Assessment, Learning & Teaching Reflections |
Tuesday 3 January
Staff can be discouraged from using formative assessment because of the unwillingness of some of our students to engage with it, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who has received comments in module evaluations such as “I would have done it, if the mark had counted”. Obviously, we need to ensure that formative assessment is of value to our students and that they can readily recognise how it will advance their learning/help them to do well in the summative assessment, but I wonder whether we are overly concerned about non-uptake or need to reconsider what we can achieve through it.
One of my concerns (and I know I am not alone) is that whilst we invest considerable time and energy on those students who are doing badly, this can result in us not having the time and energy to stretch our more able and committed students. It seems to me that formative assessment activities are an excellent way of doing this, and if only the “good” students choose to avail themselves of these opportunities perhaps we shouldn’t worry, but rather be encouraged to keep up the good work because at least we have supported some in their learning.
Alison Caswell
School of Health and Human Sciences
