Assessment and Feedback Essay

Assessment drives the picks pupils make about their acquisition. It is widely recognised that appraisal and feedback contain the strongest possible to alter how. and what. pupils do to win in their acquisition ( Ramsden. 2003 ) . This Effective Teaching Guide on Assessment provides practical suggestions on appraisal and feedback.

Appraisal of Learning and Assessment for Learning David Boud. a recognized research worker and bookman of appraisal in higher instruction. suggests that appraisal has many intents. but peculiarly to assist pupils to better their acquisition and attest students’ larning. These two intents lead to different ways of believing about what. how. and when to measure pupils:

|Assessment OF Learning |Assessment FOR Learning | |Focused on acquisition that has already happened ; |Focused on larning for the hereafter ; | |Making a opinion about concluding public presentation ; |Goal is to supply utile information to pupils about how to larn | |Designed to know apart between students’ accomplishment and public presentation ; |more efficaciously ; | |

Focused on classs. preciseness and measuring ; |Helps pupils to place what they do and don’t know – focal point is on | |Concerned that undertakings are dependable and valid ; |improvement ; and. | |Testing normally takes topographic point under ‘standardised’ conditions ; and. |Develops students’ opinions about the quality of their work – and how | |Grade contributes to concluding enfranchisement. |to improve. |

Harmonizing to Boud and Associate’s Seven Propositions for Assessment Reform in Higher Education ( 2010 ) . appraisal has most consequence when: 1. Appraisal is used to prosecute pupils in larning that is productive ( including the demand for appraisal to be designed to concentrate pupils on larning ) ; 2. Feedback is used to actively better pupil acquisition ; 3. Students and instructors become responsible spouses in acquisition and appraisal ; 4.

Students are inducted into the appraisal patterns and civilizations of higher instruction ; 5. Appraisal for acquisition is placed at the Centre of capable and undertaking design ; 6. Appraisal for acquisition is a focal point for staff and institutional development ; and. 7. Assessment provides inclusive and trusty representation of pupil accomplishment. The power of feedback Feedback plays an of import function in bettering students’ acquisition. A utile sum-up is that provided by Gibbs and Simpson’s ( 2004 ) .

In their meta-study of the research about how assessment and feedback support pupil larning. 7 of their 10 identified conditions relate to feedback. and students’ apprehension of feedback. These are: • Sufficient feedback is provided. both frequently adequate and in adequate item ; • Feedback focuses on students’ public presentation. on their acquisition and on actions under the students’ control. instead than on the pupils themselves and on their features ;

• Feedback is seasonably in that it is received by pupils while it still matters to them. and in clip for them to pay attending to farther acquisition or have farther aid ; • Feedback is appropriate to the intent of the assignment and to its standards for success ; • Feedback is appropriate. in relation to students’ apprehension of what they are supposed to be making ;

• Feedback is received and attended to ; and. • Feedback is acted on by the pupil. Hounsell ( 2004 ) besides makes the undermentioned points about feedback: • It can be extrinsic ( assessment-focused ) or intrinsic ( activity and practice-based ) ; • It can be immediate and verbal ( in order to turn to the possible deficiency of battle when it arrives after an appraisal ) ; • It can be provided to be a whole category ;

• It can be many to many where pupils are involved in placing the strengths and failings ( peer feedback ) ; and. • Feedback can be a loop – it can be offered on unfinished work. Another utile thought is feed-forward. Feed-forward encourages pupils to utilize something like a taging rubric ( besides captured by the thought of standards and criterions ) to assist be after their attack to an appraisal. While a taging rubric is routinely used by university instructors to mark/grade students’ work ( as an look of what a pupil needs to show ( and the degree they need to accomplish ) to have a peculiar class ) . the thought of feed-forward is about promoting pupils to utilize that same information in the rubric to be after their work. and possibly even. to self-assess it before subjecting it for formal feedback. In drumhead:

Feedback illustration: Develop a taging rubric as a cover sheet. The rubric identifies the elements of the assignment. together with a dislocation of Markss for each component or a description of the criterion for an A. B. C. D. P etc. Feed-forward illustration: Supply the taging rubric to pupils before the assignment is due so that they clearly understand what’s expected. the degrees of accomplishment. and can be after their attack consequently.

