Assessment, Learning & Teaching Reflections |
Friday 6 January
I’ve been writing over the vacation about assessment in different cultures, and have identified several potentially problematic areas, including different international marking cultures, so students don’t know whether a mark is good or not, diverse pedagogic paradigms, so there is confusion about what kinds of learning is privileged in different contexts, shocks for student encountering novel (for them) means by which they are to be assessed, often with little preparation to let them in on the secrets of what comprises quality outcomes, and mismatched expectations about levels of learning support students can expect.
So what can assessors do? For a start, we can make the rules of the assessment ‘game’ explicit and not expect everyone to get the hang of them all at once. Rehearsal opportunities and letting students see/hear/use examples of what good assignments look like will benefit all students, not just those from different countries. We should be explicit about how much the accuracy of written language is a criterion for assessment, and not mark down work on the grounds of poor language if this is not explicitly part of the mark scheme. And we should provide multiple opportunities for different kinds of assessment so all can shine.
Sally Brown
Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Professor of Higher Education Diversity in Learning and Teaching
Do contact me if you would like to shape my thinking further on international assessment issues.
