Integrative assessment: reframing assessment practice for current and future learning
TL;DR: The authors make a distinction between assessment tasks designed to facilitate and test current learning through the use of formative and summative assessments, and those tasks primarily designed to enhance future learning, which could be better termed integrative assessments.
Abstract: The requirement to provide timely formative tasks that are designed to facilitate student learning and autonomy has provoked a wider examination of the role of assessment in higher education and encouraged further investigation of the alignment of learning, teaching and assessment in curriculum design frameworks. Many current authors have proposed that the primary purpose of assessment is to enhance current and future learning and that current practice tends to overemphasise the importance of assessment for progression and certification purposes. This paper proposes that a clearer distinction be made between assessment tasks designed to facilitate and test current learning through the use of formative and summative assessments, and those tasks primarily designed to enhance future learning, which could be better termed integrative assessments. This distinction would allow students and teachers to have greater clarity around the proposed outcomes and reward mechanisms associated with assessment tasks and fe...
Citations
More filters
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present a thematic analysis of the research evidence on assessment feedback in higher education from 2000 to 2012, focusing on the feedback that students receive within their coursework from multiple sources.
Abstract: This article presents a thematic analysis of the research evidence on assessment feedback in higher education (HE) from 2000 to 2012. The focus of the review is on the feedback that students receive within their coursework from multiple sources. The aims of this study are to (a) examine the nature of assessment feedback in HE through the undertaking of a systematic review of the literature, (b) identify and discuss dominant themes and discourses and consider gaps within the research literature, (c) explore the notion of the feedback gap in relation to the conceptual development of the assessment feedback field in HE, and (d) discuss implications for future research and practice. From this comprehensive review of the literature, the concept of the feedback landscape, informed by sociocultural and socio-critical perspectives, is developed and presented as a valuable framework for moving the research agenda into assessment feedback in HE forward.
803 citations
Cites background from "Integrative assessment: reframing a..."
...…explicit guidance, may impair the quality of learning inasmuch as students may be successful in meeting the demands of assessment for progression and certification purposes but ironically may not be well prepared for lifelong learning (J. Brown, 2007; G. Crisp, 2012; Crook, Gross, & Dymot, 2006)....
[...]
TL;DR: In this article, a systematic literature review was conducted to reveal prerequisites needed for assessment for learning implementation, which identified prerequisites regarding the teacher, student, assessment and context, and the school should have a schoolwide culture that facilitates collaboration and encourages teacher autonomy.
163 citations
TL;DR: This paper studied how students acquire these skills, or how they should best be taught, and found that generic skills have received widespread attention from both policymakers and educationalists, but little is known regarding how students learn these skills or how to best teach them.
Abstract: Although generic skills have received widespread attention from both policymakers and educationalists, little is known regarding how students acquire these skills, or how they should best be taught...
95 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the theoretical differences and similarities among three approaches to formative assessment that are currently most frequently discussed in educational research literature: data-based decision making (DBDM), assessment for learning (AfL), and diagnostic testing (DT) were explored.
Abstract: Recent research has highlighted the lack of a uniform definition of formative assessment, although its effectiveness is widely acknowledged. This paper addresses the theoretical differences and similarities amongst three approaches to formative assessment that are currently most frequently discussed in educational research literature: data-based decision making (DBDM), Assessment for Learning (AfL) and diagnostic testing (DT). Furthermore, the differences and similarities in the implementation of each approach were explored. This analysis shows that although differences exist amongst the theoretical underpinnings of DBDM, AfL and DT, the combination of these approaches can create more informed learning environments. The thoughtful integration of the three assessment approaches should lead to more valid formative decisions, if a range of evidence about student learning is used to continuously optimise student learning.
76 citations
Cites background or methods from "Integrative assessment: reframing a..."
...DT provides detailed assessment data about a learner’s problem-solving processes, which can implicate what a student needs to improve his or her learning process and learning outcomes (Crisp, 2012; Keeley & Tobey, 2011)....
[...]
...Collecting data about the procedural steps the learner takes during an assessment can identify the learner’s (inadequate) reasoning styles, and wrongly executed procedural steps caused by misconceptions and prior knowledge, amongst other things (Crisp, 2012; Keeley & Tobey, 2011)....
[...]
...Although DT has the potential to be used for retroactive, proactive or interactive formative assessment, it is primarily used retroactively (Crisp, 2012; Stobart, 2008)....
[...]
TL;DR: In this article, the authors investigated how educators assess student learning from simulations and found that most follow authentic assessment principles, including offering students developmental (formative) assessment opportunities over the course of the simulation, explaining assessment criteria and ways that students can improve their performance, requiring students to undertake reflection on their learning and outcomes, and ensuring that higher order thinking skills are engaged.
75 citations
References
More filters
TL;DR: In this paper, the research on formative assessment and feedback is reinterpreted to show how these processes can help students take control of their own learning, i.e. become self-regulated learners.
