2016 - Why You Can't Buy Higher Education in a DVD Box Set: Reflections on Assessment from TESTA скачать в хорошем качестве

2016 - Why You Can't Buy Higher Education in a DVD Box Set: Reflections on Assessment from TESTA

Keynote at the 9th Annual Learning and Teaching Conference, University of Glasgow: Dr Tansy Jessop This session draws on findings from national and local projects on assessment, technology and student engagement to reflect on some key tensions which make active student participation both absolutely vital and deeply problematic. One tension is between the technical rational frameworks which dominate assessment, and students' lived experience of it. 'Transforming the Experience of Students through Assessment' (TESTA), a national research project on programme-level assessment, provides rich evidence of the impact of modular degree systems on student learning. The tension between a choice-oriented approach to curating one's own degree, and students' disjointed learning experience, is an accidental outcome of the modular system. So too is the growth of summative assessment, accompanied by a decline in formative assessment for learning. This assessment pattern fosters a culture of grade-orientation at the expense of powerful learning. David Boud writes that "Assessment is the principal mechanism whereby academics exercise power and control over students" (1999). The tension between assessment as a pedagogy of control used to direct students' effort and attention, and assessment as a driver of powerful learning is at the heart of TESTA's findings. This session will explore and seek to resolve the paradox of assessment as a means of exercising power over students, and assessment as a means of empowering students.