Assessing Student Learning
principles and practices of
effective student assessment
A workshop developed for
Bilkent University by
Gordon Suddaby
Gordon Suddaby - g.t.suddaby@massey.ac.nz
Rationale
 Students can, with difficulty escape from the effects of
poor teaching, they cannot (by definition if they wish to
graduate) escape the effects of poor assessment. (Baud,
p.35 in Knight, 1995)
 Assessment is at the heart of student learning. (Brown
and Knight, 1994).
Gordon Suddaby - g.t.suddaby@massey.ac.nz
An assessment riddle!
 Why do we measure with a micrometer, mark with
chalk, and cut with an axe?
Gordon Suddaby - g.t.suddaby@massey.ac.nz
Why we assess?
Crooks identified 8 reasons:
1. Selection and placement
2. Motivation
3. Focusing learning
4. Consolidating and structuring learning
5. Guiding and correcting learning
6. Determining readiness to proceed
7. Certifying and grading achievement
8. Evaluating teaching
Crooks, 1988.
Gordon Suddaby - g.t.suddaby@massey.ac.nz
Assessment as part of learning
There are two critical factors:
 Formative approaches to assessment
 Summative approaches to assessment
Scriven, 1967.
Gordon Suddaby - g.t.suddaby@massey.ac.nz
Formative assessment
Biggs and Tang note:
 Formative assessment is provided during learning, telling students
how well they are doing and what might need improving (p.97)
 In formative assessment, the results are used for feedback during
learning. Students and teachers both need to know how learning is
proceeding. Formative feedback may operate to both improve the
learning of individual students and to improve the teaching itself.
(p.163)
Gordon Suddaby - g.t.suddaby@massey.ac.nz
Assumptions related to formative
assessment
 It is a powerful teaching and learning activity
 It promotes growth
 It encourages autonomy
Factors:
 Involves intrinsic motivation
 Encourages reflection
 Requires prompt feedback
 Requires clear criteria
 Requires shared understanding
Gordon Suddaby - g.t.suddaby@massey.ac.nz
What formative assessment activities
do you use?
 I would like to record these on the board
Gordon Suddaby - g.t.suddaby@massey.ac.nz
Summative Assessment
Biggs and Tang
 ...summative [assessment is provided] after learning, informing how
well students have learned what they were supposed to learn (p.97)
 In summative assessment, the results are used to grade students at the
end of a course or to accredit at the end of a programme. Summative
assessment is carried out after a teaching episode has
concluded....That result, the grade, is final. (p.164).
Gordon Suddaby - g.t.suddaby@massey.ac.nz
Assumptions related to summative
assessment
 Represents reliable and valid sample and judgement
 Its purpose is explicit
Factors
 It is taken seriously
 It grades and ranks
 It sums up achievement
 It is an endpoint
Gordon Suddaby - g.t.suddaby@massey.ac.nz
Activity: 8
Who are assessment “stakeholders”?
 Identify an ‘end user’ of your assessment other than the
student?
 What sort of information does that user need?
 Is that what they get?
 How do you know?
 Compare that information with that which the student
wants/gets?
Discuss with colleagues sitting nearby and compare
differences and similarities
Gordon Suddaby - g.t.suddaby@massey.ac.nz
The assessment stakeholders”?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
The student
Other students
Teachers
Mentors
Employers
University management
Funders
...
Gordon Suddaby - g.t.suddaby@massey.ac.nz
Some assessment issues
If we are not careful our assessment practices may;
 Tend to focus on what is easiest to assess/mark
 Influence students approach to learning (surface)
 Encourage a focus on grades
 Encourage students to seek cues
 Not reveal misconceptions
 Encourage students to focus ONLY on what is assessed
Gordon Suddaby - g.t.suddaby@massey.ac.nz
Some principles of effective
assessment
Assessment should foster improvement
Students need self-assessment skills
We should only assess what really matters
Assessment should enhance motivation
Assessment should encourage cooperation
Assessment shouldn’t be a burden
Think about assessment ‘due dates’
Think about flexibility!
Requirements need to be explicit
Crooks, 1993
How do your assessment practices measure up against
these?









Gordon Suddaby - g.t.suddaby@massey.ac.nz
Activity 10: The big lie
It doesn’t matter what I think, write what you
believe!
Or should this be?
It doesn’t matter what is said or written, just
make sure you learn the stuff that will be
assessed!
Remember, the students are always looking for cues and
clues!!!
So make a note of the messages you give
students?
Gordon Suddaby - g.t.suddaby@massey.ac.nz
Activity 11
 Task specification
 Make a paper dart from the paper supplied completing
the task within 3 minutes
 Stipulation
 The dart must fly
 The dart must look like a paper dart
Gordon Suddaby - g.t.suddaby@massey.ac.nz
Assessment criteria
Now:
 Develop a schedule for marking and grading the
finished product
Gordon Suddaby - g.t.suddaby@massey.ac.nz
Assessment criteria
Now:
 Develop a schedule for marking and grading the finished
product
 Give your dart to a colleague to assess using their
assessment schedule (you will mark another
colleagues dart using your schedule)
 Mark 2 other colleagues darts using your schedule
 Compare grades
 What comments can you make about the marking process?
