Ipsative Assessment: Motivation through Marking Progress PDF
Preview Ipsative Assessment: Motivation through Marking Progress
Ipsative Assessment This page intentionally left blank Ipsative Assessment Motivation through Marking Progress Gwyneth Hughes Institute of Education, University of London, UK © Gwyneth Hughes 2014 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2014 978-1-137-26721-4 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2014 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-44335-2 ISBN 978-1-137-26722-1 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781137267221 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. Typeset by MPS Limited, Chennai, India. Contents List of Figures and Tables vi Acknowledgements vii 1 A Fresh Look at Assessment 1 Part I The Effects of Competition on Assessment: Making a Case for Ipsative Assessment 2 The Purposes of Assessment: Competition and Social Selection 15 3 Assessment for Learning: In the Shadows? 33 4 The Effects of Competition on Assessment for Learning 53 5 Exploring Ipsative Assessment 71 6 Making the Case for Ipsative Assessment: Assessment for Learning Revisited 92 Part II Ipsative Assessment in Practice: Challenges and V isions 7 Two Case Studies of Ipsative Assessment in Academic Settings 113 8 A Dual Systems Model of Assessment: Lessons from Doctoral Supervision 139 9 Leading Innovation and Change in Educational Settings: The Challenges of Assessment Reform 162 10 Institutional Case Study of Innovation in Assessment 180 11 Ipsative Assessment As a Feasible Utopia 200 Appendix 1: Feedback analysis tool 211 Appendix 2: Feedback profiles before and after introducing ipsative assessment 212 References 213 Subject Index 224 v List of Figures and Tables Figures 5.1 Linear representation of measurement of learning for five students with competitive assessment 74 5.2 Linear representation of progress for the same five students with ipsative assessment 74 5.3 Feed forward for three (or more) sequential assessments (adapted from Hughes, 2011) 81 5.4 Ipsative cumulative scheme for three (or more) sequential assessments (adapted from Hughes, 2011) 82 7.1 Ipsative assessment scheme for a distance-learning Masters course (adapted from Hughes, 2011) 119 Tables 5.1 Summary of approaches to ipsative assessment 91 8.1 A dual systems scheme combining ipsative and competitive assessment 152 vi Acknowledgements I would like to thank my research project funders the Centre for Distance Education, London University, and the Joint Information Systems Committee. I would also like to thank Wendy Smith, Dr Celia Whitchurch and Professor David Nicol for their encouragement and support for the idea of ipsative assessment, and also thanks to all those colleagues who have worked with me on the various research projects mentioned in the book. vii 1 A Fresh Look at Assessment Most of the time, most people will not achieve perfection or excellence, but most people can make improvements most of the time. This sim- ple statement will form the basis for the book and in this introductory chapter I will begin to explore why I think a fresh look at assessment is long overdue. Addressing the problem of assessment Assessment seems to be a troubling and treacherous process for all involved: learners complain about unfairness and poor feedback and many find the process stressful, while many assessors and managers worry about maintaining standards and motivating learners. Although teachers may appreciate that assessment can empower learners, design- ing assessments, marking and giving feedback are often perceived as a chore. This book argues that the root of the problem is that assessment is highly competitive and students are constantly comparing them- selves to often unachievable standards, while assessment should really be about learning and progressing. To illustrate the damage that competition can cause and to begin a fresh look at assessment, I would like to present a short anecdote. I play in an amateur string quartet with three others who have had similar educational backgrounds to me. We gathered one evening to view a video recording of our recent concert. My three fellow string players’ viewing of the video was accompanied by volumes of criticism and cries of dismay at their perceived inadequacy of our performance. One player even suggested that perhaps we should give up playing alto- gether. I pointed out that they were comparing our performance to that of p rofessional musicians and that such comparison is not helpful – we 1 2 Ipsative Assessment were not aiming to compete with other quartets. I reminded them that when we first started playing together two years ago we played as four separate voices and not as an ensemble, but the video recording dem- onstrated that we were now listening to each other and so there was evidence of how much we had improved. We would not have been able to give a credible concert performance at all two years ago and this per- formance was our personal best. Switching from a judgement based on a competitive standard to an assessment of our progress enabled us to feel much more proud of our performance and continue playing together, rather than disband. This incident demonstrated to me very starkly the pernicious effect of learning framed by competitive external standards that has so dominated all of our learning lives and how a simple switch to a focus on progress can have huge benefits without requiring any extra work. Few would dispute that students can benefit from assessment and feedback and that assessment can also be harmful, but despite decades of initiatives to provide learners with better assessment, for example, coursework instead of examinations, alongside the release of resources for making assessment more reliable and fair, the problems with assess- ment persist. In response to the concerns about assessment there have been numerous books analysing practice and research providing us with insight into the learner and teacher perspectives. A movement that started in the school sector has grown up around viewing assessment as being for learning rather than only assessment of learning (Black & Wiliam, 2003, 2009). If students are to learn from assessment then they need both meaningful opportunities to demonstrate what they have learnt and feedback that they can use. But, students repeatedly report that feedback is not helpful and not understood (Boud & Molloy, 2013; Handley et al., 2008; Walker, 2009). There are some enduring myths about feedback: firstly, that feedback is a one-way process of imparting information on performance from an expert to novice, and secondly, that there is a single ‘best practice’ model of feedback that applies to all learners in all situations. These myths are now being challenged (Boud & Molloy, 2013; Nicol & Macfarlane-Dick, 2006; Carless et al., 2011; Crisp, 2007). But, while there are undoubtedly pockets of excel- lent practice and broad agreement that assessment has improved over the past few decades, there remains unease about assessment and some fundamental disagreements over its purpose and practice. Recent educational contexts do not inspire optimism over continued change for the better and may even herald regression to the kind of mass testing that has been largely discredited. Post-compulsory education in
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