Towards a classification of criterion referenced assessment models in mathematics courses : student and academic perspectives

We present the findings of a study into the implementation of explicitly criterion- referenced assessment in undergraduate courses in mathematics. We discuss students' concepts of criterion referencing and also the various interpretations that this concept has among mathematics educators. Our primary goal was to move towards a classification of criterion referencing models in quantitative courses. A secondary goal was to investigate whether explicitly presenting assessment criteria to students was useful to them and guided them in responding to assessment tasks. The data and feedback from students indicates that while students found the criteria easy to understand and useful in informing them as to how they would be graded, it did not alter the way the actually approached the assessment activity.

Communicating assessment criteria is not sufficient for influencing students' approaches to assessment tasks – perspectives from a differential equations class

This report presents the findings of an exploratory study into the perceptions held by students regarding the use of criterion-referenced assessment in an undergraduate differential equations class. Students in the class were largely unaware of the concept of criterion referencing and of the various interpretations that this concept has among mathematics educators. Our primary goal was to investigate whether explicitly presenting assessment criteria to students was useful to them and guided them in responding to assessment tasks. Quantitative data and qualitative feedback from students indicates that while students found the criteria easy to understand and useful in informing them as to how they would be graded, the manner in which they actually approached the assessment activity was not altered as a result of the use of explicitly communicated grading criteria.

Understanding graphicacy : students’ making sense of graphics in mathematics assessment tasks

The ability to decode graphics is an increasingly important component of mathematics assessment and curricula. This study examined 50, 9- to 10-year-old students (23 male, 27 female), as they solved items from six distinct graphical languages (e.g., maps) that are commonly used to convey mathematical information. The results of the study revealed: 1) factors which contribute to success or hinder performance on tasks with various graphical representations; and 2) how the literacy and graphical demands of tasks influence the mathematical sense making of students. The outcomes of this study highlight the changing nature of assessment in school mathematics and identify the function and influence of graphics in the design of assessment tasks.

Helping undergraduate students across disciplines and cultures actively engage and collaborate as equal members of a community of scholars : peer review within an e-learning environment

At the international level, the higher education sector is currently being subjected to increased calls for public accountability and the current move by the OECD to rank universities based on the quality of their teaching and learning outcomes. At the national level, Australian universities and their teaching staff face numerous challenges including financial restrictions, increasing student numbers and the reality of an increasingly diverse student population. The Australian higher education response to these competing policy and accreditation demands focuses on precise explicit systems and procedures which are inflexible and conservative and which ignore the fact that assessment is the single biggest influence on how students approach their learning. By seriously neglecting the quality of student learning outcomes, assessment tasks are often failing to engage students or reflect the tasks students will face in the world of practice. Innovative assessment design, which includes new paradigms of student engagement and learning and pedagogically based technologies have the capacity to provide some measure of relief from these internal and external tensions by significantly enhancing the learning experience for an increasingly time-poor population of students. That is, the assessment process has the ability to deliver program objectives and active learning through a knowledge transfer process which increases student participation and engagement. This social constructivist view highlights the importance of peer review in assisting students to participate and collaborate as equal members of a community of scholars with both their peers and academic staff members. As a result of increasing the student’s desire to learn, peer review leads to more confident, independent and reflective learners who also become more skilled at making independent judgements of their own and others' work. Within this context, in Case Study One of this project, a summative, peer-assessed, weekly, assessment task was introduced in the first “serious” accounting subject offered as part of an undergraduate degree. The positive outcomes achieved included: student failure rates declined 15%; tutorial participation increased fourfold; tutorial engagement increased six-fold; and there was a 100% student-based approval rating for the retention of the assessment task. However, in stark contrast to the positive student response, staff issues related to the loss of research time associated with the administration of the peer-review process threatened its survival. This paper contributes to the core conference topics of new trends and experiences in undergraduate assessment education and in terms of innovative, on-line, learning and teaching practices, by elaborating the Case Study Two “solution” generated to this dilemma. At the heart of the resolution is an e-Learning, peer-review process conducted in conjunction with the University of Melbourne which seeks to both create a virtual sense of belonging and to efficiently and effectively meet academic learning objectives with minimum staff involvement. In outlining the significant level of success achieved, student-based qualitative and quantitative data will be highlighted along with staff views in a comparative analysis of the advantages and disadvantages to both students and staff of the staff-led, peer review process versus its on-line counterpart.

