Rationalising subjectivity: using learning technology to automate and flexibilise marker standardisation in higher education assessment

When designing a marker standardisation training programme, institutions must respond to their context and choose the method appropriate to it. This article details an approach based on a self-access, automatic package of training materials that can be flexibly deployed via a learning management system. This responds to the needs of a large, multi-centre teaching network marking shared assessments, providing an authentic, flexible, and inclusive experience that is worth the up-front resource cost and has been broadly positively received. Lessons have been learned centring on the implementation of this method of training, communicating the intention behind the change, and the approach to adapting it to suit an academic community of practice. The training methodology and evaluation may serve as informative to other institutions seeking an approach to standardisation that meets their needs

The impact of a peer-feedback intervention on the attitudes and beliefs of first-year Social Care students in Ireland

One way of actively engaging students with the feedback process and enhancing feedback literacy is through peer-feedback. However, there is little research to date in Ireland on undergraduate students’ beliefs and attitudes towards peer-feedback. All participants completed a validated questionnaire, ‘Beliefs about Peer-feedback Questionnaire’, to explore their beliefs about and attitudes towards peer-feedback, before and after a peer-feedback intervention. Both before and after the intervention, approximately 80% of respondents valued peer-feedback as an instructional method and as an important skill, while 87% of these first-year students engaged with the peer-feedback intervention. A clear implication for teaching is that peer-feedback can and should be further utilised to address the feedback problem in Ireland. Prior to the intervention, approximately 60% of students were confident in their ability to generate peer-feedback while approximately 80% were confident in their peers’ ability to generate feedback. The intervention changed these attitudes with confidence in their own ability growing slightly (10%) and confidence in their peers’ ability decreasing substantially (by 20%). Developing students’ evaluative judgement and the capacity to generate high-quality feedback through training and repeated opportunities to practise is a key recommendation. A longitudinal study, exploring beliefs and confidence with cumulative experiences over time, is also highly recommended

A Transformative Learning Experience: An Undergraduate Research Conference as Authentic Assessment

This article explores an example of authentic assessment practised on the English and History undergraduate programmes at the University of Derby, involving modules which lead to a public conference. Drawing on notions of authenticity in assessment both as connected to professional scenarios and as potentially transformative for the student in a wider sense, we outline the nature of the modules and their place within broader programme-level assessment strategy. We then detail their impact in terms of public engagement and raising the profile of the disciplines as well as, crucially, student feedback. Overall, we offer this practice as an example of successful authentic assessment in the Humanities which can lead students to engage more critically with their discipline and to discover new and highly transferable skills

The tangle in the feedback loop: Learner agency through a feedback loop activity across four university language programs

This study investigated a semester-long feedback loop activity carried out by six colleagues in four different language programs at the same university. 38 students participated from six different classes with varied proficiency levels in Chinese, French, Japanese and Spanish. The goal of this activity was to provide tailored feedback with a view to enhancing the feedback process and improving learning. While the success of the activity varied across the six classes, there was evidence of increased student engagement with feedback and improved understanding of their role in the feedback process. Unexpected differences emerged in the way the feedback loop activity was implemented in the respective classrooms. The reasons for these differences as well as for differences in levels of learner engagement were explored using Bronfenbrenner’s (1977, 1993) ecological framework, demonstrating its usefulness as a model for understanding feedback practices in university language programs

A critical reflection on audio feedback for undergraduate students as a care-full and compassionate performance of emotional labour

This critical reflection, structured using Gibbs’ reflective cycle, focuses on my experience, as a Senior Lecturer in a higher education Institution in the UK, of trialling providing audio summative feedback to undergraduate students for the first time. In this paper, I articulate the worries and anxieties I experienced providing audio feedback, related to the emotional labour required in performing the ‘correct’ tone; saying appropriate words; and creating an appropriate environment and atmosphere for delivering audio feedback. I argue that making visible the emotional labour involved in providing audio feedback has important implications for assisting in elevating the status of audio feedback beyond being considered a mere administrative task. Further, I contend that making this emotional labour visible may enable students to see the compassion that goes into the process of providing ‘care-full’ feedback. This paper concludes with recommendations to support colleagues and students to get the most out of audio feedback

Feedback Interchange in Small-Group Discussion: An Interpretive Review of the Literature

