Liaison Magazine - LLAS Centre for Languages, Linguistics and ...

teaching
“We are being transparent about the things that we ask from our
students, but we are also trying to increase the opportunities for
support and access to feedback in all of its many guises.”
conveyed as a strength, a celebration of
academic diversity (in face of a student
desire for greater standardisation and
harmonisation)).
Even more encouragingly, students
themselves suggested enhancements
to current practice, and their counsel,
although not always new, is worth
repeating: to be specific and avoid
vagueness; to provide feedback in
language that is relevant to them and
can be used as a means for
improvement; to strive for greater
clarity in grade descriptors; and lastly
and most interestingly, a suggestion
that we as a faculty introduce a way
for Level 1 students to “bridge the
gap” between school and university
assessment.
Taking this last suggestion seriously,
we initiated an extended induction
across the faculty (which includes the
School of Modern Languages and
Cultures, with its 235 Level 1 Single
Honours students). As part of these
induction activities, we ran a lecture
and workshop session addressing the
topic “How is university work different
from school".The workshop gave
students hands-on access to the
assessed work of their fellow students,
together with markers’ written
feedback.This opportunity to discuss
assessment, marking scales, grade
descriptors, feedback sheets and
personal tutorials, right at the start of
their academic career, was welcomed
by students.They valued the open and
transparent discussion and began to
trust that there was no trickery or
witchcraft involved in the marking of
their work.These sessions have since
become embedded in the normal,
annual activities of the Faculty of Arts
and, we think, count as one example
of good practice in this area. In fact,
the focus groups also brought to light
other areas of good practice that had
already existed and so, in order to
disseminate the findings in Leeds and
beyond, we called upon the expertise
of LLAS to help fund and co-ordinate
two regional staff development events
where linguists across the country
could engage in this important debate.
Thus, in May and June 2007, the
University of Leeds ran two staff
development workshops on
Assessment and Feedback in Modern
Languages funded (with our thanks) by
the LLAS “workshops to go” scheme.
One workshop took place on 8th May
2007 at CILT in London (our thanks
to CILT too), and the other on 27th
June at the University of Leeds, with
the aims of disseminating the results of
the Leeds project; sharing good
practice from the University of Leeds
that the project had highlighted, in the
form of case studies from academic
staff from across the School of
Modern Languages; hearing from
experts in the field of assessment and
feedback (Professor Brenda Smith,
Higher Education Academy and
Professor Phil Race, Leeds
Metropolitan University); and lastly,
creating a network of professionals
who were working in this key area of
learning and teaching.
Both workshops proved lively and
stimulating and included much
discussion from the participants who
attended (over 70 in total).The case
studies from Leeds featured, amongst
others, Dr Matthew Treherne’s
innovative “Experiencing Art” module
and Dr Paul Rowe’s “Independent
Study Component” which uses peer
assessment in a Level 1 French
module.The feedback from
participants on the day was
overwhelmingly positive and many said
that they would be taking practical
examples back to use in their own
teaching practice.
To bring things right up-to-date
from the Leeds perspective, our work
that began with the project in 2006 in
response to the NSS continues, and, as
ever, there are no easy answers.
Presently, we are using TQEF monies
to develop an online, interactive
resource which gives students exam
feedback and allows them to “feedforward”
to future assessment.We are
being transparent about the things
that we ask from our students, but we
are also trying to increase the
opportunities for support and access
to feedback in all of its many guises.
One of the lessons from the 2006
focus groups – that staff and student
perceptions do not always coincide –
is apposite: our online resource will
include a discussion about the many
varieties of feedback – one attempt, at
least, to ensure that when we as staff
discuss feedback, we are speaking the
same language as our students.
Until June 2008, Abi Matthewman
was the Faculty of Arts Learning
and Teaching Enhancement Officer
at the University of Leeds.
Liaison magazine • llas.ac.uk •37