In taging pupil work. you’ll need a suite of feedback techniques. Remember. if you’re traveling to be passing a batch of clip supplying feedback. you want to do certain that pupils read. usage and engage with your feedback to better their following assignment.

The best manner to make that is to hold a scope of techniques that you can pull on. when you need to. The tabular array below describes some feedback techniques. |Technique |Why usage this technique? |How would I utilize this technique? | |Use a taging rubric that contains information |To encourage pupils to prosecute. wrestle |Set aside clip to discourse the rubric with students| |about standards and criterions. Offer it to |with and develop an apprehension of the |in category. Provide examples of what an Angstrom. B. C. D | |students so that they can utilize it to be after high |criteria and criterions related to an |and P degree reply /assignment looks like. Explain| |achieving work.

|assessment undertaking before shiping on their|the differences to pupils and prosecute them in a | | |work. |dialogue. Get them to tag assignments samples so | | | |that they have to prosecute with the standards and | | | |standards before shiping on their ain | | | |assignment. | |Provide verbal ‘global’ feedback to the whole |To underscore the common accomplishments and |As you mark assignments. do a list of 3 things | |class. |errors made across all assignments within|done good. and 3 things in demand of betterment | | |a pupil cohort. |across the whole cohort. Use the following available | | | |class to supply feedback to the whole cohort. Be | | | |specific and supply an illustration. Post a drumhead on| | | |Moodle. | |Provide written feedback merely.

The mark/grade |To focal point students’ betterment attempts on| | |is released merely after pupils demonstrate a |the written remark instead than the | | |plan for betterment. |number/grade. The technique assumes that | | | |the acquisition for pupils is located in | | | |the staff remarks. | | |Invite pupils to state you 2-3 specific |To develop students’ capacity to |Ask pupils to compose these 2-3 elements somewhere| |elements of the assignment they would wish you |self-assess the quality of their |on the assignment screen sheet before subjecting | |to concentrate your feedback on. |submitted work. |it. Your feedback on these elements does non necessitate | | | |to be extended but they warrant remark.

| |Ask pupils to bespeak the class ( Internet Explorer. A. B. |To encourage pupils to prosecute with the |Invite pupils to compose a 100 word justification | |C. D ) they think their assignment should |criteria and criterions for the assignment|about the class they’ve nominated. Your concluding | |receive. |as portion of their planning. |feedback and class does non necessitate to aline with the| | | |students but you may wish to observe any differences | | | |in each of your perceptual experiences about the quality of | | | |the work. | |Encourage pupils to demonstrate/write how |For pupils to show how they have|Make this facet a ‘hurdle’ demand – to be | |they’ve used your feedback as portion of the following |used feedback to better hereafter larning. |submitted with the following immediate assignment. | |assignment. | | |

One observation you might do about each of these techniques is that they are focused on: ( I ) prosecuting pupils with the standards and criterions. and ( two ) with what the pupil does with the feedback they receive. If you’d like to read more about these two thoughts ( and others like them ) . two articles may be particularly utile to you: Rust. Price & A ; O’Donovan ( 2003 ) and Price. O’Donovan & A ; Rust ( 2004 ) . Consistency and equity in taging and feedback Consistency in taging. or moderateness. is aimed at guaranting equity in taging. and requires happening or set uping understanding between markers. Making certain that assignments incorporate standards and criterions is a good start because the outlooks involved are clear to the pupil and clear to the marker.

