Meaningful Resource
Reducing & Removing High Stakes Assessment
Published: 1st September 2023
Introduction
As a University we are committed to continually enhance our teaching and assessment practices based on evidence of effectiveness for learning. This means supporting the development and introduction of assessment that is meaningful, allows students to build their understanding across their programme of study, and enables them to demonstrate their understanding and skills as well as their knowledge. We are also strongly encouraging the use of smaller pieces of summative assessment that build towards larger ones and/or formative assessment to enable students to practice the skills they will be expected to demonstrate in larger pieces of summative assessment. One outcome of this evolution in our assessment practices will be a reduced reliance on some of our current approaches where there is not a good pedagogical reason for continuing to use them.
Meaningful Assessment:
Meaningful assessment is a form of assessment which involves students conducting ‘real world’ tasks in meaningful contexts. It is often presented as a continuum; at one end are work-based assessments completed in (usually) simulated ‘real world’ settings, and at the other end is an applied question in a ‘traditional’ exam.
One way to think about meaningful assessment is to consider what we want our students to be able to do with the knowledge/skills they gain from our teaching, and what they would likely do with that/those knowledge/skills in a workplace? We can then use an assessment that will enable them to demonstrate similar knowledge/skills so that they are emulating what they will do later, rather than using assessment to only test their recall.
Specifically, consider the following questions to enable you to create meaningful assessment:
- Why are you teaching your students this ‘content’?
- What is it you want them to know/learn/understand/be able to do?
- How could they prove to you they ‘get it’?
- How would they show you in a work-environment that they are using this knowledge/understanding?
- How does this course and this assessment fit into the programme of your students’ learning, build on their current skills, and prepare them for future assessments?
The answers to these questions will help you to think about assessments you might use.
Adapting Assessments for Your Context:
The table that follows provides examples of methods of assessment you might want to consider using with your students for formative[1] or summative[2] assessment, or both. They are arranged alphabetically. When reading through this list, please consider which of these methods will allow your students to demonstrate the Intended Learning Outcomes for your course and how you might use formative (or small pieces of summative) assessment to support your students’ development should you choose to use one of these other methods. The method you choose will need to be adapted for your context (subject/requirements/students’ experience/etc). The following examples hopefully show how a small change in emphasis can result in more meaningful assessment and test different skills.
Examples of adaptation:
- Dentistry (D): The original assessment was to write a researched and referenced essay about a new toothpaste. The adapted and more meaningful assessment was to write a researched and referenced information leaflet about a new toothpaste for the general public.
- English Language and Linguistics (EL&L): The original assessment was to critique an act of parliament (AoP). The adapted and more meaningful assessment was to write an AoP.
Whilst both these examples might, at first, appear simplistic, the changes create assessments that test more than can you research and write something (D) or can you critique something (EL&L). Instead they become can you research a topic and then communicate your research to a specific audience (D) and can you use your understanding of a well-written AoP to create your own (EL&L). These changes test a student’s ability to apply what they have learned in a more ‘real world’ situation, so creating more meaningful assessment.
It is also worth noting, that formative assessment does not necessarily need to mimic the summative assessment, but it does need to create opportunities to demonstrate key aspects assessed in the summative work. For example, if the summative piece of work is an essay, the formative work does not need to be a similar essay but could rather be a smaller, focused task, such as an annotated bibliography, allowing students to demonstrate the research needed for a piece of written work, or a practice introduction giving students the opportunity to learn how to create introductions appropriate for the subject and level.
[1] Formative assessment is work students do that helps them prepare for a summative piece of assessment. It should allow them the opportunity to demonstrate the required skills / knowledge that they will need for their summative assessment. Formative assessment is a ‘no stakes’ piece of work that allows students to reflect on their learning. It may be graded but the grade will not be used to calculate part or all of the final grade for the course.
[2] Summative assessment is work that is graded, contains feedback on learning and contributes to the final grade for the course and in so doing, towards the progression threshold or degree outcome.