Reading Notes

Bloxham, S. & Boyd, P. (2007). Developing Effective Assessment in Higher Education. Maidenhead: Open University Press/McGraw HillLinks to an external site..

Chapter 10: Supporting widening participation through assessment, pages 139-154

• Given what Bloxham & Boyd (2007) say, what might be the implications for your developing design ideas for a new A&F strategy, to take place in your own teaching context? What might you add or change to your strategy to take more account of what Bloxham & Boyd (2007) share about inclusive assessment and feedback practice?

• How could what is claimed here (and by whom), in this section / chapter, be potentially used by you to support and strengthen your rationale for different aspects of your new A&F strategy design?

• How could what is being claimed here (and by whom), be used to challenge what you are currently planning to do for your new A&F strategy, and your rationale for it? What changes and / or additional rationale could you offer to address those challenges?

Bloxham & Boyd (2007) definition of diversity: “We are defining diversity and diverse learners broadly to include all those categories of people who are under-represented in higher education. This will, of course, differ by institution and local context, but might include factors such as age, gender, ethnic group, socio-economic background and disability, and includes international and non-English-speaking students and those in rural and isolated areas.” Page 139

Haggis’s (2006) research suggests that with us looking closely to meet the needs of students who may have further needs or work within a minority of diversity we should not just focus on these students, but ensure the needs of all students are met.

(Robson 2005) indicates the importance for providing assessment strategies which work for all students but also that reflects the needs of specific learners.

Scholarship evidence for social learning

Students retention levels and success rate has been linked to factors such as location, courses, student characteristics meaning that students can’t cope with university life and academic demands, and so withdraw from studies. (Yorke 1999; Forsyth and Furlong 2000; Davies and Elias 2003; Yorke and Longden 2004).

There is growing evidence in the promotion of student retention and academic success being linked with “academic and social integration (Tinto 1993), with both UK and international studies revealing consistent findings (Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) 2002).”

Scholarship promoting working as a team

Promoting student’s personal networks and personal belonging, contact with tutors, academic advice, institutional satisfaction, student focused teaching practices. (Abramson and Jones 2003; Rust et al. 2003).

“Evidence suggests that formative assessment in the early stages of a programme assists retention (Yorke 2001b; Yorke and Longden 2004).”

Retention strategies:  one suggests connecting strategies which foster relationships between students and university (Beatty-Guenter 1994).

Counter argument: It could be seen as negative as it doesn’t take into account the students pre existing identity and culture. (Tierney 2000; Johnson 2001; Thomas 2002; Haggis 2004; Leach and Zepke 2005).

Any changes made need to ensure that a student centred approach is met whether “‘transformative’ (Beatty-Guenter 1994) or ‘adaptive’ (Leach and Zepke 2005) interventions” page 141 and involve all levels of teaching and assessment throughout the institution, so are difficult to implement and timely.

“approaches such as ‘first-year experience’ initiatives.” (Blythman and Orr 2002) and (Johnson 2001) write about these approaches in which it requires change from academic staff rather than having a focus on student support or personal tutoring.

Using assessment to promote retention:

“Diversity of students means that prior assumptions about their readiness for higher education cannot be taken for granted (Gibbs and Simpson 2004– 5).” Page 141 You cannot assume knowledge, so it works in your favour as a teacher to be as prepared as possible and to know as much about the learning needs of your students prior to teaching. Although it is important to prepare your students for assessment by understanding their expectations, developing their academic writing, or skills, and understanding assessment criteria. Bloxham & Boyd (2007)

Scheduling Assessments

Scholarship promoting guiding students through various A&F tasks

“Early assignments are helpful in integrating students into academic life and good study habits (Cook et al. 2005).” University feels free as appose to what students are used to at school. This transition in first year can be difficult for some students to cope. It is important for guidance to be given to guide students through this change (Krause 2001).

Cooke et al. (2005) explains the importance of a student retention to have an early recognition of certain needs and early diagnostics from students to apply or make changes to support students. Students then can have support before marks are important.

Formative assessments give time for students to learn from their results and make changes in time for summative assessments.

“In general, it is better to avoid summative assessment at an early point in courses (Yorke 2001b) and therefore some universities are running year-long modules in year 1 with limited summative assessment in the first semester.” Page 142

An “experiment at the University of Wolverhampton (McLaughlin and Sutton 2005).” In which examinations in the first semester were replaced with less formal assessment and then timetabled feedback. Failed students could then re sit two weeks later. Staff believe that an enhanced retention level was due to the fact that students felt that they could recoup failure with the support of feedback and gave the opportunity to feel more involved with the feedback process. Student engagement may also be enhanced by allocating some marks to class participation, as described in Dunn et al. (2004).

Scholarship which backs up the A&F Strategy for students presenting and working together

Boud (2000) cites the importance of communicating positive expectations to students rather than negative ones (not providing assessment in which marks are deducted) Consider how assessments can build confidence and belief that success is possible and in control of the student.

