Assessment to support learning

Assessment format and students expectation about how they will be assessed may guide students towards fruitful approaches to learning, steering them towards activities supporting the learning that we hope for them to achieve. This means that the opposite is also true: Assessment format and expectation about assessment may steer students towards less fruitful approaches to learning (Biggs & Tang 2011).

Formative and Summative assessment and the importance of Feedback

Assessment aimed at providing students and teachers with valuable information during the course of their learning, with the aim to enhance learning, motivation and teaching, is labelled formative assessment (Black & Wiliam 1998). Assessment aimed to evaluate whether students have learned what they were supposed to learn, is labelled summative assessment. While important to distinguish between the two, aligning them is essential.

A key element in formative assessment is providing feedback. Feedback potentially has a strong and lasting influence on students' learning and achievement (Hattie & Timperley 2007). Feedback should help students identify weaknesses and strenghts about their work, and identify areas for improvement. One major finding in feedback research, is that for feedback to be effective, students have to use the feedback to enhance their work. A central element in feedback processes is thus the role of the students a proactively seeking, making sense of and using comments on their performance or learning to enhance their learning (Winstone; Carless 2019).

However, guidance is needed to take such role. And there are several barriers for students to use feedback (i.e Jonsson 2013; Steen-Utheim & Hopfenbeck 2019; Winstone, Nash, Parker and Rowntree 2017). Sharing responsibilities in the feedback processes and developing student feedback literacy may serve to overcomes such barriers.

In this video, students reflect on how exams sometimes hinder good learning, and how exams may support learning. Take a look at the assessment format i your course and consider wether you think it is supportive of, or hindering, good learning.

^{Made by LINK – Centre for Learning, Innovation & Academic Development}

Reflection:

What is fruitful approaches to learning in your course?
And what kind of of assessment could guide your students towards such activities?
What kind of assessment and feedback could support them in their learning process?

SOURCES

Biggs, J., & Tang, C. (2011). Teaching for Quality Learning at University (4th ed.). Society for Research into Higher Education & Open University Press.

Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (1998). Assessment and classroom learning. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 5(1), 7-74. Retrieved 27.04.23 from https://doi.org/10.1080/0969595980050102

Carless, D., & Boud, D. (2018). The development of student feedback literacy: enabling uptake of feedback. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 43(8), 1315-1325. Retrieved 27.04.23 from https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2018.1463354

Hattie, J., & Timperley, H. (2007). The power of feedback. Review of Educational Research, 77(1), 81-112. Retrieved 27.04.23 from https://doi.org/10.3102/003465430298487

Jonsson, A. (2013). Facilitating productive use of feedback in higher education. Active Learning in Higher Education, 14(1), 63-76. Retrieved 27.04.23 from https://doi.org/10.1177/1469787412467125

Steen-Utheim, A., & Hopfenbeck, T. N. (2019). To do or not to do with feedback. A study of undergraduate students’ engagement and use of feedback within a portfolio assessment design. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 44(1), 80-96. Retrieved 27.04.23 from https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2018.1476669

Winstone, N., & Carless, D. (2019). Designing effective feedback processes in higher education: A learning-focused approach. Routledge.

Winstone, N. E., Nash, R. A., Parker, M., & Rowntree, J. (2017). Supporting learners' agentic engagement with feedback: A systematic review and a taxonomy of recipience processes. Educational Psychologist, 52(1), 17-37. Retrieved 27.04.23 from https://doi.org/10.1080/00461520.2016.1207538