Staff student partnership in assessment: enhancing assessment literacy through democratic practices

Abstract

In recent years, research and practice focused on staff and students working in partnership to co-design learning and teaching in higher education, has increased. However, within staff-student partnerships a focus on assessment is relatively uncommon, with fewer examples evident in the literature. In this paper, we take the stance that all assessment can be oriented for learning and that students' learning is enhanced by improving their level of assessment literacy. A small study within Public Policy at a Scottish university was undertaken that involved a range of different adaptations to assessment and feedback in which students were invited to become partners in assessment. We argue that a partnership approach, designed to democratise the assessment process, not only offered students greater agency in their own and their peers' learning, but also helped students to enhance their assessment literacy. Although staff and students reported experiencing a sense of risk, there was immense compensation through increased motivation and a sense of being part of an engaged learning community. Implications for partnership in assessment are discussed and explored further. We assert that adopting staff-student partnership in assessment and more democratic classroom practices can have a wide range of positive benefits.

“I am wary of giving too much power to students:” Addressing the “but” in the Principle of Staff-Student Partnership

“…In a Swedish anthology on active student participation, Gardebo and Wiggberg (2012) propose that students are an unspent resource in an educational system that is struggling to manage the sheer growth in size of student numbers whilst maintaining the quality of experience. Strategic and appropriate involvement of students can facilitate the design of curricula that are engaging and empowering, and active involvement in assessment can enhance motivation and student engagement and may also help to foster the development of a learning community (Deeley & Bovill, 2017). Murphy, B., Nixon, S., Brooman, S., & Fearon, D.…”

“…The literature suggests that where staff and students come together to explore curriculum issues and design, it is normally initiated by academics (Deeley & Bovill, 2017). However, unless the claimed benefits are understood by staff, the value of co-creation may never come to fruition.…”

Asking and Answering Questions: Partners, Peer Learning, and Participation

“…Such democratization of assessment can be challenging but has benefits in improving students' assessment literacy (Deeley & Bovill, 2015;Healey, et al, 2014). While students valued answering questions, we saw less evidence that they recognized that writing questions was a good learning experience.…”

“…This allows students to design multiple-choice questions and to answer, evaluate and comment on other questions anonymously. The exercise exemplifies the challenges in formulating meaningful questions by giving students responsibility for co-creation of assessment (Deeley & Bovill, 2015). Good question design is discussed and the lecturers model good questions in class-often using a scenario-based approach that encourages students to apply their knowledge to solve problems.…”

Clarity, consistency and communication: using enhanced dialogue to create a course-based feedback strategy

“…Numerous studies examine the use, or non-use, by students, of their feedback (Winstone et al, 2016) and there is a wealth of evidence that examines why this may be the case (Deeley and Bovill 2015). In a study of first year students, Aoun et al (2016) explore the antecedent constituents of feedback.…”