Group in‐course assessment promotes cooperative learning and increases performance

The authors describe and evaluate a method to motivate medical students to maximize the effectiveness of dissection opportunities by using In‐Course‐Assessments (ICAs) to encourage teamwork. A student's final mark was derived by combining the group dissection mark, group mark for questions, and their individual question mark. An analysis of the impact of the ICA was performed by comparing end of module practical summative marks in student cohorts who had, or had not, participated in the ICAs. Summative marks were compared by two‐way ANOVA followed by Dunnets test, or by repeated measures ANOVA, as appropriate. A cohort of medical students was selected that had experienced both practical classes without (year one) and with the new ICA structure (year two). Comparison of summative year one and year two marks illustrated an increased improvement in year two performance in this cohort. A significant increase was also noted when comparing this cohort with five preceding year two cohorts who had not experienced the ICAs (P <0.0001). To ensure that variation in the practical summative examination was not impacting on the data, a comparison was made between three cohorts who had performed the same summative examination. Results show that students who had undertook weekly ICAs showed significantly improved summative marks, compared with those who did not (P <0.0001). This approach to ICA promotes engagement with learning resources in an active, team‐based, cooperative learning environment. Anat Sci Educ 7: 224–233. © 2013 American Association of Anatomists.     

案例讨论法在开放教育护理伦理学教学中的应用

选择安徽电大开放教育2013秋季学期护理学本科专业A班26人为对照班,在护理伦理学教学中采用讲授和案例分析为主的传统教学方法;2013秋季学期B班29人为实验班,采用案例讨论法进行教学。采用形成性考核、期末终结性考核、问卷调查等方法对教学效果进行评价。结果显示,实验班学生面授课到课率较对照班高34.1％;实验班学生的形成性考核作业案例分析成绩和期末终结性考核案例分析成绩显著高于对照班（P ＜0.01）;绝大多数学生认为案例讨论教学法能提升学习主动性、自主学习能力、学习态度、课堂学习效率、沟通能力、语言表达能力、参与意识、对护理伦理问题的敏感性以及分析和解决问题的能力;学习效果满意度达84.0％。     

Curriculum‐based Continuous Assessment: a framework for concepts,procedures and policy

To many persons used to the ‘once and for all’ nature of leaving examinations for certification and selection of students, the concepts associated with continuous assessment (CA) are confusing. To some, CA is a summative ‘mark’ to be passed forward to certify or select a student. To others, CA is the physical pages in exercise books which students complete. To yet others, CA is diagnosis and formative evaluation of student learning. This paper presents a conceptual framework for organising and relating the many confusing concepts associated with continuous assessment practices. Curriculum‐based continuous assessment is shown to have two major components: formative and summative continuous assessment of student learning. The nature of these components and their interrelationships are discussed. The paper discusses using continuous assessment results for official summative evaluation purposes such as reporting to parents and incorporating continuous assessment grades into leaving and certification decisions. Among the issues discussed are: (a) weighting of CA marks; (b) record‐keeping and reporting of CA results; (c) in‐service and pre‐service teacher training in CA; and (d) building school‐to‐school comparability and credibility into the CA process.     

Impact and educational outcomes of a small group self‐directed teaching strategy in a clinical neuroscience curriculum

The complexity of the material being taught in clinical neuroscience within the medical school curriculum requires creative pedagogies to teach medical students effectively. Many clinical teaching strategies have been developed and are well described to address these challenges. However, only a few have been evaluated to determine their impact on the performance of students studying clinical neuroscience. Interactive, 2‐hour, self‐directed small‐group interactive clinical case‐based learning sessions were conducted weekly for 4 weeks to integrate concepts learned in the corresponding didactic lectures. Students in the small groups analyzed cases of patients suffering from neurological disease that were based on eight learning objectives that allowed them to evaluate neuroanatomical data and clinical findings before presenting their case analysis to the larger group. Students’ performances on the formative quizzes and summative tests were compared to those of first‐year medical students in the previous year for whom the self‐directed, small‐group interactive clinical sessions were not available. There was a significant improvement in the summative performance of first‐year medical students with self‐directed clinical case learning in the second year (Y2) of teaching clinical neuroscience (P < 0.05) when compared with first‐year students in the first year (Y1) for whom the self‐directed learning approach was not available. Student performance in the formative assessments between Y1 and Y2 was not significantly different (P = 0.803). A target of ≥70% student scoring above 80% in the final summative examination was met. The current study revealed evidence for the impact and educational outcomes of a self‐directed, clinical teaching strategy in a clinical neuroscience curriculum for first‐year medical students. Anat Sci Educ 11: 478–487. © 2017 American Association of Anatomists.     

Prior degree and student assessment performance: how can evidence guide decisions on assessment policy?

