CRADLE Seminar Series: Rola Ajjawi
22 June 2016
On 22 June 2016, CRADLE Senior Research Fellow Dr. Rola Ajjawi delivered the seminar ‘Improving assessment literacy and self-regulation through feedback dialogue’. Dr. Ajjawi emphasised that the primary purpose of feedback should be to promote students’ self-regulation of learning (SRL), and presented on the development and implementation of the interACT process. InterACT was developed to promote assessment literacy and SRL in a medical education programme, with the researchers considering how the interACT process influenced the development of assessment literacy across the programme for students and staff.
Dr. Ajjawi addressed several issues which informed the development of interACT, including the underlying assumptions which accompany conceptions of effective feedback. Effective feedback was identified as: promoting SRL in order to afford opportunities for feedback to be used in future assignments; dialogic in nature; encouraging self-evaluation and monitoring of own work and seeking of feedback; and developing students’ evaluative judgement. Implicit in these pedagogical principles is the understanding that students need adequate assessment and feedback literacy in order to seek, judge and use feedback effectively. InterACT was developed in response to these principles and to promote assessment literacy and SRL amongst students – and staff – in a medical education programme. Dr. Ajjawi also presented on the pedagogical rationale for interACT, discussed the implementation process and its challenges, and highlighted research findings.
Dr. Ajjawi is Senior Research Fellow at CRADLE. She has over a decade of experience in health professions education and research, attracting over $850,000 in research funding, and has published over 60 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and books. Dr. Ajjawi is also Deputy Editor of the journal Medical Education.
