Scaffolding learning for first year
students: Assessments and writing
Widening participation in higher education offers us
opportunities to rethink curricula to include a wider range of
students. One aspect of this involves the role that
communication and language competence plays in
assessment. In this workshop we will investigate the
sometimes implicit communication and language
competencies that are part of assessment tasks and the
ways in which these competencies might be
developed/scaffolded within the curriculum.
The Learning Centre
Bronwyn James
Scaffolding learning for first year students: Assessments
and writing
› What can we reasonable do inside curricula?
› What are the implicit communication and language
competencies that are part of assessment tasks?
› Examples of developing/scaffolding within curricula
› Putting it into practice
› Resources: Some useful links for the unit of study outline
› Scholars network - invitation
2
Making the transition to university learning
Critical
Persuasive
Analytical
Descriptive
© Learning Centre 2012
Evaluating others’ work, entering a
debate, considering alternatives
Taking a position, making a claim,
developing an argument
Re-organising information:
applying models to data,
comparing, finding patterns &
categories
Providing information & facts
What can you realistically do inside a unit of study?
RMIT
example
4
What is implicit in your unit of study assessments ?
What do students need to know – in addition to
understanding subject content – to be able to successfully
complete the assessment task? Considering the onion and
the triangle, for example, do they need to know how to:
- Analyse the assessment question
- Understand the meaning of key concepts
- Structure a written response in a particular way
- Incorporate data/other research
- Critically analyse data/information/concepts
- Something else…?
5
Embedding language and learning support within
programs
Examples at the unit of study level
- Early low stakes assignment feeds into later
assignment
- Glossary of key discipline concepts developed as
a learning activity
- Assignment models with annotations or used as a
peer learning activity against marking criteria
6
An example: Annotated essay model (focus on academic
integrity)
7
Segment of an online peer marking activity
8
An annotated model (focus critical reflection)
9
What students can do to help themselves? : Examples of
on-line resources
10
On-line resources
11
More examples of on-line resources
12