Lawrence (2005) further writes about the benefit of peer assessment in feedback strategy in supporting them to understand a subject. By following this direction staff can guide students to give feedback in a ‘safe’ space allowing them to develop within their discipline.  Chapter 4 speaks more about peer assessment.

“Consistent evidence shows formative assessment in programmes will have particular benefits for low attainers and disadvantaged learners (Black and Wiliam 1998a).” Page 143

Group assessments can promote the feeling of ‘belonging’ to the course and institution. Working together within timetabled lessons and meeting together outside lessons can support social relationships and encourage motivation (Volet and Mansfield 2006).

It provides students to learn informally together, supporting each other and giving deeper cohesion to a subject. Bloxham & Boyd (2007)

Counter argument – There is little evidence as to whether discrimination is evident in peer assessment, so in light of that, weighting on peer assessment will be lower.  (Falchikov 2005).

Counter argument in chapter 4 – how group work can go wrong

(Dhimar and Ashworth 2005), write that students are not always aware of the central support systems in place within institutions. It is important for staff to build partnerships with such departments (Lawrence 2005) to increase students awareness. How can I bring this into my teaching? Chapter 5 writes about integration techniques.

Individual differences: “Differences may result from their previous experience of education; their perception of the learning situation; their family and ethnic background; a learning or other disability; having English as an additional language; gender; and age.” Page 144 Bloxham & Boyd (2007)

The importance of a variety of assessment tasks

(Volet and Mansfield 2006) give examples of how some students might thrive in certain aspects of assessment while others may find more challenging. By providing a range of strategies it allows for a more inclusive A&F strategy and gives students the opportunity to adapt. The best thing to do is to “utilise a diversity of assessment techniques wherever possible’ (King, n.d.).”

Access to resources

“If a student is working in an additional language, will support be available to enable them to access the meaning of the text?” page 145

Student briefs should be short and written clearly without overly long language to ensure that students with different learning needs can equally accessed and understood, also have time to access extra provisions or additional resources. Bloxham & Boyd (2007)

Staff can apply equal assessment opportunities to my teaching by questioning if my teaching: “reflect the multi-cultural nature of our community; avoid placing people in stereotypical roles; include positive images of different cultures and backgrounds; show members of different communities and disabled people carrying out a full range of roles and behaviours; reflect the contents of the module that has been followed?” page 145 & 146

Disabled Students and those with Learning Difficulties

Here we refer to physical disabilities such as wheelchair uses, sight, hearing impairments etc. Also learning difficulties such as dyslexia.

“The UK’s Quality Assurance Agency (1999: 17) states that ‘Assessment and examination policies, practices and procedures should provide disabled students with the same opportunity as their peers to demonstrate the achievement of learning outcomes” page 147

Counter argument to my presentation part of A&F Strategy

 Students with speech impairment- what strategies could I put in place of this? Not marking the student on fluency of speech but consider the quality of the curation and the communication skills rather than fluency. The assessment could measure these achievements. Bloxham & Boyd (2007)

I need to make these ‘reasonable adjustments’ in order to not discriminate. “In the UK, the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001 (SENDA) makes discrimination against disabled students illegal.” Page 148

Designing assessment so that students with disabilities have equal opportunity to demonstrate their learning. Bloxham & Boyd (2007)

Another approach I could take is to provide disabled students with an alternative approach. I could provide them with a fair choice of assessment. (South West Academic Network for Disability Support 1999– 2002; Robson 2005). This is most helpful in practical subjects. One issue though is ensuring that marking is fair across assessment if the students outcomes are different.

Dyslexia

Practical tasks would benefit students with dyslexia over a written assessment. Can they demonstrate what they have learnt instead?  Bloxham & Boyd (2007)

We should not assume that students with the same disability have the same needs.

More emphasis of knowledge and understanding than on grammar

Group work and disability challenges

Group work and disabilities can lead to some further challenges, for example group discussions in which students may speak over each other, or make it difficult to hear. It is important firstly for tutors to get the consent to speak through with groups who have students with further needs. Teachers can then speak to the groups in order to make necessary adjustments where needed. Bloxham & Boyd (2007)

Race

“In the UK, the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000 makes it unlawful to discriminate against anyone on grounds of race, colour, nationality (including citizenship), and ethnic or national origin.“ Page 151

“it is also necessary to monitor student outcomes in order to check for unintended racial bias.” page 152

International Students

International students often have further struggles adjusting to assessments than home students in regards to language difficulties and writing skills. (Andrade 2006)

Evidence found from Lee, (1997) states the importance of making tutor expectations clearer and by giving example answers. Model answers and clear language is particularly important if working with new assessment tasks.

Lacina, (2002) concludes that it is beneficial to mix up groups of home and international students in group assessments.

“Consider how you allocate students to assessment groups. Same language or same-ethnicity groups may enable them to communicate more effectively as a team, but mixed groups are likely to increase achievement and adjustment to university. You may need to decide what your priority is at any given time in a programme.” Page 153

“Ensure that formal assessments (presentations, examinations) do not fall on religious holidays.” Page 153