A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education Enhancing academic and Practice

Assessing student learning
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of gauging how students are learning that may be used in class is Angelo and Cross’
(1993) one-minute paper, in which students are requested to write answers to two
questions at the end of a lecture: ‘What is the single most important thing you have
learned in this session?’ and ‘What is the single most important thing you feel you still
have to learn?’ The answers are handed in when the students leave and the tutor is then
enabled to correct any misapprehensions at the beginning of the next lecture, giving very
direct and immediate feedback to students.
Interrogating practice
What can you do to improve your feedback using the seven principles
articulated above? How can you monitor/evaluate whether there has been
any improvement?
Assessment as marking
There are six basic principles of marking and grading.
1 Consistency according to QAA (2006a) means ensuring that marking and grading
across all departments and faculties is appropriate and comparable by institutional
guidance on:
• grades or numerical marks;
• defining and treating borderline grades or marks;
• appropriateness of anonymous marking;
• when and what system of double or second marking should be used.
(QAA, 2006a:16–18)
2 Reliability means that any two markers would assign the same grade or numerical
mark to the same piece of work. It is usually ensured by using assessment criteria
and/or a marking scheme. In some disciplines where there is more objective testing,
such as MCQs, this will be easier to accomplish than in others where there is more
subjective judgement, such as music performance. Even in areas which are recognised
as being very difficult to mark objectively, such as laboratory work and fieldwork,
considerable efforts have been made to produce marking schemes which are reliable
(Ellington and Earl, 1997).
3 Validity essentially means establishing that the marking measures what it is supposed
to measure. This is a difficult principle, especially when assessing higher order
skills such as critical thinking, formulating, modelling and solving problems in
written work, which is why markers sometimes focus on lower order skills such as
referencing, grammar and spelling. In science and practitioner disciplines where
competencies are essential, validity may be established through competency models
but there are also competencies which are hard to quantify (Knight, 2007).