TE7077 - The Role of Educational Assessment in Practice and Policy

A ‘research rich’ learning approach will enable you to build on your previous higher education experiences as an active inquirer and participant in your own learning. This will be at the heart of the teaching and learning strategy for this module. In order to maximise the learning in this module sessions will include a mix of formal lectures, seminars and group work. The e-learning portal will provide additional learning support and enable communication between students and staff.

Students will be encouraged to engage with current research in this field through the critical evaluation of research papers that will then be further explored within seminars.

Your main form of academic support for each module is provided by the module leader and other members of the module team. The module leader will ensure that you receive clear guidance about the module learning outcomes and how you will be assessed against these. They will also guide through exercises during the timetabled sessions, and ensure that both individual and group tutorial time is identified during the module. The University’s eLearning Portal will offer remote access to materials and aids for reinforcing your learning.

All modules at Northumbria include a range of reading materials that students are expected to engage with. The reading list for this module can be found at: http://readinglists.northumbria.ac.uk
(Reading List service online guide for academic staff this containing contact details for the Reading List team – http://library.northumbria.ac.uk/readinglists)

Knowledge & Understanding:
1. You will have a critical understanding of the aims and purposes of educational assessment

2. You will have a critical understanding of the role of assessment for learning; fairness and bias in assessment and validity and reliability in assessment

Intellectual / Professional skills & abilities:
1. Develop and implement educational assessment both formative and summative

2. Critically analyse ideas of reliability and validity of educational assessment in the public domain

Personal Values Attributes (Global / Cultural awareness, Ethics, Curiosity) (PVA):

1. Enhanced your communication skills through your presentation of an aspect of assessment and through your written work in your summative assessment.

Formative Assessment
Prepare a poster presentation on an aspect assessment

Feedback
You will be provided with constructive verbal feedback from tutors and your peers.

Summative Assessment
You will critically analyse and evaluate a current issue in assessment in terms of validity and reliability and other current theoretical perspectives

MLOs: (KU1 & 2) (PVA 1) (IPSA 1&2)

Feedback
You will be provided with written feedback using the criteria and the elaborated marking scale.

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Assessment plays an important role in society in terms of exemplifying the values of that society and has an influence on the life chances of individuals. Moreover, it provides information to stakeholders, such as parents, employers and higher education institutions. Discussions of assessment are often found in the public domain, where some of the technical and conceptual issues are poorly presented and understood. This module will provide the opportunity for critical analyses of the use and misuse of assessment within educational contexts.