Investigating Formative Frameworks

SLTI / School of Business and Law

The background

Responding to the strategic objectives of the Director of the school of Business and Law:

To understand how students’ prior educational experience influenced how they engaged with and benefited from different formative interventions.

The project

1. What do existing assessment strategies look like from a staff and student perspective?

2. Could this reveal ways of enhancing their effectiveness?

3. Could this help understand and anticipate the impact of varied educational backgrounds?

The Approach

Involved students and staff engaged in two level 5 Business Management units (BIS249 and BIS250).

Built around an action research model that would allow interventions to be planned, tested and evaluated.

Stage 1Gathering staff and student viewpoints:

1. Interviews with staff.2. Survey of students:• understanding the assignment brief• developing relevant knowledge and

skills • Practice and feedback

Outcomes:Staff StudentsGroup work:• To promote effective learning• To allow more ‘authentic’

assessment

Seminars:• For discussion around learning

and assessment• To support tutors in giving

personalised feedback• To facilitate group working

Drawbacks:• Engagement

Understanding the assignment brief:• Explanations in seminars (12)• Electronic and paper based resources (9)• Tutors answering student enquiries (2)developing relevant knowledge and skills: • Group work (6)

• increased self-belief• ability to test and acquire ideas • feedback from peers, tutors and other contributors.

• Seminar activities:• mind mapping • Gantt charts • fishbone diagrams • Referencing

Feedback and Preparation:• 13:7 on whether preparation was effective

However“Not very [useful] as it is a very minor part of assessment.”“time slots for individuals (one week)”; “More details and in depth about the whole thing and more clear and direct as well” “In class feedback individually based”. “More specific to each person”

The interventionFormative tasks were specifically designed to complement the lecture material and the summative assessment task, they were:

• introduced and explained in the lecture sessions• provided students with an opportunities to practice using a particular

consultancy tool or model on a weekly basis. • facilitated by the seminar tutor who gives direct feedback on their approach

to using the tool within their live brief. • Promoted to students as resources that could be included as appendices in

the assessed report

Stage 2In this survey the questions:

1. Sought to identify if students were conscious that mechanisms had changed

2. Otherwise reflected the areas of enquiry targeted in the first survey

OutcomesNotice change Understanding Assessment Practice, Preparation and Feedback18 student recognised change

5 did not…

“They ALL relate to the assignment”

“Related to work a lot more”

“More specific theory that relates directly to the assignment”

“…Relevant exercises”

“[the activity or tutor] teaches subject relevant to assessment very generally”.“Some bits have been and some have not”“Given no clear direction”“The activities have made me to understand how I need to do my assessment and what I should put that can help me get the high mark”.“In depth information about what is required”“Its allowed me to discuss what needs to be done clearly and I can go about it”“It has helped as a lot of detail has been given to make sure I know what is needed”

All but one agreed it helped“All information was available for assessment”“Providing exercises relevant to the assessment”“The ones that help understand what you need have been useful in the preparation”“The Wednesday Seminars going through theory from the lectures are good”“More interactive has been helpful as it allows us to directly talk about our company”“The tools provided were very useful”“Because helpful resources are given”“Having talks about it and giving explanations”“Step by step progress with group”“Everything explained clearly”

Next stepsMust remember this is a tool to aid planning, not concrete evidence for the impact of assessment.

A number of issues remain ambiguous:

• Lots of students wanted feedback that was more ‘in depth’, ‘more detailed’ and more specific.

• How is it that even students who recognised the value of group working as a formative experience wanted more one to one engagement

Need for a focus group.

Nevertheless…An effective formative strategy should enable a constructive bridge between teaching & learning activities and the summative tasks, facilitating additional feedback to students and providing relevant learning value to formative tasks

What do we mean by formativeUnderstanding the formative dimension:

• Formulate : To create, invent or produce by careful effort.

• Transform : To change in composition or structure, character or condition

Both terms imply a ‘something’ (the self)

ActivitiesFormative

process

Envisioning the formative

Content

Environment

Teachers

Shared, negotiatedand visible.

Internal and owned by the student

Assessment

Support