Articles
STUDENT PERCEPTIONS OF THE VALUE OF FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT IN THEIR ACADEMIC DEVELOPMENT
Article number
920_17
Pages
141 – 148
Language
English
Abstract
Formative assessment plays a crucial role in the support and development of students learning and understanding.
However, pressures within Higher Education (HE) are such that formative approaches are often under used or ignored completely.
This work focuses on the use of formative assessment in a Level 4 (Year 1) science module of the B.Sc. (Honours) and Foundation Degree programmes in Horticulture, and its contribution to achievement in a diverse profile of students with non-tradi-tional science backgrounds.
The central tenet is the students perception of formative assessment in terms of its role and value in their overall learning experience.
The approaches trialled here, align the acquisition of knowledge and skills in the plant sciences with the needs of a changing entry profile in the transition to tertiary education.
Student appraisal of approaches found that formative assessment was seen to be of particular value when it was explicitly coupled to, and underpinned, summa¬tively assessed work.
A staged index of achievement was the preferred model, helping learners identify and reflect on what they need to do to improve, feeding forward towards summative exercises.
The findings that resonate with a cross-modular approach, will inform discipline-specific and institutional reviews of learning and teaching that embrace curriculum design and the underpinning pedagogy.
However, pressures within Higher Education (HE) are such that formative approaches are often under used or ignored completely.
This work focuses on the use of formative assessment in a Level 4 (Year 1) science module of the B.Sc. (Honours) and Foundation Degree programmes in Horticulture, and its contribution to achievement in a diverse profile of students with non-tradi-tional science backgrounds.
The central tenet is the students perception of formative assessment in terms of its role and value in their overall learning experience.
The approaches trialled here, align the acquisition of knowledge and skills in the plant sciences with the needs of a changing entry profile in the transition to tertiary education.
Student appraisal of approaches found that formative assessment was seen to be of particular value when it was explicitly coupled to, and underpinned, summa¬tively assessed work.
A staged index of achievement was the preferred model, helping learners identify and reflect on what they need to do to improve, feeding forward towards summative exercises.
The findings that resonate with a cross-modular approach, will inform discipline-specific and institutional reviews of learning and teaching that embrace curriculum design and the underpinning pedagogy.
Authors
A.M.B. Perera , J.E. Morgan
Keywords
formative feedback, transition, first year experience, assessment design
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