Proposal view
Proposal Type: Individual Paper 
Domain: Assessment and Evaluation 
SIG: Assessment and Evaluation 
Equipment PC and projector
Paper Details
Title Students’ criteria development as part of a formative assessment process
Abstract
This paper presents results of a two year study, conducted among 450 undergraduate students (200 students in 2005 and 250 students in 2006) at the Faculty of Education (Early Childhood Education Programme), Oslo University College. The framework is socio cultural theory. The research question is: How do students approach an assignment where developing criteria of assessment is included, and what impact does students’ work with criteria have on the students’ learning potential?


The students accomplished a four weeks examination entitled The Group as an Instrument for Learning, containing three parts: 1) Carrying out a written group discussion on criteria, aimed to agree on three student developed criteria 2) Writing an individual essay based on these three criteria 3) Writing a peer response on a peer’s essay based on the certain criteria.


Key findings: A majority of the students expressed that developing criteria is a manageable task. Most of them stated that they would prefer explicit criteria, and that they found their criteria helpful during their essay writing and peer response giving. A majority of the students demonstrated positive attitudes in the criteria process. They stated that developing criteria gave them a feeling of having control over their study in general, and over this specific exam. Further, they said that they learned from developing criteria and would likely do it again. Only a handful were negative and stated that the criteria development had little impact on their learning potential. These few stated that they had learned little from developing criteria, and they would rather not do it again. Based on these findings, it is reasonable to claim that the students’ engagement in peer response and in the criteria development process enhanced the learning potential for a majority of the students.

(289 words)
Summary
Introduction and research question

This paper addresses the conference main theme Developing Potentials for Learning by contributing with practical and theoretical knowledge about students’ criteria development as part of a formative assessment process. My research matches several of the conference perspectives. In this paper, the perspectives Assessment and Evaluation and Student learning in higher educationwill be focused.


The paper presents results of a two year study, conducted among 450 undergraduate students (200 students in 2005 and 250 students in 2006) at the Faculty of Education (Early Childhood Education Programme), OsloUniversityCollege. Among questions that will be raised are: Do student active methods as peer assessment and criteria development make students perform better academic writing? Does the quality of the students’ peer responses increase by developing own criteria in advance? Does students’ development of criteria enhance their learning potential?


The overall research question in this study is: How do students approach an assignment where developing criteria of assessment is included, and what impact does students’ work with criteria have on the students’ learning potential?


Aims

The study’s main objective is to produce knowledge about student active study methods and possible connections between student activity and enhancement of students’ learning potential. The study has a three-parted aim: The first is to produce knowledge on how students’ participation in developing criteria for peer-response can be included in the students’ learning environment. Developing methods for working with such criteria is implicit. The second aim is to generate knowledge about what implications students’ work with criteria of assessment might have on their learning potential. The final aim is to produce knowledge on how a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) is utilized when students take such student active methods into use. This paper will mainly focus on the second aim: To generate knowledge about students’ work with criteria of assessment and implications for learning potential.


Methodology

For two years I have studied how students accomplished a four weeks written examination entitled The Group as an Instrument for Learning, containing three parts: 1) Carrying out a written group discussion on criteria, aimed to agree on three student developed criteria 2) Writing an individual essay based on these three criteria 3) Writing a peer response on a peer’s essay based on the same criteria of assessment.


My methods are mainly qualitative, and I have collected data through participatory observation, logbook and description of selected situation, interview and questionnaires. The questionnaires contain both open and closed answers. In addition, the data-material consists of a number of students’ texts; professional texts, peer-responses and criteria-discussions. Finally, I have carried out an enquete, asking ten randomly chosen second and third year students, and some teachers, to express a short and precise understanding of the term criteria.


Findings

The data from 2005 display the following key findings: A majority of the students expressed that developing criteria is a manageable task. Further, they state that they would prefer explicit criteria. Most of them found criteria of assessment helpful during their essay writing and peer response giving. A majority of the students demonstrate positive attitudes about engagement in the criteria process, e.g. that developingcriteria gave a feeling of having control over their study in general, and over this specific exam. Further, that they learned a lot from developing criteria for the exam and would likely do it again. Only a handful were negative and stated that the criteria development had little or none impact on their learning potential, e.g. that they had learned little from developing criteria and would rather not do it again, that developing criteria was a very demanding assignment, and that the effort was not in proportion to the learning result. Based on these findings, it is reasonable to claim that the students’ engagement in peer response and in the criteria development process enhanced the learning potential for the majority of the students.


Analyses of data collected in 2006 will be accomplished in the spring term 2007 and implemented into the paper. These data contain more explicit information about the students’ development of criteria of assessment, and impact on the students learning potential. Already, it is possible to draw preliminary conclusions which are pointing in the same direction as the results from the 2005 data.


Theoretical and educational significance of the research

The aim and the theoretical framework of the written examination is Vygotskian socio-cultural theory emphasizing the influences of cultural and social contexts, and support a discovery model of learning. The concepts zone of proximal development and scaffolding are appropriate to analyse the processes which took place in the project presented in this paper. According to social-cultural theory, students’ engagement in developing criteria should be regarded as an integrated part of the learning process. Research literature underlines the importance of explicit criteria and the necessity of engaging the students in the criteria process, and regards students’ development of criteria for formative assessment as an important instrument for learning. The interpretation of the results has theoretical relevance, e.g. in order to develop knowledge about alternative assessment methods’ learning purpose and potential. The present study will generate knowledge of practical relevance, e.g. development of concrete student active methods mend to enhance students’ learning potential.

(859 words)
Keywords Assessment
Higher education
Peer interaction/friendship tutoring
Appendices
Authors
Name Surname Institution Country e-mail EARLI Number Presenting
Kristin Holte Haug Oslo University College Norway Kristin.HolteHaug@lu.hio.no   *  
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