CRADLE 2019 publications round-up – Part 1: Assessment / Evaluative Judgement

9 December 2019

As 2019 draws to a close, we asked the CRADLE team to look over their impressive list of publications for the year and pick some highlights for a special four-part publication round-up. Today – if you’re looking for new perspectives or some inspiration around assessment or evaluative judgement, read on! And if you’re looking for more ideas or food for thought, check out our full 2019 publications round-up!

Part 2: Professional and workplace contexts / Research practice
Part 3: Student experiences / Contract cheating
Part 4: Feedback

Assessment

Performing standards: A critical perspective on the contemporary use of standards in assessment
R. Ajjawi, M. Bearman and D. Boud (2019) Teaching in Higher Education.
In this conceptual paper, the authors trouble representative notions of standards – commonly held assumptions that standards are straightforward representations of knowledge. We offer an alternative understanding that takes account of the messy and enacted nature of standards, where performance brings the standard to life. We offer recommendations for a more performative discourse on standards that is invitational in quality.

Can a rubric do more than be transparent? Invitation as a new metaphor for assessment criteria
M. Bearman and R. Ajjawi (2019) Studies in Higher Education.
This paper contends that transparency has limitations as a metaphor for rubrics and other assessment criteria, and presents a theoretically driven argument for considering ‘invitation’ as an alternate metaphor. We suggest that an invitational rubric invites students: into a ‘productive space’; to sustain learning across tasks; and to develop sophisticated ways of knowing.

Assessment for distinctiveness: Recognising diversity of accomplishments
T. Jorre de St Jorre, D. Boud and E. D. Johnson (2019) Studies in Higher Education.
If large numbers of graduates end up getting the same degree, how will they then be able to differentiate themselves from others in their cohort? Universities are very successful in showing how students are similar to each other: they pursue the same learning outcomes and are assessed in the same ways using the same criteria. This paper discusses the challenges of recognising different student achievements and how they can be portrayed.

Grudges and gratitude: The social-affective impacts of peer assessment
J. Zhou, Y. Zheng and J. H.-M. Tai (2019) Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education.
Peer assessment has substantial impacts, and they are not necessarily all positive. This paper investigates the social and emotional sides of receiving feedback from peers. While the content, scores, and process of peer assessment were all sources of (dis)satisfaction, a key finding was the significance of respect in peer assessment interactions. This paper was led by our visiting scholar Dr Jiming Zhou.

Evaluative judgement

Threats to student evaluative judgement and their management
G. Joughin, D. Boud and P. Dawson (2019) Higher Education Research and Development, 38(3), pp. 537-549.
We can easily fool ourselves in thinking we understand something when we do not. Developing the capacity to judge one’s own work is challenging as we all have a multitude of unconscious biases. This paper discusses what some of these biases are and how students might be assisted to mitigate them.

Using formative assessment to influence self- and co-regulated learning: The role of developing evaluative judgement
E. Panadero*, J. Broadbent^†, D. Boud and J. Lodge (2019) European Journal of Psychology in Education, 34(3), pp. 535-557.
For those who like to explore models of learning, this paper conceptualises how students can become more self-regulated by developing their evaluative judgement. It proposes a co-regulation model that helps us to understand how learners can become more strategic through teacher and peer assessment, in which assessment knowledge and regulation strategies are shared with the learner. The connections we make here are crucial for strengthening our understanding of the influence of assessment practices on students’ learning.

*CRADLE Honorary Professor
^†CRADLE Fellow