CHANGE MANAGEMENT IN SCHOOL

Change Management in School

Change Management in School

After a decade of rapid expansion in Australian higher education, student numbers have grown considerably in many courses and subjects, especially at the undergraduate level.Larger class sizes pose significant teaching challenges, not least in the assessment of student learning. Perhaps most troubling, large classes may limit the amount of feedback provided to students.

In response to the pressures and challenges of assessing larger groups of students, academic staff are responding through:

greater attention to the communication of clear assessment criteria to students;

the development and use of marking guides to be used by teaching and assessing teams;

the increasing use of various forms of exemplars to guide student efforts — as well as to guide marking and grading — including the modelling of discipline-based thinking, writing and performance; and

the continuous refinement and dissemination of assessment policy and practice in relation to large student groups.

The issue of workload is central in any decisions about assessment of large classes for it is a serious one for students and staff alike. Staff teaching large student groups invariably undertake an informal, qualitative weighing-up of the efficiency of assessment tasks vis-à-vis their educational effectiveness.

There is little doubt that establishing an effective assessment program — developing criteria, guides, exemplars and models; discussing and refining them and communicating them to students and other staff — will have an initial negative impact on workload for staff with coordinating responsibilities.

However, this preparatory work is likely to lead to three gains. The first is a reduction in the time required for marking due to a higher quality of student submission. The second is a resolution of some of the potential issues likely when many staff are involved in marking and grading, through a streamlining of marking and grading practices. Finally, the availability of clear, transparent criteria and examples of work will contribute positively to the overall quality of teaching and learning.

The assessment of large student cohorts presents five distinct though interrelated challenges:

Avoiding assessment that encourages shallow learning

Providing high quality, individual feedback

Fairly assessing a diverse mix of students

Managing the volume of marking and coordinating the staff involved in marking

Avoiding plagiarism

In an effort to manage these challenges, academic staff have increasingly turned to group and on-line assessment. Carefully planned and managed group work does appear to help address many of the assessment challenges listed above. (Detailed information about creating ...