This study aimed to provide evidence to guide decisions on the type and timing of assessments in a graduate medical programme, by identifying whether students from particular degree backgrounds face greater difficulty in satisfying the current assessment requirements. We examined the performance rank of students in three types of assessments and also calculated the relative risk of failure in the summative assessments for four cohorts over all four years of a four‐year graduate medical programme. Our findings suggest that early summative assessment may disadvantage the very students who create the diversity that the faculty values, particularly if methods such as Single Best Answer questions are used, unless students are provided with additional support in bridging their knowledge gap. Use of assessment methods such as Modified Essay Questions and Objective Structured Clinical Examinations appears to be more justifiable on educational grounds.     

Teachers’ Perceptions of Appraiser–Appraisee Relationships

Teacher appraisal procedures may lead to formative (teacher development and improvement of teaching) and summative (managerial decision) outcomes. Elementary school teachers in Hong Kong (N=527) responded to survey items on formative outcomes, summative outcomes, perceived purposes of appraisal, overall effectiveness of appraisal, and summative purposes such as promotion and dismissal of staff. Principal components analysis and confirmatory factor analysis yielded the two a priori outcome factors, each of which was significantly correlated with perceived overall effectiveness of appraisal. Analysis of variance found that senior teachers appraised by the school principal (SP) perceived that appraisal had formative purposes and this perception was stronger than for those teachers appraised by senior staff (TS). Teachers in the TS group did not perceive the importance of the promotion purpose as did the other groups. Teachers appraised by the principal (TP) perceived that appraisal had dismissal purposes whereas teachers in the TS group did not. Although the three groups did not differ in their perceptions of formative outcomes, summative outcomes, or overall effectiveness of teacher appraisal, the appraiser-appraisee combination did make a significant difference in teacher perceptions of the purposes and appropriateness of the appraisal.     

Instructor perspectives of multiple-choice questions in summative assessment for novice programmers

Learning to program is known to be difficult for novices. High attrition and high failure rates in foundation-level programming courses undertaken at tertiary level in Computer Science programs, are commonly reported. A common approach to evaluating novice programming ability is through a combination of formative and summative assessments, with the latter typically represented by a final examination. Preparation of such assessment is driven by instructor perceptions of student learning of programming concepts. This in turn may yield instructor perspectives of summative assessment that do not necessarily correlate with student expectations or abilities. In this article, we present results of our study around instructor perspectives of summative assessment for novice programmers. Both quantitative and qualitative data have been obtained via survey responses from programming instructors with varying teaching experience, and from novice student responses to targeted examination questions. Our findings highlight that most of the instructors believed that summative assessment is, and is meant to be, a valid measure of a student's ability to program. Most instructors further believed that Multiple-choice Questions (MCQs) provide a means of testing a low level of understanding, and a few added qualitative comments to suggest that MCQs are easy questions, and others refused to use them at all. There was no agreement around the proposition that if a question was designed to test a low level of skill, or a low level in a hierarchy of a body of knowledge, that such a question should or would be found to be easy by the student. To aid our analysis of assessment questions, we introduced four measures: Syntax Knowledge; Semantic Knowledge; Problem Solving Skill and the Level of Difficulty of the Problem. We applied these measures to selected examination questions, and have identified gaps between the instructor perspectives of what is considered to be an easy question and also in what is required to be assessed to determine whether students have achieved the goals of their course.     

Assessing context‐based learning: not only rigorous but also relevant

Economic factors are driving significant change in higher education. There is increasing responsiveness to market demand for vocational courses and a growing appreciation of the importance of procedural (tacit) knowledge to service the needs of the Knowledge Economy; the skills in demand are information analysis, collaborative working and ‘just‐in‐time learning’. New pedagogical methods go some way to accommodate these skills, situating learning in context and employing information and communications technology to present realistic simulations and facilitate collaborative exchange. However, what have so far proved resistant to change are the practices of assessment. This paper endorses the case for a scholarship of assessment and proposes the development of technology‐supported tools and techniques to assess context‐based learning. It also recommends a fundamental rethink of the norm‐referenced and summative assessment of propositional knowledge as the principal criterion for student success in universities.     

“Evaluation gone Awry”: The teacher experience of the summative evaluation of a school reform initiative

Written as four scenes that span a five-year period, this article examines the summative evaluation of an organized school reform programme in the United States from the teacher perspective. The study provides fine-grained details of how the evaluation of the particular reform effort went “awry” in the view of some teachers who directly participated. The inclusion of two teacher narratives particularly demonstrates how practitioners' intents and desires became overtaken by evaluators' stances and theoretical frames. The international value of the research is that it discusses problems of summative evaluators entering longitudinal reform endeavors too late in the change process, difficulties relating to non-participant observation, issues associated with not negotiating final evaluation reports, and failure of evaluation studies to enter into human subjects agreements with teachers. Lastly, the lack of congruence between formative planning and evaluation and summative evaluation constitutes an overarching theme.     

