Assessment literacy

via David Carless on Twitter 3 important points raised: Grading principles are under-examined by institutions and even the literature. Getting students to understand the standards set requires that they pretty much go through what we do in a standardisation exercise with teachers. Grade rationing (marking on a "curve") is unfair and doesn't support student learning. It's the easy, lazy way to tackle grade inflation.

'In the analysis presented in this article, it has been argued that the problem lies less with the quality of feedback than with the fundamental assumption that telling, even detailed telling, is an effective approach to complex learning. Because feedback is commonly expressed in verbal form, learning from being told is flawed as a general strategy because the conditions for the statements to make intimate connection with the student work (with a view to future work) are frequently not satisfied. Assuming that low student dispositions to learn is not the reason for their failure to capitalise on learning opportunities, the issue is how to create a different learning environment that works effectively. A proposed alternative to the usual sequence of [task - response - appraisal - feedback] is to make intensive use of purposeful peer assessment as a pedagogical strategy, not just for assessment but for substantive aspects of the course as well. Students need to grasp three groups of concepts in particular - response genre, quality, and criteria - if interactions between teachers and learners are to be formatively effective, and capability in complex appraisal is to be developed. These assessment concepts must be understood not as abstractions but as core concepts that are internalised, operationalised and applied to concrete productions. Unless this occurs, the key assessment concepts are likely to remain submerged and invisible.'

The outstanding examples in the Concord Review are useful, but so too is work that is not outstanding-after all, students are much better at spotting weakness in other people's work than in their own, and when they see weaknesses in others' work, they are less likely to reproduce such weaknesses in their own.