NICE HANDBOOK – Academic training of Career ... - Nice-network.eu

NICE Handbook7.4. Assessment MethodsJukka LerkkanenIt is vital to consider good practice in the assessment methods that are employed by academicprogrammes offering career guidance and counselling (CGC) education. The NICE Handbookoffers insight on how the NICE Core Competences (NCC) can be promoted in educationalprogrammes and how teaching and learning methods as well as resources can promote thislearning (Chapters 7.2 and 7.3). Assessment is recognised as having ‘powerful leverage’ (Shay,2008) on both student learning and the teaching curricula. It is a challenge to ensure thatassessment methods employed are most effective to measure performance and also importantlyto support new learning. This section will review and evaluate assessment methodsused across the network NICE. This also offers an effective way to study curricula, the relatedcompetences and the educational practices in these professional programmes.Competence-based assessment in higher educationThe traditional experience of teachers and learners has been of assessment as something thathappens subsequent to teaching and learning. Nowadays, assessment practices should signalto students what they should be learning and how they should be learning. The key issues ofassessment are: What is the basis of assessment and what purposes does it serve?The first issue concerns the basis of assessment. This is usually one of two categories: normorcriterion- referenced. Norm-referenced assessment (NRA) ranks student performance inorder, so students are compared with one another. Criterion-referenced assessment (CRA)provides a grade that indicates what a student has learned and how well their performancematches criteria that have been already set (Biggs, 2003).CRA is constructed on competences and criterion-referenced (which is why it is often alsoreferred to as standards-based assessment). It is increasingly viewed as the most appropriatemodel for assessment across the higher education sector. But the promise of criteria- andstandards-based assessment models of assessment may not be realised unless teachers canfind ways of making both criteria and standards understandable to students. The rationaleis that students should be clear about the criteria, what they are expected to do in an assessmenttask, the standards and how well they are expected to do it (Armstrong, Chan, Malfroy, &Thomson, 2008). Recent research showed that students can find written descriptions of criteriaand standards difficult to understand (Hendry, Bromberger, & Armstrong, 2011; Handley& Williams, 2011). Therefore we emphasise the need for transparency of both criteria andstandards. The NCC and the NICE Curriculum have a vital role to play in this context.Criterion-referenced assessment is related to credit transfer and the aim to increase cost-effectivenessin higher education. It is helpful to evaluate the credit transfer in NICE as a network.The common framework for NICE partners is the European Credit Transfer and AccumulationSystem (ECTS). Credits in ECTS can only be obtained after successful completion of the workrequired and appropriate assessment of the learning outcomes achieved. Learning outcomesexpress what the student will know, understand or be able to do after completion of a processof learning (European Commission, 2004).The second issue concerns the purposes of assessment. Traditionally, assessment had twomain purposes: summative and formative. The purpose of summative assessment relatesto grading and reporting, for judgement and decisions, and for selection and monitoring. Inthe assessment of learning, the judgment will explicitly compare students’ performance withcriteria based on standards and is carried out after the teaching episode has concluded. Thejudgement may then be quantitative in the form of ‘has/ has not’ met the standard or on a scalerepresented as scores or levels (James et al., 2006).Formative assessment is used when the purpose is to promote students’ learning and development.The challenge is how to adapt teaching and learning practices to meet learningneeds and how to use the feedback during learning. One significant element is the emphasison learners’ use of information about their own progress. This draws attention to the fact thatteachers are not the only assessors; instead the students are actively engaged in assessment.Students can be involved in self- and peer-assessment. They are autonomous participants inthe assessment process who take responsibility for their own learning. The underlying principleis that the assessment tasks should comprise a genuine representation of the objectivesof the course or unit (James et al., 2006).In the assessment of competence the role of students is essential. Ideally, students connectassessment with the competences they have developed through their lessons, but also in somecases more generally with abilities, personal competences and/or values (Rasmussen & Fieche,2011). Once again the sharing of criteria with learners is important. Learners need to seewhat the criteria mean, as applied in the context of their own professional work. In addition,teachers’ interactions with students should be pedagogically effective. If students see the feedbackthey receive from teachers as irrelevant to future assignments and modules, they maydecide not to further engage in studies (Handley & Williams, 2011).In CGC professionals’ education, formative aspects are important, as the professional trainingoffers students the opportunity to develop their meta-cognitive skills, self-monitoring andself-regulation through reflection. The task within this work group was to identify what assessmentpractices and tools are used at present, as well as furthering our knowledge of howfeedback is employed and how assessment or self-reflection is embedded in the assessmentprocess.The aim of the study was to explore the following questions: What is the basis of assessmentand what are the main aims of assessment in CGC professionals’ education?Academic Training Approaches122 123