[Edit: updated to include link to sadler paper]
Hi folks,
Hi folks,
We are an intimate gathering this year, so I propose that we
keep proceedings informal but focussed. If anyone has any agenda items they
would like to discuss, please email me, text me or pull me aside at the
conference. I humbly offer the following as a discussion point:
Credit for formative assessment: a path to mediocrity?
Assessment in our physics units usually consists of
formative assessment where students apply their new knowledge (e.g. problem
sets) and summative assessment where they can demonstrate their level of
proficiency (e.g. an exam). Many university science courses (e.g. at La Trobe)
adopt the principles of constructive alignment [1], where the course assessment
is driven by the learning outcomes. In this model, everything the students are
required to do should be assessed so that feedback can be given and signals
sent about the relative importance of different elements.
While assigning credit to formative assessment does focus
the learning design and enforce timely feedback, it also provides an
opportunity for students to accumulate marks ‘along the way’. It can be
difficult to set an appropriate marking scheme that rewards students for effort
and makes allowances for the journey towards mastery and yet provides solid
feedback about what standards are ultimately acceptable. This can lead to the
situation where students get, say, 60% throughout the unit, only to fail
because of poor performance on the final exam. It also becomes possible for
students to compensate for poor summative performance by accumulating formative
marks; they pass the unit, but have not at any stage demonstrated mastery of
the material.
Royce Sadler has written about the subtleties of feedback
[2,3], and warns that students may not be able to access feedback for improvement
in the ways we assume. He spoke to the Australian Council of the Deans of
Science at their annual Teaching and Learning conference this year, and
provoked the attendees by proposing that formative feedback be decoupled
from the final grade in a unit.
What do you think?
I will lead/moderate a discussion on this topic, and see if
we can arrive at a set of conclusions that we can disseminate to the rest of
the Physics Education Network. So, please try to read the attached, and come
with a position!
See you there.
Cheers,
David.
[2] Sadler 2010
