Understanding the rules of the game: marking peer assessment as a medium for developing students' conceptions of assessment

Students need to understand assessment processes in order to succeed in higher education. However, recent research has identified how difficult it is for students to become absorbed into the assessment culture of their disciplines, with a recognition that providing written criteria and grade descriptors is not enough to make this tacit ‘knowledge’ transparent to novice students. This paper reports on an experiment where sports studies students used assessment criteria to mark their peers work coupled with an assessment of their peer marking and feedback comments. The latter was included to encourage students to engage with the peer assessment in some depth. Analysis of the data indicates considerable benefits for the students in terms of use of criteria, awareness of their achievements and ability to understand assessment feedback

Learning about being effective mentors : professional learning communities and mentoring

This study aimed to explore experienced mentors’ understandings about professional learning communities (PLCs), mentoring and leadership. This research analyses audio-taped transcripts and written responses from 27 experienced mentors who operate in varied roles (e.g., university academics, school executives, teachers, learning support personnel). Findings indicated that PLCs can provide professional renewal for existing teachers and that mentoring within PLCs can further advance knowledge about effective practices. PLCs can include other staff members and key stakeholders (e.g., preservice teachers, teacher aides) who can contribute to the learning within the group. Mentoring and PLCs can be cost-effective strategic levers for advancing professional knowledge

The busy teacher educator’s guide to assessment

This document is part of the ESCalate Help Directory for Teacher Educators and the principal author is Sue Bloxham of the University of Cumbria. This guide is designed to provide a short summary of issues to be considered in developing, implementing and managing assessment in teacher education programmes. The guide highlights the important matters that need to be taken into account and provides links to relevant sources of help and suggestions for further reading. There are explorations of assessment for, assessment of, and assessment as, and links to the evidence provided in research. Professor Bloxham considers how we influence student learning and discusses feedback and diversification of assessment, as well as presenting a critique of Anderson and Krathwohl's taxonomy. There are plenty of useful references to follow up the ideas presented hereIt is presented as an online article and a Word document of some 14 page