The moderator effect of cognitive modifiability on a traditional undergraduate admissions test for disadvantaged Black students in South Africa

Contends that South African universities must find admissions criteria, other than high school grades, that are both fair and valid for Black applicants severely disadvantaged by an inferior school education. The use of traditional intellectual assessments and aptitude tests for disadvantaged and minority students remains controversial as a fair assessment; they do not take account of potential for change. In this study, therefore, a measure of students' cognitive modifiability, assessed by means of an interactive assessment model, was added as a moderator of traditional intellectual assessment in predicting 1st-yr university success. Cognitive modifiability significantly moderated the predictive validity of the traditional intellectual assessment for 52 disadvantaged Black students. The higher the level of cognitive modifiability, the less effective were traditional methods for predicting academic success and vice versa.

Teaching undergraduate students community nursing : using action research to increase engagement and learning

Nurses play a pivotal role in responding to the changing needs of community health care. Therefore, nursing education must be relevant, responsive, and evidence based. We report a case study of curriculum development in a community nursing unit embedded within an undergraduate nursing degree. We used action research to develop, deliver, evaluate, and redesign the curriculum. Feedback was obtained through self-reflection, expert opinion from community stakeholders, formal student evaluation, and critical review. Changes made, especially in curriculum delivery, led to improved learner focus and more clearly linked theory and practice. The redesigned unit improved performance, measured with the university's student evaluation of feedback instrument (increased from 0.3 to 0.5 points below to 0.1 to 0.5 points above faculty mean in all domains), and was well received by teaching staff. The process confirmed that improved pedagogy can increase student engagement with content and perception of a unit as relevant to future practice.

Start Smart : QUT’s trial support program for commencing undergraduate students who have not completed year 12 in the past two years

Commencing students in undergraduate degrees who identify as mature age students experience particular issues when faced with enrolment into university as an adult learner (Bird & Morgan, 2003). In line with QUT’s commitment to “supporting all commencing students to adjust successfully to study at QUT by providing a strong transition experience” (QUT, 2008, 6.2.1), the Start Smart trial program was developed and implemented for Semester 1, 2012. The Start Smart trial program consists of an orientation event, wrapped around and supported by existing First Year Experience (FYE) and Retention strategies within QUT, namely the Student Success Program (SSP) and the Peer Programs Strategy (PPS). This report examines the motivations for designing a program as a response to the needs of a cohort that are unique amongst all commencing undergraduate students. Participants will be asked to consider the implications of delivering special and unique orientation events to specific cohorts, and the long term sustainability of such programs within their own university structures.

Students’ approaches to learning a new mathematical model

In this article, we report on the findings of an exploratory study into the experience of undergraduate students as they learn new mathematical models. Qualitative and quanti- tative data based around the students’ approaches to learning new mathematical models were collected. The data revealed that students actively adopt three approaches to under- standing a new mathematical model: gathering information for the task of understanding the model, practising with and using the model, and finding interrelationships between elements of the model. We found that the students appreciate mathematical models that have a real world application and that this can be used to engage students in higher level learning approaches.

Understanding QC and EQA : an authentic learning model for undergraduate students (Conference Abstract)

Introduction QC and EQA are integral to good pathology laboratory practice. Medical Laboratory Science students undertake a project exploring internal QC and EQA procedures used in chemical pathology laboratories. Each student represents an individual lab and the class group represents the peer group of labs performing the same assay using the same method. Methods Using a manual BCG assay for serum albumin, normal and abnormal controls are run with a patient sample over 7 weeks. The QC results are assessed each week using calculated z-scores and both 2S & 3S control rules to determine whether a run is ‘in control’. At the end of the 7 weeks a completed LJ chart is assessed using the Westgard Multirules. Students investigate causes of error and the implications for both lab practice and patient care if runs are not ‘in control’. Twice in the 7 weeks two EQA samples (with target values unknown) are assayed alongside the weekly QC and patient samples. Results from each student are collated and form the basis of an EQA program. ALP are provided and students complete a Youden Plot, which is used to analyse the performance of each ‘lab’ and the method to identify bias. Students explore the concept of possible clinical implications of a biased method and address the actions that should be taken if a lab is not in consensus with the peer group. Conclusion This project is a model of ‘real world’ practice in which student demonstrate an understanding of the importance of QC procedures in a pathology laboratory, apply and interpret statistics and QC rules and charts, apply critical thinking and analytical skills to quality performance data to make recommendations for further practice and improve their technical competence and confidence.

