I’ve been on the road even more than usual recently, dealing with a domestic crisis of a rather unusual nature (a tree through the roof of my elderly in-laws’ house down in Sussex). They’re OK, but assessment work is low priority right now. Apart from thinking about it.
And when I think, I always come to the same conclusion – what we do isn’t really very good. There’s lots of theorising out there, but our assessment practice still isn’t great. So, after my previous timid posting, let’s think big. This is my personal manifesto for change. In order to improve our assessment practice, we need to be truly:
Student centred (which isn’t the same as saying that we should always do what students say they want, but our students and learning should come first. Always).
Innovative (or stictly, open to innovation, making change when that’s appropriate, but not when it isn’t).
Reflective
Evaluative
Joined up (trying to make our practice more coherent – I’m not saying that all practice should be identical, but rather that we should think about the big picture).
Think SIREJ – my initials with anger in the middle!