Education guide 'Eindhoven designs' - Technische Universiteit ...

Eindhoven designs / volume two 107
Assessment
Assessments are performed from a holistic as
well as constructivist perspective on learning.
They are not about what students accomplish
in separate learning activities, but address
the developmental stage which students have
achieved in the semester as a whole, as well
as their growth as a designer compared to the
previous semester. Moreover, it is the student
who has to demonstrate this: by constructing
a meaningful and coherent ‘picture’ of his
learning and design achievements.
Focus and scope of the
assessment
The focus of the assessment is the integrated
whole of students’ development of the overall
competence of designing, their vision on
designing and their growth as a designer, as
communicated through their showcase and
underpinned with evidence. This integrated
whole is represented in the visualisation of our
competence framework (see chapter four) and
is explained in more detail in chapter five.
Students’ competence of designing is shaped
by the integration of their competency profile;
their ability to go through and shape their
design process; the quality of their overall
design, of the whole of their deliverables;
and their overall professional and personal
attitude. Determinants for students’ vision on
designing are the extent to which students
have defined this, express it in their design
process and deliverables, and use it to
direct their overall development. Students’
growth as a designer is reflected by the
evolvement of their overall competence of
designing and vision on designing over time,
so across semesters: how does their current
development compare to their past and give
direction to their future?
Although the assessment focuses on the
integrated whole, we would like to stress that
the scope of the assessment is wider: the
assessment also takes into account how this
whole is shaped by the various parts, how
these separate parts themselves have evolved,
how the connections between the parts have
evolved, and how they contribute to the
whole. It is the connections between the parts,
together with the development of all the parts,
that shape a student’s ‘picture’ as a whole.
The formal or summative function of an
assessment is to take a decision on the
student’s progress in the programme and to
assign credits or not. In our case this decision
is determined by the developmental stage
which a student has achieved for his or her
overall competence of designing and vision
on designing, and whether or not this is the
expected stage, given the block he/she has
been doing. The point of reference for this
decision is our model of five developmental
stages: (Blank) - Awareness - Depth -
Expertise – Visionary (see chapter six for more
information). Another point of reference is the
student’s Personal Development Plan.
Assessments also have a prominent feedback
function. They provide students with an
evaluation of their overall development as a