Assessment practices in Scottish social work education: a practice audit of Scottish universities providing qualifying social work courses

Student assessment is a critical component of social work education. In the last ten years, the nature of assessment in social work education has changed considerably. Alongside innovations to more traditional forms of assessment such as essays and examinations, there has been increased emphasis on student participation in assessment in various forms of self- and peer-assessment. However, there is a dearth of published information on assessment strategies and methods employed in mainstream social work education programmes. The inception of the new qualifying courses across the UK has catalysed interest in the development of innovative assessment strategies and tools. In Scotland, the Scottish Institute for Excellence in Social Work Education (SIESWE) has commissioned research into innovative assessment strategies. This paper reports on the findings of a practice audit of current assessment practices in social work education in Scotland.

Perspectives on assessment practices in Australian journalism education

Claims from both educational and industry sides about what journalism students should be learning are not new, and not confined to Australia. European debates on the nexus between practical training and theoretical capacity extend to those by American journalism educators, who share concerns about how journalism schools can accommodate both theory and practice (Adam 2001; Bjork 1996; Bromley & Servaes 2006; Dickenson & Brandon 2000; O’Donnell 2001-02; Rosenbaum 2002; Ricketson 2005). These discussions merge coherently with initiatives undertaken by Australian universities to ensure graduates from any discipline are equipped with a set of measurable skills (or attributes)appropriate to the international context of higher education. The paper explores this tension through the lens of assessment in journalism education, and does so by drawing mostly upon education theory. It suggests some possible ways to cater for media industry pressure on universities to cut theory and concentrate on practice, while accounting for the educator’s responsibility to promote learning in line with graduate attributes such as the capacity to function as a global citizen, a capacity for critical evaluation, and a deep knowledge of the field of study.

Advice for international students on assessment practices in Australia

This guide provides a brief overview of the practices of assessment of learning in Australian universities. The information, suggestions and advice that follow will be especially useful if you are an international student who has little or no experience of the Australian university system. It will also be useful if you have had experience of assessment methods that are very different from Australian university practices, either at high school or university in another country.

Developing a scholarly approach to the evaluation of assessment practices

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine and reflect on current assessment practice in a large undergraduate accounting programme delivered both in Australia and offshore, from the perspective of academics in their first semester at a “new-to-them” university.

Design/methodology/approach – The changing higher education environment and the reality of assessment in the current context are considered, as they raise a number of important issues around assessment practice. Some of the often cited literature linking teaching, learning and assessment, including student-centred learning and Confucian heritage culture, is also discussed. A reflective approach is used where Säljö's five categories of student learning are used as the basis for informed reflection of the assessment used in the “new” academics' first semester at the university. The use of empirical evidence to test these reflections would be the next step in this scholarly approach to teaching and learning.

Findings – The reflections reveal a disparity between reality and the ideal in relation to assessment practice. Issues regarding timely feedback to students and timing of assessments can result in summative assessment when it has the potential to be formative. This paper has provided an opportunity for “new” academics to engage with the higher education literature early in their careers.

Originality/value – This paper is a resource for academics beginning to engage with the higher education literature around assessment, teaching and learning and can also be used to inform and improve the teaching and learning practices of many academics in higher education.

From profiles to rich tasks : the situated nature of 'authenticity' in the context of reforming curriculum and assessment practices

Outcome based education that has dominated Australian education in the 1990s is under review in the early years of the twenty first century. The available historical 'texts' produced during the first half of the 1990s, which include the national Statements and Profiles, and the state Curriculum and Standards Frameworks, provide us with documents that we can engage with not simply for 'history's sake', but with an opportunity to, in the words of the feminist author Dorothy Smith, 'displace[s] the analysis from the text as originating in writer or thinker, to the discourse itself as an ongoing intertextual process' bringing into view the social relations in which texts are embedded and which they organise' (1990, p. 161-2). Most Australian states and territories have now commenced significant situated, local curriculum renewal and reform. This renewed interest in curriculum offers insights into the character of recent assessment practices in Australia, recognising the tensions inherent in assessment practices and authentic assessment models. This paper explores, by way of an overview of the broad curriculum and assessment practices adopted in Australia over the past twenty-five years, the situated nature of 'authenticity' in the context of curriculum and assessment practices and how as teacher educators we are responding through our everyday work.

Student responses to questions about assessment practices across three different countries

This dataset relates to the assessment practices used in the RMIT School of Accounting and Law in programs taught in Melbourne, Singapore and Hong Kong between 2005 and 2006. These assessment parctices were examined to determine, first, how they measured students’ attainment of the profession’s generic skills, and second, whether different approaches to assessment were taken across the three locations. The students enrolled in these programs were investigated - their cultural backgrounds, their prior learning experiences, their assessment practices and their performance in assessment. At the same time, consultations were held with teaching staff and with employers across the three locations to determine their views about assessment and student and graduate quality. Finally, as a result of the feedback from the previous stages, a number of different approaches to assessment were trialled and evaluated.

