THE USE OF LEARNING PROFILES IN ASSESSMENT AND IN THE EVALUATION OF TEACHING

This paper reports how individual students respond to a nine‐week course in plant anatomy using two teaching techniques: self‐instruction and group interaction.

Students vary widely in their responses to teaching by these techniques. Over the four years of the study (1975–78) four major patterns of response have emerged. These are described as learning profiles. The profiles are composed from curves depicting the attainment of individual students, measured in seven weekly assessment tests given during group sessions. The assessment tests measured performance in four capacities, based on Bloom's criteria, viz. recall of knowledge, comprehension, application and short‐chain problem solving. Learning curves for each of these four capacities were obtained for each individual student. Other variables, e.g. general ability, age, sex, anxiety, motivation, time spent etc. were also determined for each student.

The purpose of the course is to train students to solve problems in plant anatomy. Although strategies for solving long‐chain problems were not practised in groups, the component skills used in their solution were practised in the weekly test items.

From the profile types — i.e. the patterns of individual response to the teaching ‐ it was possible to make some prediction about performance in the final examination, although this examination was predominantly one to test capacity to solve long‐chain, multi‐step problems.