Conceptions of Assessment and Feedback

The essential argument in this section is that to enhance both policy and practice in assessment and feedback in higher education two actions are required. Firstly, how assessment and feedback are conceptualised must be clearly articulated as this will guide policy formation and innovations in practice. Secondly, the developed or agreed conceptualisations should be formulated into a finite set of ‘assessment and feedback principles’ that can be used by teachers to assist them in designing their learning tasks, courses and programmes. Below the principles developed through the REAP project and at the University of Strathclyde are presented and discussed. However, it should be noted that while the assessment and feedback principles derived from REAP and work at Strathclyde have been valuable and influential across the HE sector, institutions might wish to develop their own guiding principles or refine those provided so that they provide a better fit with their own institutional or faculty context. Accordingly, the panel on the right provides advice on how to formulate principles and also provides a discussion of their value. The benefits of this approach are also discussed under Policy and in Nicol and Draper (2009).

Conceptions and Policy and Practice

How one conceptualises assessment and feedback has a huge influence on educational policy in higher education, on quality assurance processes and on how practice is implemented in courses and programmes. For example, innovations in practice will be quite different if assessment is conceptualised merely as a transmission process whereby teachers make judgements about students' work against standards and provide corrective feedback than if assessment is conceptualised as a shared endeavour whereby students also learn to make assessment judgements and to generate feedback through self-critique and peer reviewing. Another distinction made by educational researchers is between assessment of learning where the purpose is to certify achievement and assessment for learning where the purpose of assessment is to support and enable learning. Distinctions of this kind influence both policy imperatives and how assessment is organised in courses and programmes.

In this website some key assumptions are made about assessment and feedback.  In particular, the primary purpose of these processes is conceptualised as being to enable students to develop as self-regulated learners, able to monitor, evaluate and regulate their own learning. This does not mean a focus on individual learning. Rather, student self-regulation is more likely to be developed through collaboration amongst students rather than by individualistic approaches to learning.

Principles of Assessment and Feedback: REAP

In their early work Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick (2006), from an analysis of the educational research, identified some principles of good feedback practice that would support the development of self-regulation from the educational literature. The original seven principles were defined as follows.

Good feedback practice should

  1. Help clarify what good performance is (goals, criteria, standards).
  2. Facilitate the development of self-assessment and reflection in learning
  3. Deliver high quality information to students: that helps them self-correct
  4. Encourage teacher-student and peer dialogue around learning
  5. Encourage postive motivational beliefs and self-esteem
  6. Provide opportunities to act on feedback
  7. Provide information to teachers tha can be used to help shape teaching


(Source:Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick, 2006)

These 7 feedback principles and a further 4 principles borrowed from Gibbs and Simpson (2004) informed the redesigns in the REAP project.  This work has been written up in a number of papers (Nicol, 2009a, 2009b). Taken together the 4+7 principles provided a framework for redesigning first-year modules based on the dual ideas of engagement and empowerment (self-regulation). 

ENGAGEMENT 

EMPOWERMENT

Effective assessment tasks should:
 

Good feedback practice should
  1. Capture sufficient study time
  2. Distribute student effort evenly aross topics and weeks
  3. Engage students in productive learning activitieS
  4. Communicate clear and high expectations
  1. Help clarify what good performance is (goals, criteria, standards).
  2. Facilitate the development of self-assessment and reflection in learning
  3. Deliver high quality information to students: that helps them self-correct
  4. Encourage teacher-student and peer dialogue around learning
  5. Encourage postive motivational beliefs and self-esteem
  6. Provide opportunities to act on feedback
  7. Provide information to teachers tha can be used to help shape teaching

The first four principles are essentially about 'time on task'. Research shows that the more time students spend in studying in and out of class, the more they will learn (Chickering and Gamson, 1987: Gibbs and Simpson, 2004). In REAP these principles meant redesigning modules so that they encouraged regular and structured engagement; for example, by replacing one large assignment at the end of the academic year (e.g. a large essay) with a series of small regular assignments throughout the year (e.g. 500 word essay).