Development and evaluation of computer‐assisted assessment in higher education in relation to BS7988

A university‐wide project team of academic and administrative staff worked together to prepare, deliver and evaluate a number of diagnostic, formative and summative computer‐based assessments. The team also attempted to assess the University of Southampton's readiness to deliver computer‐assisted assessment (CAA) within the Code of practice for the use of information technology in the delivery of assessments (British Standards Institution, 2002 British Standards Institution (BSI). 2002. BS7988: 200—code of practice for the use of information technology in the delivery of assessments, London: British Standards Institution.  [Google Scholar]). Evaluation data was used formatively to improve procedures during the project and summatively in preparing the project's final report, this publication and future support for CAA at Southampton. Some of the problems encountered during this pilot programme were anticipated, both by the project team and by BS7988; but they were not necessarily or entirely avoidable given the nature of control and management in an academic environment. Our approach was to encourage institutional learning via extensive dissemination and discussion of the results. To contribute to the public debate on the adoption of BS7988, we highlight difficulties in allocating responsibility for various aspects of the assessment process and make a number of recommendations about this and other practical issues.     

Using email for formative assessment with professional doctorate students

This article reports on aspects of a recent research and development project in doctoral education. It focuses on the use of email for tutor’s formative assessment within the early stages of a Professional Doctorate in Education (EdD) in an English university. Its case study methodology included participant observation of the programme workshops, critical discourse analysis of the email texts, and two series of in‐depth, semi‐structured student interviews. The tutor whose feedback was analysed had previously researched and theorised formative assessment, so the research allowed his previous theoretical insights to be explored and developed in an early doctoral context. The article concludes by discussing the problematic power of feedback at this level, given the culturally constructed associations of feedback with summative assessment, and implications for supervisory practice.     

Student perceptions of continuous summative assessment

This paper reports the effect of continuous summative assessment on the behaviour and learning environment of students. Assessing the performance of students is considered to be the most important thing a teacher can do for their students and it can have a profound effect on their learning. Continuous summative assessment was introduced as a form of assessment on a module within an undergraduate degree at a UK university. Student perceptions of the process were sought via a questionnaire and interviews. The paper describes the effect the assessment had on student motivation, their approach to learning and the change to their learning environment. The conclusion reached is that while continuous summative assessment may be time‐consuming to administer, the rewards of an enhanced learning environment for students outweigh the additional burden on staff. The results should be of interest to those academics who are concerned with assessment and its impact on behaviour.     

‘Formative good,summative bad?’ – A review of the dichotomy in assessment literature

The debate between summative and formative assessment is creating a situation that increasingly calls to mind the famous slogan in George Orwell’s (1945) Animal Farm – ‘Four legs good, two legs bad’. Formative assessment is increasingly being portrayed in the literature as ‘good’ assessment, which tutors should strive towards, whereas summative assessment is ‘bad’ assessment on which tutors should minimise their focus, instead moving towards formative assessment (Taras 2005). By revisiting the origins of formative assessment, this article aims to bring back to light that summative and formative assessment are connected at their inception. It highlights how research in the literature has unintentionally created a harmful dichotomy between summative and formative assessment, and it identifies some attempts in the literature to re-connect formative and summative assessment. This paper challenges the dichotomy in the literature and invites those in higher education to consider the fundamental idea that formative and summative assessment need to work in harmony and should not be seen as contrary to each other.     

Effects of different evaluative feedback on students’ self-efficacy in learning

Two studies examined the effects of four types of teachers’ evaluative feedback on Chinese students’ self-efficacy in English vocabulary acquisition. In Study 1, a random sample of Grade 8 students (N = 79) learned prefixes and received either formative or summative feedback after failure in test. The results showed that students who received summative feedback showed a larger decrease in their self-efficacy than those who received formative feedback. In Study 2, a random sample of Grade 7 students (N = 77) went through similar procedures as in Study 1 except that students received either self-referenced or norm-referenced feedback. The results showed that self-referenced feedback was more beneficial to students’ self-efficacy than norm-referenced feedback. The influences of teachers’ evaluation and feedback on students’ self-efficacy are discussed.     

Summative and Formative Style Anatomy Practical Examinations: Do They Have Impact on Students’ Performance and Drive for Learning?