Best assessment practices of final year engineering projects in Australia

Physical education teacher training in fundamental movement skills makes a difference to instruction and assessment practices

The purpose of this study was to investigate instruction and assessment of fundamental movement skills (FMSs) by Physical Education (PE) teachers of Year 7 girls. Of 168 secondary school PE teachers, many had received little FMSs professional development, and although most assessed student FMSs proficiency, the quality of assessment was variable. Neither years of experience nor confidence influenced the quality of assessment tools used; however, greater FMSs training improved assessment practice regularity. Teachers more recently out of preservice were more confident in demonstrating FMSs. The results suggest that FMSs education for teachers should be a priority inclusion in both the training of preservice teachers and the ongoing professional development of in-service teachers.

Evaluating assessment practices in design based learning environment

This investigation is focused on evaluating assessment practices in design based learning environment. The School of Engineering at Deakin University practices project/design based learning as one of its learning and teaching approach. When identifying graduate attributes particularly for undergraduate engineering programs in Australia, the program accrediting body Engineers Australia (EA) initiates a set of graduate attribute elements which was mentioned in “Stage1 competencies and elements of competency”. Stage1 competencies state that one of the important engineering application ability for graduates is ‘application of systematic engineering synthesis and design processes’. By practicing the design focused learning environment and evaluating students perceptions, This investigation examines students’ experiences of assessment practices in their curriculum through an online survey given to the same cohort of students in third year and fourth year undergraduate engineering.

Renewing assessment practices: literacy teaching and learning in digital environments

Interpretations of “literacy” and approaches to literacy pedagogy and assessment are under renewal as meaning-making and learning are increasingly situated in digitized environments. While the implications of these shifts are in part technological, they are also relational, as students are increasingly positioned as interactive with participatory roles in self-knowledge and increased responsibility for their learning. However, while shifts are occurring in understandings of literacy and approaches to literacy pedagogy, the same cannot be said for the way in which assessments of digital literacies are undertaken. There is a lack of valid, reliable, and practical assessments of new literacies to inform and help students to become better prepared for study, work, and citizenship in digital environments. This article maps five characteristics of effective formative assessment in print-based classrooms with seven affordancesin digital learning and assessment to suggest an analytical framework for examining teacher and student assessment in digital environments. Drawing on data from a research project in which a team of teachers introduced a one-to-one computing program and worked to renew their literacy assessment practices, this article discusses how each of the seven affordances are enacted in the assessment practices in a years five and six primary school classroom. The findings from this research project show that educational technologies have the potential to enable new approaches to teaching, learning, and assessment that better align with the needs of twenty-first century literacy learners. The findings alsosupport approaches to formative assessment that value print and multimodality and engage students in more flexible and differentiated ways. They can enable teachers and students to be re-positioned as designers, knowledge producers, and collaborative learners. The seven affordances provide a framework that holds rich possibilities for teacher learning and planning as prompts to support reflection on formative assessment practices, critique habitual practices, and considernew opportunities.

Authenticity in assessment : reflecting undergraduate study and professional practice

The literature suggests that assessment is a powerful tool for influencing student study habits. It is also recognized that there is a tension between traditional forms of assessment and newer forms of assessment that offer a more authentic representation of practice, but are more complex and expensive to administer. The international trend in undergraduate engineering course accreditation to move to demonstration of attainment of graduate attributes poses new challenges in assessment of learning. A case study based on integrating assessment practices across the year levels of an engineering management studies stream in an undergraduate course is presented. Key features of the assessment portfolio include: the use of assessment in the first year as a foundational tool to establish student study habits and skills; the evolution of assessment tasks by the fourth year to reflect the world of professional practice and to allow students to demonstrate their integration of knowledge and skills; the weighting of assessment tasks to indicate the value attached to particular tasks; the structured inclusion of group work; a concern for student and staff workloads; the recognition of student diversity, in particular the needs of off-campus and mature-age students; and the matching of assessment tasks to professional accreditation requirements.

Using online environments to promote assessment as a learning enhancement process

The 21st century presents new challenges relating to the need for assessment to be more innovative, more responsive to students' needs, and more relevant and authentic. The characteristics of good assessment are well known and resources abound to assist academic staff to change their practices. Yet, at a time when the imperative for reconsidering practices has never been greater, it appears to be very difficult to bring about and maintain substantive change in assessment. This paper presents case studies that illustrate the way some academic staff have responded to the challenges. In particular, how the online environment can enhance learning through formative assessment is illustrated with four case studies. The paper outlines specific challenges faced in each case and  discusses issues that arose during development and delivery. It concludes by identifying some of the factors that helped to facilitate changes in assessment practices in these specific cases.