Quote of the day – assessment anxiety (even for formative assessment)

‘The formative assessment for Anne was not a supportive step toward summative assessment, but a significant hurdle in its own right; a moment of judgement of her aptitude for higher education and her identity. Therefore, for Anne, the formative process was one of anxious torment’ [pg515]

‘For our participants, as one assessment hurdle is jumped, another looms darkly in the distance.’ [pg517]

Cramp, A., Lamond, C., Coleyshaw, L & Beck, S. (2012). Empowering or disabling? Emotional reactions to assessment amongst part-time adult students. Teaching in Higher Education, 17(5), 509-521 [pg515]

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2 Responses to Quote of the day – assessment anxiety (even for formative assessment)

  1. Tim Hunt says:

    Well, not quite the rosy endorsement of what we do that I would have liked to read on a Friday evening, but very thought provoking as usual, so thank you anyway Sally.

    The full paper is an interesting read for those who can get through the paywall. Interestingly, the first research finding there is students initial confusion about “The mystery of higher education ‘levelness’”. That seems to be exactly why the OU tries to add early and often formative feedback at the start of its level 1 courses.

    I am thinking of all sorts of interesting follow-on research questions:
    * does it make a difference if your formative work is computer-marked, rather than judged by a human?
    * how does instant feedback (even during the task) affect the emotional response?
    * to what extent do the recommendations in the paper help students?

    (OU folks, the direct link is http://www.tandfonline.com.libezproxy.open.ac.uk/doi/pdf/10.1080/13562517.2012.658563 )

  2. Sally Jordan says:

    Thanks Tim.

    There is some research that points towards feedback from a computer being more helpful than feedback from a person in situations like this.

    You’ve probably guessed that these ‘Quotes of the day’ are intended to provoke, so quite a lot of them will be uncomfortable, but I’ve just found a lighter one for a Sunday afternoon!

    Sally

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