掌握整体情况,同时也可将某位博士生的进展情况在院内进行较为精准的定位,以确定继续扶持以取得更好的成绩,或者启动预警机制.该方法既实现了博士生培养过程的个性化管理,又能帮助导师和学院及时掌握每位学生的学业动态,为院级单位博士生培养质量管理提供有力支持.     

Personal Backgrounds of Effective Teaching

Planning time for giving students effective feedback is an important and challenging aspect of the teaching and learning process. In our article we describe and analyze how we engage students as partners in providing formative feedback in time for students to modify their own thinking or behavior to improve learning. We have found ways to provide formative feedback more frequently and to involve students in providing effective formative feedback to each other. The four techniques we describe are the following: a) three-color group quiz with feedback on product, process, and progress; b) midterm student conferencing; c) shared revision of student generated questions and statements; and d) timely feedback using collaborative assignment blogs. These techniques give feedback in time for revisions to occur, provide scaffolding for learners, inform instruction, and most importantly, involve students as partners in assessment. These pedagogical strategies show that the resulting benefits of improved instruction, enhanced student learning, and better student products are worth the time and effort and contribute to a productive classroom climate where the focus is on learning more than on grading. Formative feedback involving students as partners is a key strategy to enhance the teaching and learning process.     

Changing the marks-based culture of learning through peer-assisted tutorials

We describe and evaluate an approach to student learning that aims to instil a culture of formative assessment based on peer-assisted learning. The idea is for suitably qualified undergraduates to assist in the running of weekly first-year tutorials. They mark submitted work, provide written and verbal feedback and lead problem-solving discussions during tutorials. However, contrary to normal practice, the marks they award do not contribute to the students’ end-of-year total; all tutorial work becomes essentially voluntary. We report results from a pilot implementation of the scheme over a 12 month period in an engineering department at a leading academic institution. The scheme was such that a comparative and triangulated assessment was possible among the students and tutor team. Results show no discernible degradation in student attendance, submission rates and performance in either the weekly exercises or end-of-year examinations. Important benefits to the peer tutors are also found.     

‘Straitjacket’ or ‘springboard for sustainable learning’? The implications of formative assessment practices in vocational learning cultures

In contrast to theoretical and empirical insights from research into formative assessment in compulsory schooling, understanding the relationship between formative assessment, motivation and learning in vocational education has been a topic neglected by researchers. The Improving Formative Assessment project (IFA) addresses this gap, using a sociocultural approach to explore the relationship between formative assessment practices and ‘learning cultures’ in vocational education. This article explores the influence of learning cultures in vocational education on the practice of formative assessment and evaluates critically two closely related questions. Why do some learning cultures foster formative assessment that leads to instrumental learning while others develop deeper forms of learning? When is formative assessment a springboard for sustainable learning, and when does it remain an instrumental straitjacket?     

“双一流”背景下地方农业院校博士生创新能力培养探析

从研究生创新能力内涵入手,分析在"双一流"背景下,影响地方农业院校博士研究生创新能力培养的因素,总结和探讨地方农业院校博士研究生创新能力培养的方法,如改革招生制度,组建高水平导师队伍,优化培养方案,重视校园文化建设,优化学科布局等。     

BEYOND BUILDING BETTER CHECKLISTS: STAFF DEVELOPMENT IN A SCHOOL EXPERIENCE PROGRAMME

The article reviews the aims of the School Experience of a new B.Ed, primary degree, based on Zeichner's notion of the ‘reflective teacher’. Having established the aims, the authors then examine the implications this has for finding forms of assessment which are commensurate with the process‐orientated, formative, self‐critical nature of the degree.

The issues raised, in this article, relate to the needs of tutors in developing new roles and relationships between tutor and student, tutor and class teacher, and tutor and tutor. The resulting staff development programme — designed to support the emerging ‘reflective tutor’ — is discussed.     

‘Tough love and tears’: learning doctoral writing in the sciences

Contemporary changes to the doctorate mean student researchers are likely to be expected to write differently, write more and more often, and yet, despite a growing interest in doctoral education, we still know relatively little about the teaching and learning practices of students and supervisors vis-a-vis doctoral writing. This paper draws from a research study into the writing experiences of higher degree students and their supervisors in one science, health and technology-based university Faculty. The study used surveys, interviews and focus groups to collect information from students and supervisors about their experiences of doctoral writing and their perceptions about its development. By attending to the writing-related pedagogical practices of supervisors, this article explores how doctoral writing can be the stage for the playing out of tensions over changing roles and identities aggravated by contemporary pressures on doctoral education.