Communication plays an important role in manyprofessional contexts. This is especially truefor students in the field of social work. Theaim of this study was to develop formative,self-regulated multimedia self-assessment ofsocial-communicative competencies for socialwork students. First, a pilot study wasconducted to gain insight into the students'specific characteristics. This insight was usedto design guidelines for the development of theassessment instrument in order to tune these tothe students' perceptions, instructionalpreferences, and personalities and thusenhancing the students' enthusiasm to use theself-assessment instrument. This might increasethe chance for successful implementation ofthis new form of assessment. A first version of a multimedia test wasdeveloped. A quality expert meeting wasorganised to gain insight into expertjudgements on the quality of the test and toobtain indications for improvement of theassessment. A second version of the test wasconstructed and put on the Internet. Nearly 400students completed the assessment and expressedtheir opinions on this new way of communicationassessment. We found it was possible to testsocial-communicative competence by means ofmultimedia, with the help of digital video. Theuse of Internet makes assessments available atany time to fit curriculum needs and alsoresolves time and space constraints. Ourconclusion was that the multimedia test isreasonably valid. All students reported havingliked the multimedia assessment.
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In programmatic assessment (PA), an arrangement of different assessment methods is deliberately designed across the entire curriculum, combined and planned to support both robust decision-making and student learning. In health sciences education, evidence about the merits and pitfalls of PA is emerging. Although there is consensus about the theoretical principles of PA, programs make diverse design choices based on these principles to implement PA in practice, fitting their own contexts. We therefore need a better understanding of how the PA principles are implemented across contexts—within and beyond health sciences education. In this study, interviews were conducted with teachers/curriculum designers representing nine different programs in diverse professional domains. Research questions focused on: (1) design choices made, (2) whether these design choices adhere to PA principles, (3) student and teacher experiences in practice, and (4) context-specific differences between the programs. A wide range of design choices were reported, largely adhering to PA principles but differing across cases due to contextual alignment. Design choices reported by almost all programs include a backbone of learning outcomes, data-points connected to this backbone in a longitudinal design allowing uptake of feedback, intermediate reflective meetings, and decision-making based on a multitude of data-points made by a committee and involving multi-stage procedures. Contextual design choices were made aligning the design to the professional domain and practical feasibility. Further research is needed in particular with regard to intermediate-stakes decisions.
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Earlier research argues that educational programmes based on social cognitive theory are successful in improving students’ self-efficacy. Focusing on some formative assessment characteristics, this qualitative research intends to study in-depth how student teachers’ assessment experiences contribute to their self-efficacy. We interviewed 15 second year student teachers enrolled in a competence based teacher educational programme. Thematic content analysis results reveal that the assessment characteristics ‘authenticity’ and ‘feedback’ exert a positive influence on student teachers self-efficacy during all phases of the portfolio competence assessment. The results provide a fine-grained view of several types of self-efficacy information connected with these assessment phases.
Teachers have a crucial role in bringing about the extensive social changes that are needed in the building of a sustainable future. In the EduSTA project, we focus on sustainability competences of teachers. We strengthen the European dimension of teacher education via Digital Open Badges as means of performing, acknowledging, documenting, and transferring the competencies as micro-credentials. EduSTA starts by mapping the contextual possibilities and restrictions for transformative learning on sustainability and by operationalising skills. The development of competence-based learning modules and open digital badge-driven pathways will proceed hand in hand and will be realised as learning modules in the partnering Higher Education Institutes and badge applications open for all teachers in Europe.Societal Issue: Teachers’ capabilities to act as active facilitators of change in the ecological transition and to educate citizens and workforce to meet the future challenges is key to a profound transformation in the green transition.Teachers’ sustainability competences have been researched widely, but a gap remains between research and the teachers’ practise. There is a need to operationalise sustainability competences: to describe direct links with everyday tasks, such as curriculum development, pedagogical design, and assessment. This need calls for an urgent operationalisation of educators’ sustainability competences – to support the goals with sustainability actions and to transfer this understanding to their students.Benefit to society: EduSTA builds a community, “Academy of Educators for Sustainable Future”, and creates open digital badge-driven learning pathways for teachers’ sustainability competences supported by multimodal learning modules. The aim is to achieve close cooperation with training schools to actively engage in-service teachers.Our consortium is a catalyst for leading and empowering profound change in the present and for the future to educate teachers ready to meet the challenges and act as active change agents for sustainable future. Emphasizing teachers’ essential role as a part of the green transition also adds to the attractiveness of teachers’ work.
