Rethinking models of feedback for learning: The challenge of design

Student feedback is a contentious and confusing issue throughout higher education institutions. This paper develops and analyses two models of feedback: the first is based on the origins of the term in the disciplines of engineering and biology. It positions teachers as the drivers of feedback. The second draws on ideas of sustainable assessment. This positions learners as having a key role in driving learning, and thus generating and soliciting their own feedback. It suggests that the second model equips students beyond the immediate task and does not lead to false expectations that courses cannot deliver. It identifies the importance of curriculum design in creating opportunities for students to develop the capabilities to operate as judges of their own learning. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC

Adaptive Comparative Judgement: A Tool to Support Students’ Assessment Literacy

Comparative judgment in assessment is a process whereby repeated comparison of two items (e.g., assessment answers) can allow an accurate ranking of all the submissions to be achieved. In adaptive comparative judgment (ACJ), technology is used to automate the process and present pairs of pieces of work over iterative cycles. An online ACJ system was used to present students with work prepared by a previous cohort at the same stage of their studies. Objective marks given to the work by experienced faculty were compared to the rankings given to the work by a cohort of veterinary students (n=154). Each student was required to review and judge 20 answers provided by the previous cohort to a free-text short answer question. The time that students spent on the judgment tasks was recorded, and students were asked to reflect on their experiences after engaging with the task. There was a strong positive correlation between student ranking and faculty marking. A weak positive correlation was found between the time students spent on the judgments and their performance on the part of their own examination that contained questions in the same format. Slightly less than half of the students agreed that the exercise was a good use of their time, but 78% agreed that they had learned from the process. Qualitative data highlighted different levels of benefit from the simplest aspect of learning more about the topic to an appreciation of the more generic lessons to be learned

Interprofessional learning at work: What spatial theory can tell us about workplace learning in an acute care ward

It is widely recognized that every workplace potentially provides a rich source of learning. Studies focusing on health care contexts have shown that social interaction within and between professions is crucial in enabling professionals to learn through work, address problems and cope with challenges of clinical practice. While hospital environments are beginning to be understood in spatial terms, the links between space and interprofessional learning at work have not been explored. This paper draws on Lefebvre's tri-partite theoretical framework of perceived, conceived and lived space to enrich understandings of interprofessional learning on an acute care ward in an Australian teaching hospital. Qualitative analysis was undertaken using data from observations of Registered Nurses at work and semi-structured interviews linked to observed events. The paper focuses on a ward round, the medical workroom and the Registrar's room, comparing and contrasting the intended (conceived), practiced (perceived) and pedagogically experienced (lived) spatial dimensions. The paper concludes that spatial theory has much to offer understandings of interprofessional learning in work, and the features of work environments and daily practices that produce spaces that enable or constrain learning. © 2014 Informa UK Ltd

“I don’t think I am a learner”: Acts of naming learners at work

The terms “learning” and “learner” are used in discussions of workplace learning as if they were unproblematic and as if workers, organisations and researchers had a common, shared view about what these terms mean. A study of four different workgroups within an organisation in which the discourse of learning was pervasive suggests that having an identity as a learner may not be compatible with being regarded as a competent worker. The politics of naming oneself as a learner are considered and the power of naming learning and learners are discussed. The broader implications for research on workplace learning of such a discursive approach are noted. © 2003, MCB UP Limite

Circle talks as situated experiential learning: Context, identity, and knowledgeability in \u27learning from reflection\u27

This article presents research that used ethnographic and sociolinguistic methods to study ways participants learn through reflection when carried out as a “circle talk.” The data indicate that participants in the event (a) invoked different contextual frames that (b) implicated them in various identity positions, which (c) affected how they could express their knowledge. These features worked together to generate socially shared meanings that enabled participants to jointly achieve conceptualization—the ideational role “reflection” is presumed to play in the experiential learning process. The analysis supports the claim that participants generate new knowledge in reflection, but challenges individualistic and cognitive assumptions regarding how this occurs. The article builds on situated views of experiential learning by showing how knowledge can be understood as socially shared and how learning and identity formation are mutually entailing processes