Anatomical knowledge is commonly assessed by practical examinations that are often administered in summative format. The format of anatomy practical examination was changed at the Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine in Singapore from summative (graded; must pass) to formative (ungraded; no pass/fail) in academic year (AY) 2017–2018. Both assessment formats were undertaken online, but the formative mode used a team-based learning activity comprising individual and team assessments. This gave an unique opportunity to investigate: (1) the impact of two different online assessment formats on student performance in practical examination; (2) the impact of new formative practical examination on students’ performance in summative examinations; and (3) students’ opinions of these two practical examination formats. The class of 2021 perceptions was obtained as they experienced both formats. A retrospective cohort study was also conducted to analyze the Year 2 students’ performance in anatomy practical and year-end summative examinations of cohorts AY 2015–2016, AY 2016–2017 (summative format), and AY 2017–2018 (formative format). There were no significant differences in students’ performance between two practical examination formats. The cohort who experienced the formative format, performed significantly better in summative examinations (mean ± SD: 82.32 ± 10.22%) compared with the cohort who experienced the summative format (73.77 ± 11.09%) (P < 0.001). Students highlighted positive features of the formative practical examination, including team reinforcement of learning, instant feedback, and enhanced learning. These findings indicate that students continue to study for anatomy practical examination without the need for external drivers. The team-based learning style practical examination enhances students’ performance in summative examinations.     

Study of clinical features of amyloid angiopathy hemorrhage and hypertensive intracerebral hemorrhage

Objective: The purpose of this study was to differentiate between cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) and hypertension (HTN) based on hemorrhage pattern interpretation. Methods: From June 1994 to Oct., 2000, 83 patients admitted to our service with acute intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) were investigated retrospectively; 41 patients with histologically proven diagnosis of cerebral amyloid angiography and 42 patients with clear history of hypertension were investigated. Results: Patients with a CAA-related ICH were significantly older than patients with a HTN-related ICH (74.0years vs 66.5 years, P＜0.05). There was a significantly higher number ofhematomas≥30 ml in CAA (85.3%) when compared with HTN (59.5%). No basal ganglional hemorrhage was seen in CAA, but in 40.5% in HTN. In CAA-related ICH, subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) was seen in 26 patients (63.4%) compared to only 11 patients (26.2%) in HTN-related ICH.Intraventricular hemorrhage was seen in 24.4% in CAA, and in 26.2% in HTN. Typical features of CAA-related ICH included lobar distribution affecting mainly the lobar superficial areas, lobulated appearance, rupture into the subarachnoid space, and secondary IVH from the lobar hemorrhage. More specifically, multiplicity of hemorrhage, bilaterality, and repeated episodes also strongly suggest the diagnosis of CAA. Multiple hemorrhages, defined as 2 or more separate hematomas in multiple lobes, accounted for 17.1% in CAA-related ICH. Conclusion: There are certain features in CAA on CT and MRI and in clinical settings. To some extent, these features may contribute to distinguishing CAA from HTN related ICH.     

Utilizing Summative Evaluation Through External Peer Review of Teaching

This article examines the dichotomy between summative and formative evaluation of teaching and suggests a new model for reviewing teaching that utilizes colleagues from other campuses (external review) as a means of summative evaluation. Traditionally student evaluations and on-campus peer-based review of teaching (internal review) discourage innovations in teaching assessments because they are used for summative purposes. Based on research conducted as a part of the AAHE Peer Review of Teaching National Project, this article argues that summative evaluation of teaching should be based on external review leaving internal review primarily for formative purposes.Jere W. Morehead: Jere W. Morehead received his Juris Doctorate from the University of Georgia     

Using summative and formative assessments to evaluate EFL teachers’ teaching performance

Using classroom observations (formative) and student course experience survey results (summative) to evaluate English lecturers’ teaching performances is not new in practice, but surprisingly only a few studies have investigated this issue in a higher education context. This study was conducted in an English department of a large university in Vietnam. The data include: (1) semi-structured interviews with all the full-time lecturers, (2) two department heads and (3) course experience surveys from English as a foreign language (EFL) students (N?=?2886). Three lessons can be learned: (1) formative assessments do not seem to have an effect on promoting better teaching practices when their feedback is not helpful in improving high-stakes summative assessment results, (2) without sharing a common definition of good teaching practices among assessors, summative assessments appear to make the feedback from formative assessments less meaningful and applicable, and (3) as a result, the combination of formative and summative assessments tends to make EFL lecturers’ self-assessment practices less effective.     

“I Forgot I Wasn’t Saving the World”: the Use of Formative and Summative Assessment in Instructional Video Games for Undergraduate Biology

This study examined the role of formative and summative assessment in instructional video games on student learning and engagement. A 2 (formative feedback: present vs absent) × 2 (summative feedback: present vs absent) factorial design with an offset control (recorded lecture) was conducted to explore the impacts of assessment in video games. A total of 172 undergraduates were randomly assigned to one of four instructional video game conditions or the control. Results found that knowledge significantly increased from the pretest for players in all game conditions. Participants in summative assessment conditions learned more than players without summative assessment. In terms of engagement outcomes, formative assessment conditions did not significantly produce better learning engagement outcomes than conditions without formative assessment. However, summative assessment conditions were associated with higher temporal disassociation than non-summative conditions. Implications for future instructional video game development and testing are discussed in the paper.