Although this does non shrive the marker from construing students’ work. without standards or criterions. the occupation of taging ends up being much harder. The processs for taging are set out in the University’s Assessment Procedures ( an extract of the rules is below ) : Where there is more than one marker. selected pieces of work from each appraisal undertaking should be reviewed by the topic coordinator to verify the degree and consistence of the Markss allocated by the marker. This procedure. called moderateness. increases the dependability of the appraisal procedure and application of criterions. promotes consistence. supports objectiveness and establishes a shared apprehension of criterions and equity in appraisal. The university besides has a rating scheme with a scope of Pass classs.

|80-100 % |A | |70-79 % |B | |60-69 % |C | |50-59 % |D | |Ungraded |P ( may besides denote satisfactory completion of a Masters Prelim class of | | |postgraduate thesis ) | Graduate capablenesss Alongside the conventional scaling scheme. from 2012. all commencing first twelvemonth pupils will have a consequence on the accomplishment of the university’s six alumnus capablenesss at the terminal of the twelvemonth: • Writing • Speaking • Inquiry/Research • Critical thought • Creative Problem-solving • Teamwork There are some topics which have been designated basis. mid-point and finishing touch position. This means that their course of study has been designed to learn. buttocks. supply feedback and study specifically on these alumnus capablenesss.

For each alumnus capableness. pupils will have one of three consequences: exceeded outlooks. met outlooks or did non run into outlooks. Each module has carefully crafted a description of what these criterions look like. It may be the instance that you will be asked to supply feedback to pupils about their alumnus capableness accomplishment every bit good. Because modules will hold already done significant work sketching those criterions. it is likely you will be asked to offer pupils that feedback. Drumhead When considered together. appraisal and feedback are improbably powerful levers for act uponing the way of students’ attempts. and their acquisition. For many pupils. the appraisal in the topic is the existent course of study.

It is mostly students’ reading and perceptual experience of what the assessment demands of them which is a cardinal determiner in how they spend their clip in a topic. Therefore. the messages that pupils take away about appraisal from the paperss ; the Subject Guide ; from interaction with other pupils. are of import considerations. In the 2nd hebdomad. you will detect merely how important feedback is to this procedure and how the acceptance of criterions and standards will assist you tag and rate more expeditiously and efficaciously. Mentions Gibbs. G. and Simpson. C. ( 2004 ) . Conditions Under Which Assessment Supports Student Learning. Learning and Teaching. Issue 1. pp: 3-31. Hattie. J. & A ; Timperley. H. ( 2007 ) .

The Power of Feedback. Review of Educational Research. 77 ( 1 ) . 81-112. Hounsell. D. ( 2004 ) . Reinventing Feedback in the Contemporary Scottish University. Scots Quality Enhancement Workshop on Assessment. University of Glasgow [ available online at: World Wide Web. enhancementthemes. Ac. uk/documents/events/20040604/Hounsellpaper. pdf ] . O’Donovan. B. . Price. M. . & A ; Rust. C. ( 2004 ) . Know what I mean? Enhancing pupil apprehension of assessment criterions and standards. Teaching in Higher Education. 9 ( 3 ) . 325-335. Orrell. J. ( 2006 ) . Assessment beyond intuition. Central Queensland University [ available online at: hypertext transfer protocol: //www. acquisition. cq. edu. au/FCWViewer/view. make?

page=8896. accessed Feb 2011 ] . Price. M. . O’Donovan. B. . & A ; Rust. C. ( 2004 ) . Know what I mean? Enhancing pupil apprehension of assessment criterions and standards. Teaching in Higher Education. 9 ( 3 ) . 325-335. Ramsden. P. ( 2003 ) . Learning to learn in higher instruction. ( 2nd edition ) . Routledge. NY & A ; London. Rust. C. . Price. M. . & A ; O’Donovan. B. ( 2003 ) . Bettering Students’ Learning by Developing their Understanding of Assessment Criteria and Processes. Assessment & A ; Evaluation in Higher Education. 28 ( 2 ) . 147-164. Taylor. J. ( 2008 ) . Appraisal in First Year University: A theoretical account to pull off passage. Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice. 5 ( 1 ) .