Abstract: The research on formative assessment and feedback is reinterpreted to show how these processes can help students take control of their own learning, i.e. become self-regulated learners. This reformulation is used to identify seven principles of good feedback practice that support self-regulation. A key argument is that students are already assessing their own work and generating their own feedback, and that higher education should build on this ability. The research underpinning each feedback principle is presented, and some examples of easy-to-implement feedback strategies are briefly described. This shift in focus, whereby students are seen as having a proactive rather than a reactive role in generating and using feedback, has profound implications for the way in which teachers organise assessments and support learning.
4,204 citations
"Integrative assessment: reframing a..." refers background in this paper
...…presented in the higher education learning and teaching literature over the past decade to indicate that student learning outcomes may be significantly improved through the provision of formative assessments that are coupled with timely feedback (Gibbs 2006; Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick 2006)....
[...]
...There has been a consistency in the evidence presented in the higher education learning and teaching literature over the past decade to indicate that student learning outcomes may be significantly improved through the provision of formative assessments that are coupled with timely feedback (Gibbs 2006 ; Nicol and Macfarlane‐Dick 2006 )....
[...]
Book•
01 Jan 1998
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present the six Facets of understanding, and how to assess understanding in light of these Facets, and what the Facets imply for unit design.
Abstract: Introduction. 1. What Is Backward Design? 2. What Is a Matter of Understanding? 3. Understanding Understanding. 4. The Six Facets of Understanding. 5. Thinking Like an Assessor. 6. How Is Understanding Assessed in Light of the Six Facets? 7. What Is Uncoverage? 8. What the Facets Imply for Unit Design. 9. Implications for Organizing Curriculum. 10. Implications for Teaching. 11. Putting It All Together: A Design Template. Afterword. Bibliography.
2,898 citations
"Integrative assessment: reframing a..." refers background in this paper
...Wiggins and McTighe (2005) have proposed a framework for designing curricula, assessment tasks and performance standards that facilitate the development of deep approaches to learning in students....
[...]
TL;DR: The authors argue that this short-term focus must be balanced against a longer-term emphasis for learning-oriented assessment to foster future learning after graduation, and propose that students need to become assessors within the context of participation in practice, that is, the kinds of highly contextualised learning faced in life and work.
Abstract: Assessment in higher education is commonly held to contribute to feedback to students on their learning and the certification of their achievement. This paper argues that this short‐term focus must be balanced against a longer‐term emphasis for learning‐oriented assessment to foster future learning after graduation. The paper proposes that students need to become assessors within the context of participation in practice, that is, the kinds of highly contextualised learning faced in life and work. It discusses the kinds of practices that are needed to refocus assessment within higher education courses to this end.
1,025 citations
01 Jan 2007
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors set the scene for assessing students' experiences in post-school Qualifications and discussed the role of peers in assessment and the place of peers' emotions in assessment.
Abstract: Part 1: Setting the Scene 1. Assessment for the Longer Term 2. Reframing Assessment as if Learning was Important Part 2: The Context of Assessment 3. Assessment in Higher Education: An Impossible Mission? 4. Learning Assessment: Students' Experiences in Post-School Qualifications Part 3: Themes 5. Contradictions of Assessment for Learning in Institutions of Higher Learning 6. Grading, Classifying and Future Learning 7. Assessment Engineering: Breaking Down Barriers between Teaching and Learning, and Assessment 8. Rethinking Feedback and Assessment-for-Learning 9. Conceptions of Self-Assessment: What is Needed for Long Term Learning? 10. The Place of Peers in Assessment 11. Assessment and Emotion: The Impact of Being Assessed Part 4: The Practice of Assessment 12. Writing about Practice for Future Learning 13. The Contribution of Sustainable Assessment to Teachers' Continuing Professional Development 14. Developing Assessment for Informing Judgement
780 citations
28 Mar 2007
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that it is time to rethink what is being done in assessment in higher education in order to foster learning for the longer term, and they suggest that we not only need to engage in assessment reforms, but there should be a major reframing of what assessment exists to do, how it is discussed and the language used to describe it.
Abstract: As we have seen, an overall theme of this book is that it is time to rethink what is being done in assessment in higher education in order to foster learning for the longer term. In this chapter I suggest that we not only need to engage in specific assessment reforms, but there should be a major reframing of what assessment exists to do, how it is discussed and the language used to describe it. This requires a central educational idea to which participants in higher education can subscribe: that is, a view of the direction in which the enterprise of assessment should be moving. It is only through establishing a counter-discourse to the one that currently dominates higher education that some of the fundamental problems created by current assessment assumptions and practice can be addressed.
248 citations
"Integrative assessment: reframing a..." refers background in this paper
...Current ideas on assessment in higher education Boud (2007) has recently proposed reframing assessment as if learning was its primary purpose; this reframing would include a requirement that students are able to make judgements about their own learning and to use those judgements to influence their…...
[...]