Inside the research incubator : a case study of an intensive undergraduate research experience for nursing and midwifery students

Undergraduate research experiences are an increasing component of nursing and midwifery degrees. The Summer Research Scholarship Programme (SRSP) is a tertiary education initiative in Australia to provide an intensive undergraduate research experience. Between 2009 and 2010, six students and four academic faculty mentors in School of Nursing and Midwifery participated in an inaugural SRSP. This study explores the experiences of both students and faculty mentors to determine how this undergraduate research experience impacted student learning and interest in research. A qualitative case study approach was used to explore the research experiences of undergraduate student and faculty participants in an inaugural undergraduate research programme. Based on the results of two surveys four main themes were identified: (1) acquisition of research skills, (2) expectations, (3) academic engagement, and (4) continued interest in research. An intensive undergraduate research experience is a valuable component of student learning that has the capacity to contribute to immediate and longer-term learning and research outcomes.

Students' engagement with Facebook in a university undergraduate policing unit

Web 2.0 technologies are increasingly being used to support teaching in higher education courses. However, preliminary research has shown that students are using such technologies primarily for social purposes, rather than as a means of further engaging with academic content. This study examines a cohort of tertiary students' use of a Facebook page, which was created for a second year university policing unit at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia. Results from content analysis of the Facebook "wall" and a survey of student users and non-users showed that although students only demonstrated very little active engagement with academic content posted on the site (that is, they were reluctant to interact with unit materials in a way that would leave a digital trace), they reported that Facebook had increased their ability to engage with and critically analyse the unit content. In alignment with other research in this area, students also reported the usefulness of the Facebook page for increasing communication with their peers and with the teaching staff. This paper concludes by offering a number of best practice guidelines for the use of Facebook in tertiary education.

Indigenous students transitioning to school : responses to pre-foundational mathematics

Australian Indigenous students' mathematics performance continues to be below that of non-Indigenous students. This occurs from the early years of school, due largely to knowledge and social differences on entry to formal schooling. This paper reports on a mathematics research project conducted in one Aboriginal community school in New South Wales, Australia. The project aimed to identify and explain the ways that young Australian Indigenous students (age 2-4 years) learn number language and processes, specifically attribute language, sorting, 1-1 correspondence and, counting. The project adopted a mixed methods approach. That is, the methodology was decolonising (Smith 1999) in that it collaborated with and gave benefit back to the Indigenous community and school being researched. It was qualitative and interpretative (Burns 2000) and incorporated an action-research teaching-experiment approach where and teachers collaborated with the researchers to try new teaching methods. This paper draws on data pertaining to students' response to diagnostic interview questions, the pre- and post-test results of the interview and photographic evidence as observations during mathematics learning time. Participants referred to in this paper include one female principal (N = 1), and the transition class of students' pre- (N = 6) and post-test (N = 3) results of the pre-foundational processes (also referred to as attributes). The results were encouraging with improvements in colour (34%), patterns (33%); capacity (38%). As a result of this project, our epistemology regarding the importance of finding out about students' pre-foundational knowledge and understandings and providing a culturally appropriate learning environment with resources has been built upon.

'Women on a Wiki’ : the role of interactive websites in reflective learning practices for undergraduate women’s health students

Aim Our pedagogical research addressed the following research questions: 1) Can shared ‘cyber spaces’, such as a ‘wiki’, be occupied by undergraduate women’s health students to improve their critical thinking skills? 2) What are the learning processes via which this occurs? 3) What are the implications of this assessment trial for achieving learning objectives and outcomes in future public health undergraduate courses? Methods The students contributed written, critical reflections (approximately 250 words) to the Wiki each week following the lecture. Students reflected on a range of topics including the portrayal of women in the media, femininity, gender inequality, child bearing and rearing, domestic violence, mental health, Indigenous women, older women, and LGBTIQ communities. Their entries were anonymous, but visible to their peers. Each wiki entry contained a ‘discussion tab’ wherein online conversations were initiated. We used a social constructivist approach to grounded theory to analyse the 480 entries posted over the semester. (http://pub336womenshealth.wikispaces.com/) Results The social constructivist approach initiated by Vygotsky (1978) and further developed by Jonasson (1994) was used to analyse the students’ contributions in relation to four key thematic outcomes including: 1) Complexities in representations across contexts; 2) Critical evaluation in real world scenarios; 3) Reflective practice based on experience, and; 4) Collaborative co-construction of knowledge. Both text and image/visual contributions are provided as examples within each of these learning processes. A theoretical model depicting the interactive learning processes that occurred via discussion of the textual and visual stimulus is presented.