Writing groups, change and academic identity: Research development as local practice

The development of the research potential of university staff has been given less attention than many other aspects of professional development, particularly teaching development. Yet there is an important need for the development of staff in the research role in the light of growth of higher education and changes to the organisation of the sector in many countries. This article examines one strategy for research development: the use of writing groups. It argues that writing is best seen as a starting point, rather than an endpoint, of the research process and hence that fostering academic writing is a useful place to do research development work. The article provides details of the use of a number of writing groups over three years in a particular faculty and explores the responses of leaders and participants. It identifies factors important in the use of this strategy and focuses on the contextual conditions required for initiatives of this kind to be effectively implemented

Appraising new technologies for learning: A framework for development

The paper discusses a framework for the analysis of learning designs using new technologies. It takes a learner-centred view derived from literature in higher, professional and adult education. The process of developing guidelines for applying this framework to particular learning activities is outlined and the strengths and limitations of this approach considered. Evaluation des nouvelles technologies pour l'enseignement. L'article discute d'un cadre pour l'analyse de schémas d'enseignement faisant usage des nouvelles technologies. Il prend en compte un enseignement centré sur l'apprenant À partir d'articles et de livres sur l'éducation supérieure, professionnelle et des adultes. Le processus de développement des lignes directrices pour l'application de ce cadre À des activités d'enseignement particuliers est mis en valeur et les forces et les limitations de cette approche sont prises en considération. Bewertung neuer Lerntechnologien: Grundlagen zur Weiterentwicklung. In diesem Artikel werden Grundlagen zur Analyse von Lernformen besprochen, die sich auf neue Technologien stützen. Man konzentriert sich auf die Sicht des Lernenden und stützt sich auf die Auswertung der in der höheren Schulbildung, Berufs- und Erwachsenenbildung verwendeten Literatur. Es wird die Entwicklung von Richtlinien bei der Anwendung dieser Grundlagen bei bestimmten Lernvorgängen besprochen und die Stärken und Grenzen ihrer Anwendung diskutiert. © 2002, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC

The calibration of student judgement through self-assessment: disruptive effects of assessment patterns

© 2014, © 2014 HERDSA. Can extended opportunities for self-assessment over time help students develop the capacity to make better judgements about their work? Using evidence gathered through students' voluntary self-assessment of their performance with respect to assessment tasks in two different disciplines at two Australian universities, the paper focuses on the effects of sequences of units of study and the use of different types of assessment task (written, oral, analysis, and project) in the development of student judgement. Convergence between student criteria-based gradings of their own performance in units of study and those allocated by tutors was analysed to explore the calibration of students' judgement over time. First, it seeks to replicate analyses from an earlier smaller-scale study to confirm that students' judgements can be calibrated through continuing opportunities for self-assessment and feedback. Second, it extends the analysis to coherently designed sequences of units of study and explores the effects of different types of assessment. It finds that disruptive patterns of assessment within a sequence of subjects can reduce convergence between student and tutor judgements

Promoting independent learning skills using video on digital language laboratories

This is the author's PDF version of an article published in Computer assisted language learning ©2006. The definitive version is available at http://www.informaworld.com/The article discusses the potential for developing independent learning skills using the digital language laboratory with particular reference to exploiting the increasingly available resource of digital video. It investigates the potential for recording and editing video clips from online sources and digitalising clips from analogue recordings and reflects on the current status quo regarding the complex copyright regulations in this area. It describes two pilot self-access programmes based on video clips which were undertaken with University College Chester undergraduates and reflects on the value of the experience for students in developing a wide range of language skills as well as independent learning skills using their feedback on the experience

Confronting globalisation: Learning from intercontinental collaboration

Higher education institutions are responding to globalisation in various ways. This study describes and analyses challenges encountered in a recent case of global collaboration between four universities on different continents in developing a web-based master's program. The key issue was how to develop programs in a way that is fair for the different countries involved. The focus of the paper is on tensions between local and national contexts, rules and resources and the creation of a common global program. 'Agency', 'structure' and 'frame factor' are used as analytical concepts to help understand the dynamics of the collaboration and the character of the program