The seven feedback principles are about empowering students, giving them practice in managing and evaluating aspects of their own learning (Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick, 2006). Redesigns might involve enhancing students' interaction with learning goals and assessment criteria (e.g. before a task), creating structured opportunities for reflection or self-assessment (e.g. asking students to examine their work and say in which areas they would like feedback), enacting peer dialogue (e.g. students commenting on each other's presentations), or organising submissions so that feedback can be used in a subsequent assignment.

In the first year, academic structures that foster student engagement need to be balanced with learning activities that foster empowerment (Nicol, 2009). Students must know what they are expected to do and by when, but they should also experience a sense of control over, and responsibility for, their own learning. This will prepare them for life beyond university where they will invariably be required to take control and evaluate the quality of their own and other's work.

Assessment and Feedback Principles: the University of Strathclyde

Building on the REAP project, the University of Strathclyde developed a wider set of 12 principles of assessment and feedback (see below) which while focusing on formative assessment affirmed links with summative assessment (principle 5). These 12 principles, which were agreed by Senate and are now part of Strathclyde’s educational policy, bring into focus other dimensions of assessment practice such as the importance of using assessment as a catalyst to enable learning communities to develop (principle 10) and of enhancing learner involvement in decision-making about assessment policy and practice (principle 9).  In addition, choice is seen as important in assessment (principle 8): assessment designs that offer students some choice in approach, format or timing of assessment are fairer for learners disadvantaged by traditional assessment methodologies: but choice also benefits all learners as it gives some degree of control over assessment to students which is empowering. The rationale for these 12 principles is provided in Nicol (2009)

It should be noted that these 12 assessment and feedback principles overlap and are building blocks for each other.  Hence all 12 do not need to be applied to every assessment design. The principles must also be adapted where appropriate to different disciplinary contexts: self-assessment in history, for example, might be implemented quite differently from self-assessment in mathematics. What is important is that course designers select principles from the set to guide the design of assessments in their own contexts. Going further course designers or institutions might wish to formulate their own set of principles to guide course design.

1.    Help to clarify what good performance is (goals, criteria, standards)
To what extent do learners on your course have opportunities to engage actively with goals, criteria and standards before, during and after an assessment task?

2.    Encourage ‘time and effort’ on challenging learning tasks
To what extent do your assessment tasks encourage regular study in and out of class and deep rather than surface learning?

3.    Deliver high-quality feedback information that helps learners to self-correct
What kind of teacher feedback do you provide, and in what ways does it help learners to self-assess and self-correct?

4.    Provide opportunities to act on feedback (to close any gap between current and desired performance)
To what extent is feedback attended to and acted upon by learners on your course and, if so, in what ways?

5.    Ensure that summative assessment has a positive impact on learning
To what extent are your summative and formative assessments aligned and supportive of the development of valued qualities, skills and understanding?

6.    Encourage interaction and dialogue around learning (peer–peer and teacher–learner)
What opportunities are there for feedback dialogue (peer–peer and/or tutor–learner) around assessment tasks on your course?

7.     Facilitate the development of self-assessment and reflection in learning
To what extent are there formal opportunities for reflection, self-assessment or peer assessment in your course?

8.    Give choice in the topic, method, criteria, weighting or timing of assessments
To what extent do learners have choices in the topics, methods, criteria, weighting and/or timing of learning and assessment tasks on your course?

9.    Involve learners in decision making about assessment policy and practice
To what extent are learners on your course kept informed or engaged in consultations regarding assessment policy decisions?

10.  Support the development of learning groups and learning communities
To what extent do your assessment and feedback processes help to encourage social bonding and the development of learning communities?

11.  Encourage positive motivational beliefs and self-esteem
To what extent do your assessment and feedback processes enhance your learners’ motivation to learn and be successful?

12.  Provide information to teachers that can be used to help shape their teaching
To what extent do your assessment and feedback processes inform and shape your teaching?

 

FORMULATING PRINCIPLES

 

OTHER EXAMPLES OF PRINCIPLES