Actual assessment practices

Although the reasons that teaching staff to conduct assessment as shown from the questionnaire and focus interview findings tend to focus heavily on providing formative feedback to facilitate students' learning, the feedback that teaching staff usually give to students is at the end of an assessment task when the grade is given. Consequently, students do not have the chance to improve their performance after studying the feedback they received since the assessment is already complete and the grade for that particular task has been given. However, they can often use the formative feedback given to improve themselves for the next task. A typical comment was:

When we grade, we write down feedback on the paper. If there are problems with certain questions, we can include them. ... This is the main mode of feedback for written assignments but if we get to see them we can give them overall feedback, not necessarily focusing on any individuals. The most direct mean of feedback would be the feedback we write on students' paper." (Teacher, Department C)

This correlates with the results from the questionnaire survey where 80% of respondents said that they gave feedback together with grades at the end of the assessment task (Figure 2). It seems that there is little formative assessment given during the actual learning process when teaching staff are in contact with students, such as during lectures when class exercises are given, in tutorials, laboratory classes, through e-mail, or during consultation times for project work, etc. This is unfortunate since this type of feedback has the greatest effect on learning because of the interaction between staff and students, i.e. students can ask questions if they do not understand the feedback given to them. The reasons for this could be due to large class sizes that make such feedback difficult to give. Moreover, students in Hong Kong tend to be very passive and are not willing to engage in discussion with teachers. Many students in fact, expect a grade to be given, and if it is not, they wonder if the teacher has forgotten to record it!

Prof. Biggs, who is the External Assessor of the project, has the view that "feedback" which is given after the assessment task can only be called "comments" since the assessment task has already been completed and students do not have chance to improve their learning and grade. In other words, in a grade-oriented culture, comment has a relatively lower effect on stimulating students to learn since their grades are already determined and they can do nothing to change it anyway. Whereas feedback, which is given during the learning process, before the final grade is given, fulfills its most important function of facilitating and enhancing students' learning. In addition, students are also encouraged to improve their grades by studying the feedback and learning the content of the subject better.

However, the interview findings indicate that most of the feedback is given at the end of an assessment task where grades are given. Consequently, students do not have the chance to improve their learning from the time they receive the feedback to the time their work is graded. A comment from another student was:

"To be candid, it's just lying to say "the motivation to work hard on a subject is because I have interest in it" ... I always aim at getting the highest grade as this will be reflected in the final classification of my award." (Student, Department E)

In other words, as Prof. Biggs has suggested, the assessment determines what and how students learn. The current assessment philosophy seems to focus much more heavily on summative assessment (grading) than on formative assessment (learning). This serves to reinforce the deep-rooted grade-orientated mentality found in many students:

"For practical tests, afterwards, I gather the entire group of students to go over the questions, showing them how to score high and what to avoid and all that ... I'd meet every student with failing grades in person, trying to understand their problems, the factors affecting their learning and so forth. Usually I'd choose the ones who received really bad scores, depending upon the class size of course but in any case they are always welcome to come check their grades and discuss whenever they need to." (Teacher, Department E)

From this comment, the teacher seems to be totally emphasizing teaching students how to score high grades instead of better facilitating the students' learning. Whether he is doing this because he believes this is what he should be doing, or whether he recognizes that this is what students are really interested in, is open to conjecture. However, the end result is that both teacher and students are focusing on the wrong issue. Summative assessment should be only a by-product of the learning process, not an end in itself. However, it is not all bad news, the teaching staff is clearly willing to discuss with the students what they have done wrong and how to rectify it, hoping that they will not make the same mistakes again. Also, it is refreshing to see that he is focusing on the weak students and tries to help them improve, rather than discarding them and only focusing on the strong ones. Finally, the emphasis on teaching students how to score high grades can, in fact, have a positive connotation by clearly identifying what students need to learn to achieve higher grades and to align these to learning outcomes. In this circumstance, helping students obtain higher grades is in fact providing them with advice on how to learn better so as to achieve a higher level of expected learning outcomes.

Another example of the predominance of summative assessment is illustrated by the following comment from a student:

"But instead of returning our exam paper, giving us the model answer is more important. Just as we were always concerned about the model answer of past papers of Alevel examinations¹, we are also concerned about it here at University. If we cannot see such answers, we may keep using the wrong concept and repeat the mistakes over and over again the following year. ... Especially if these concepts are necessary in our future jobs, which may result in serious mistakes being made, like the collapse of the whole building because of a design fault. This is unaffordable in our profession." (Student, Department F)

This comment is very understandable from the students' perspective, but the problem is the absence of feedback along the process. It misses the opportunity of enhancing and facilitating students' learning during the process, which both teaching staff in the interviews, supported by educationalists treasure very much. It also reveals that students, even in university, often believe that there are "model" answers. In reality, these do not exist.

¹ Advanced-level Examination is a public examination in Hong Kong. The student’s results will be used to in the university selection process.

مواضيع ذات صلة

The module Ethics in Healthcare

Curricula requirements

Integration what it means

An Integrated Approach to Learning, Teaching and Assessment in a Healthcare Ethics Module

Perspectives of Teachers and Students towards Assessment Conclusions

Norm-referenced assessment (NRA) in teaching staff grading

Grading descriptors

Actual grading practice

Normal distribution grading policy

Criterion referencing assessment (CRA) and norm-referencing (NRA) assessment

Teaching staff emphasis on summative assessment

Formative and summative assessment