The concern of this paper is with small-group discussion in university teaching as a site where feedback is typically generated and communicated to humanities and social sciences students on their everyday learning. The theme is explored by means of a wide-ranging review of the salient literature, considered afresh through the lens of feedback, and against the backcloth of an ongoing transformation in how feedback in higher education is understood, investigated and practised. It concludes that, in contrast to feedback on graded students\u27 assessments, feedback in small-group discussion is characteristically embedded in real-time teaching-learning interchanges, verbally expressed, generated by student peers as well as by the tutor and, since it is on open display, offers opportunities for vicarious learning. It is also a crucial milieu in which students can practise and be guided towards discursive verbal fluency in discipline-specific meaning-making. Nonetheless, the feedback potential of learning through discussion is often unrealised, and robust evidence is lacking of its impact on the quality of learning over time

Analysis of sources of anxiety among Swiss university students experiencing Continuous Assessment for Learning and their implications for designing assessment in higher education

Student anxiety in high-stakes assessment environments is a well-documented concern, yet limited attention has been given to how assessment design can inherently alleviate this anxiety without specific interventions. This study addresses this gap by examining how Continuous Assessment for Learning impacts anxiety perceptions among Swiss university students in a first-year Education Sciences course. Continuous Assessment for Learning is designed to integrate diverse interrelated tasks that serve both formative and summative assessment purposes, and aims to foster the development of academic and cross-curricular skills through a variety of assessment practices involving students, such as self-assessment and peer feedback. After completing each of eight assignments, students were asked to rate their anxiety levels and identify anxiety sources through a questionnaire. Categorical content analysis revealed the multifaceted and complex nature of students anxiety sources, some of which can be strategically addressed by educators. The findings offer actionable insights for designing assessment, with sources of anxiety to avoid while retaining those that support students\u27 self-regulation of learning in higher education

Preservice teachers learning to teach reading using one-to-one tutoring: does learning ‘stick’ for tutees and tutors?

Teaching reading is a key element of initial teacher education programmes in England. This study contributes to the research about the most effective way to ensure preservice teachers have the necessary skills and knowledge to teach reading. One-to-one reading tutoring of children has been demonstrated to have some positive effects on preservice teacher learning, but often the impact on the child of these teacher education initiatives is not considered. This study used a mixed methods, quasi-experimental design to investigate the impact on children’s (n=205) reading of a one-to-one tutoring programme and the impact on the preservice teachers (n=75) who implemented the tutoring as part of their teacher education programme. The study investigated if gains made by children were greater than if they had maintained ‘business as usual’ adaptive classroom teaching and if there was impact on learning beyond the end of the tutoring programme for children and preservice teachers. Results show that the intervention children made statistically significant gains compared to the comparator group (n=44) however, the maintenance of gains for children was not consistent across the treatment group. However, most preservice teachers maintained their skills and knowledge six months following the end of the tutoring

Initial Teacher Education Mentors as Collaborative Practitioner Researchers: A critical evaluation

The role of the school-based mentor has become more central within Initial Teaching Education (ITE) over recent years and will become even more central to such programmes, with the introduction of new Department for Education requirements from 2024. This article evaluates a collaborative research project undertaken with school-based mentors working with a university-led provider of primary ITE, in the south-west of England, in which the mentors were supported, through four workshops, to undertake small-scale research projects related to their roles as ITE mentors, during the Spring and Summer terms of 2023. Data was gathered in the form of post-workshop reflective discussions between lead facilitators and through the use of a focus group interview with mentors, who also produced written reports related to their individual small-scale research projects. The research shows that ITE mentors value opportunities to interrogate the practice of mentoring through engaging in supported, collaborative small-scale research projects and that such activity might form a legitimate and valuable element of enhanced ITE mentor training

Investigating the impact of Collaborative Annotation on Student Quality of Learning in Higher Education

Collaborative Annotation is ‘a literacy strategy that engages students in critical reading, critical thinking, writing and collaboration all in one activity’ (Schwane, 2015). This study reports on the effect and role that a Collaborative Annotation tool we developed plays in the assessment of students’ understanding of their course material and recommends the best pedagogical approaches and research possibilities that can further improve its impact on traditional learning contexts in the future. Our preliminary investigations suggest that there is a positive correlation of Collaborative Annotation using our tool with student quality of learning. This is promising as it is broadly in line with published research and indicates that our research merits further investigation on extending our pipelines to incorporate AI peers and assess how they impact students’ learning