Gordon Suddaby - g.t.suddaby@massey.ac.nz
Issues
 What assumptions have been made in relation to
this task?
 What were the difficulties encountered in
carrying out the task?
 What would have made the task more do-able?
 What difficulties were there in assessing the
outcomes?
Gordon Suddaby - g.t.suddaby@massey.ac.nz
Assumptions
 You know what a dart is and looks like
 You have some knowledge of dart-making
 You know what the assessor is looking for
 Everyone has the same perceptions of ‘standards’
i.e. There is an understanding of the
assessment criteria
Gordon Suddaby - g.t.suddaby@massey.ac.nz
Seven Principles of good feedback
From the conceptual model and the research literature on formative
assessment it is possible to identify some broad principles of good
feedback practice. A provisional list might include the following
seven.
1. Facilitates the development of self assessment (reflection) in learning.
2. Encourages teacher and peer dialogue around learning.
3. Helps clarify what good performance is (goals, criteria, standards expected).
4. Provides opportunities to close the gap between current and desired
performance.
5. Delivers high quality information to students about their learning.
6. Encourages positive motivational beliefs and self-esteem.
7. Provides information to teachers that can be used to help shape the teaching.
8. From; Juwah, Macfarlane-Dick, Matthew, Nicol, Ross and Smith for the
Higher Education Academy
Gordon Suddaby - g.t.suddaby@massey.ac.nz
Examples of criteria
 Appearance
 Flying ability
 Paper usage
 Shape
 Decoration
 Distance flown
 Size
 Complexity
 ...
Gordon Suddaby - g.t.suddaby@massey.ac.nz
Formative assessment
 Using assessment to improve learning.
 It is assessment provided during the teaching process.
 Strongly linked to processes of evaluating own teaching
Gordon Suddaby - g.t.suddaby@massey.ac.nz
Guiding principles
Effective Assessment should:
 Promote and reward desired outcomes
 Distinguish between essentials and extras
 Recognise workload implications
 Reflect consistency of standards
 Communicate requirements to students
 Provide effective feedback
 Combine marks with care
 Give weight to professional judgement
Crooks, 1993.
Gordon Suddaby - g.t.suddaby@massey.ac.nz
Levels of assessment criteria
 Implicit to the tutor (I know one when I see one!)
 Known to the tutor, but not revealed to the student
 Revealed to the student, but what counts as evidence
isn’t!
 Criteria and examples of what counts as evidence
revealed to the students
Gordon Suddaby - g.t.suddaby@massey.ac.nz
How do the students know what is
important?
Clarify criteria
 Tell the students what is important in the
beginning, as you teach it, and at the end.
 Tell them what is important when you set your
assignments
 Tell them why you are giving them a particular
assignment
 Tell them what the marks will be awarded for
Gordon Suddaby - g.t.suddaby@massey.ac.nz
Don’t be afraid to use a variety of
approaches
 Tests
 Lab work
 Assignments
 Using a digital presentation
 Case Studies
 Clinical observation
 Projects
 Workbooks
 Journals
 Portfolios
 Orals (vivas)
 Examinations
 Seminars
 Open Book Exercises
 Posters
 Reports
 Learning contracts
 Simulations/role Plays
 Debates and presentations
 Scenarios
 Artifacts/products
 Field work
Gordon Suddaby - g.t.suddaby@massey.ac.nz
Reflecting on assessment
 Do you provide/develop clear, explicit criteria for your own





courses?
Is there a performance component associated with the
criteria?
Are you clear as to what constitutes evidence that indicates
the criteria have been met?
Are the students aware of this?
What additional information would help your students do a
better job?
What questions remain in your mind?
Gordon Suddaby - g.t.suddaby@massey.ac.nz
Aligning assessment and learning
 “From our students’ point of view, assessment always defines the
actual curriculum” , (Ramsden, 1992), its the tail that wags
the dog!!!! - the term used to describe this is ‘backwash’.
Gordon Suddaby - g.t.suddaby@massey.ac.nz
Constructive Alignment
A concept developed by Biggs
 Constructive because it is based on Constructivist theory i.e
reflects Shuell’s statement that;
 “What the student does is actually more important in
determining what is learned than what the teacher does”
(Shuell, 1986)
 Alignment demonstrates that the intended learning outcome,
the teaching and teaching activity, and the assessment are all
aligned
Gordon Suddaby - g.t.suddaby@massey.ac.nz
Designing constructively aligned
teaching and assessment
 Describe the intended learning outcome in the form of a
verb (learning activity), its object (the content) and specify
the context and standard to be attained
 Create a learning environment using appropriate
teaching/learning activities that address the verb and
therefore are likely to bring about the outcome
 Use assessment tasks that contain that verb thus enabling
judgment using rubrics as to how well students performances
meet criteria
 Transform these judgments into standard grading criteria
Biggs and Tang, pp. 54 - 55.
Gordon Suddaby - g.t.suddaby@massey.ac.nz