Coherence and disparity in assessment literacies among higher education staff

Mark S Davies,Maddalena Taras

doi:10.18546/lre.16.3.09

Abstract

Assessment literacies are finding leverage, but there is little exploration of links between theory, practice and perceived understandings in higher education (HE). This article builds on and consolidates research that has taken place over ten years that evaluates assessment literacies among HE lecturers in education and science, and in staff developers, by presenting a comparative view of the data. The results indicate that there was generally a good understanding of theoretical and practical aspects of summative assessment across all groups. However, understandings of formative assessment showed little concordance between and within the groups, particularly among staff developers, but this group was better at clarifying the necessary link between formative assessment and feedback. Although education lecturers had a firmer grasp of central terminologies, in general there are still deficits in understanding about how these terms interrelate. Staff developers' relative weakness of understanding in some areas is of concern since this group shapes those who teach. These issues are exacerbated by a lack of acknowledgement that they exist, which may seriously hamper the development of both staff and students in clarifying processes they encounter daily. Basic shared understandings are required that can translate into personal, coherent assessment literacies. As a community we need to take on this task, because if we do not, as individuals, or individual groups, we will continue to have fragmented assessment literacies.

Highlights

This article uses empirical data on perceptions and understandings of assessment theory and links to practice that have been collected over the course of the past decade or so
Neither science lecturers nor staff developers had the consistency of thinking shown by the education lecturers in the classification of the definition of formative assessment (FA) (Table 2)
Staff developers had a notable change in thinking, where only 69 per cent gave a clear response when asked for a second definition

Summary

Introduction

This article uses empirical data on perceptions and understandings of assessment theory and links to practice that have been collected over the course of the past decade or so. Our goal is to consolidate the comparable data, to draw comparisons between the data sets and, if possible, to present meaningful conclusions that have implications for both theory and practice within assessment, learning and teaching in higher education (HE) in particular In this way we hope to enrich the ongoing debate on assessment literacy by comparing in particular the understandings of front-line teaching staff who shape the assessment processes with those of the people who have responsibility for training them. Our work is at the core of assessment literacy in focusing on theoretical relationships of key terms and their interrelatedness, exploring how assessment literate different HE staff groups are This helps to disentangle conceptual intricacies which may not be visible in practice. Being assessment literate requires understanding of epistemologies, concepts and practices within specific and varied contexts (Taras, 2012b, 2016)

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