Aligning Teaching and Assessment: The Key to Greatly Improved Graduate Quality and Sustainable Teaching Efficiency Status quo

In practical terms, what we teach (the syllabus) and how we teach it (the teaching method) are often derived from criteria for assessment ("what we teach is that which will be assessed"). This is particularly the case where external (e.g. professional) accreditation is essential to the sustainability of a program. Criteria for accreditation are almost invariably expressed in terms of minimum (lowest) standards, of domain-specific core technical abilities acceptable to the accrediting authority that must be achieved by all graduates. In practical terms this means the accreditation criteria are the abilities of the weakest passing graduate.

An "accreditation imperative" dominates most such programs, and the minimum standards set by the accreditation criteria often become "criteria for assessment". In the worst situations the minimum standard core competencies become the whole curriculum, with teaching confined to the minimum necessary to "pass" the accreditation criteria, and passing all the accreditation criteria is often claimed as "excellence".

Criteria for professional accreditation, however, do not include many of the essential elements of a quality university education that are expected of all university graduates (regardless of specialization).

Claims of excellence in these situations are simply absurd; an education program restricted to meeting only minimum standards cannot legitimately claim excellence. In these situations, it is the learning outcome objectives that are lacking, not necessarily the teaching or assessment. Nevertheless, the actual learning outcomes do not meet university quality assurance expectations and deny claims of excellence. Relevant employers, the community and government know these claims are absurd and express their dissatisfaction through public complaints about "the problem with higher education" and take action by lobbying for intervention in the programs and in the organization and funding of higher education (A.C. Nielsen Research Services, 2000).

As academic teachers, we react to pressures from external accreditation authorities for "greater relevance" by adding new "relevant" content; to pressure from our institution for more "cost effectiveness" by changing our teaching methods; and to government pressure for "accountability" by changing our assessment methods (Cowdroy & Williams, 2002). Significantly, though, we tend to focus on only one of the three operative elements of education at a time (James et al., 2002); we rarely consider all three in a coordinated or integral approach, causing us to be locked into an inevitable succession of attempted "catch-up" changes that becomes a quality failure syndrome (because the succession of changes never catch up).

اخر الاخبار

اخبار العتبة العباسية المقدسة

متحف الكفيل يباشر صيانة منسوجات تراثية تابعة للعتبة العسكرية المقدسة

العتبة العباسية المقدسة تستذكر مظلومية الإمام الكاظم (عليه السلام) عبر مجلس عزاء

قسم العلاقات العامة يناقش مع منتدى شباب الإسكان إقامة مهرجان تكريم طالبات المدارس المرتديات العباءة في القادسية

سماحة السيد الصافي يدعو إلى توحيد الجهود في تحقيق التراث لضمان الرصانة والدقة وخدمة الساحة العلمية

المزيد

الآخبار الصحية

6 فواكة تساعدك على الشعور بتحسّن عند المرض

حفاظا على صحة العين.. هذا أفضل وقت لتناول فيتامين أ

الاستخدام اليومي لسماعات الأذن.. أخطر مما تتصور !

هل توقيت نشاطك اليومي يؤثر على صحة دماغك؟.. العلماء يجيبون

المزيد

الآخبار التكنلوجية

ابتكار ألماني قد يغيّر مستقبل صناعة البلاستيك

تحديثات وأرباح عبر المشاهدات.. ما الذي تخطط له "لينكد إن"؟

"الكوكايين الوردي".. مخدر جديد يثير قلق السلطات الأميركية

دراسة: تغيّرات في أسلوب القيادة قد تكشف مبكرا عن الخرف !

المزيد

مواضيع ذات صلة

Parents with Learning Disabilities CONCLUSION

PROVISION OF SUPPORT

CARING FOR CHILDREN

EUGENICS AND ETHICAL ISSUES

PARENTING

DISCRIMINATION AND DIVERSITY

THE HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

Parents with Learning Disabilities

Legislation and Learning Disabilities CONCLUSION

LEGAL SAFEGUARDS

MENTAL CAPACITY ACT 2005

THE HUMAN RIGHTS ACT 1998