Toetsen is een essentieel onderdeel van het onderwijs. Helaas leidt het huidige gebruik van toetsen vooral tot kortetermijn-effecten op leren: leerlingen werken van toets naar toets en het leren stopt bij het ontvangen van het cijfer. Deze constatering heeft veel VO-scholen gestimuleerd andere aanpakken te verkennen. Formatief evalueren is een bewezen aanpak die de ontwikkeling, betrokkenheid en het langetermijnleren van leerlingen versterkt. Momenteel stellen veel scholen de formatieve functie van toetsen centraal: zo reduceren scholen bijvoorbeeld het aantal momenten waarop cijfers worden gegeven en investeren zij in de kwaliteit van feedback. Zij zoeken naar manieren om zonder ‘formele toetsen’ inzicht te krijgen in de ontwikkeling van leerlingen. Docenten die binnen hun eigen lespraktijk aan de slag zijn met formatieve evaluatie, geven zelf aan dat dit op kleine schaal tot mooie resultaten leidt: docenten ervaren een toenemende motivatie en eigenaarschap bij leerlingen, en geven aan zelf meer plezier te hebben in het lesgeven. Toch ervaren zij ook de nodige knelpunten. Het blijkt dat docenten weliswaar in staat zijn om losstaande formatieve leeractiviteiten toe te passen, maar handelingsverlegenheid ervaren bij het ontwerpen en uitvoeren van een programma van formatieve leeractiviteiten: een combinatie van bewust gekozen en in samenhang ingezette formatieve leeractiviteiten die de juiste informatie oplevert om beslissingen te kunnen nemen over hoe het onderwijs verder vorm te geven ten dienste van het verdere leren van hun leerlingen. Doel van dit project is wetenschappelijk onderbouwde én praktische handvatten te ontwikkelen die docenten ondersteunen bij het ontwerpen en uitvoeren van een dergelijke combinatie van formatieve leeractiviteiten. De kernopbrengsten van dit project zijn ontwerpprincipes die docenten helpen bij het maken van een programma van formatieve leeractiviteiten dat docenten aantoonbaar ondersteunt bij het nemen van beslissingen over leerlingen en een praktische handreiking om deze combinatie van activiteiten in te zetten in de dagelijkse onderwijspraktijk.
Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) has the ambition to activate learners to engage in societal issues by exploring shifting perspectives on ourselves and our complex world. Educators across University of Applied Sciences (UAS) in the Netherlands are working hard to bring this ambition to life by implementing innovative pedagogies that emphasise transformative learning and empower students to take action to ignite societal transitions. However, both literature and practise have yet to establish educational assessment practise suited to ESD ambitions. This Comenius Teaching Fellow project proposes an innovation in the practise of sustainability education by developing an assessment format crucial to the constructive alignment in ESD. Assessment formats will be prototyped within the transformative course Creating Impact at Breda University of Applied Sciences resulting in two main products: (1) innovative assessment format for Creating Impact, including Implementation Toolkit and (2) a generic Design Toolkit ESD Assessment. The products are directly developed for the outlined context, but contribute to the increased capacity of UAS educators more broadly to embed ESD in educational practise. Future educational forms addressing societal challenges must take into account all aspects of educational design, including assessment, to ensure constructive alignment. By focusing on assessment in ESD, the outcomes of this project are an essential contribution to bridging the gap between ESD theory and educational practice, so that, in the words of the Vereniging Hogescholen, we educate our students to become professionals who help build a new, sustainable society
