Copy in packs

							Copy in packs


  Has not been changed “on the day”,
  other than for the addition of an
  introductorily slide
John Cowan
 Professor of Learning Development, yes,
  but more importantly
 Currently teaching on MSc(HRM)
 Currently teaching on Developing
  Workplace Skills undergraduate module
 Recently member of UHI Millennium
  Institute course team for Social Sciences
 And on that basis, I ask………..
Beyond alignment?

  Are the concept, and concern for it,
  beginning to outlive their usefulness?
My argument is that:
 We needed to think about alignment
  when it was notoriously absent in
  many curricula
 We are well on the way to getting our
  act together
 Blended and self-directed learning call
  for an integrated approach by
  learners to outcomes, learning and
  assessment
1. Striving for alignment


  A strong focus for a decade, in
  curriculum development and review
ALIGNMENT issues……….
 ….centre on how well the aspects of the
  curriculum which we “teach” fit compatibly
  together

 Do we assess in accordance with our stated
  learning outcomes?
 Do we provide learning activities to enable
  our students to achieve our stated
  outcomes?
 Does our assessment reward performance
  which is not covered by our outcomes?
   Ideal Alignment

         Outcomes




Assessment          Learning & T
     Starting point

         Outcomes




Assessment          Learning & T
Outcomes:


  - are what we want the learners to be
  able to do, worded sufficiently
  precisely to be a specification
Rationale
 - for having, stating and declaring
  intended learning outcomes

 “If you don’t know where you’re
  going, any bus will do”
Assessment:


  - is the means of finding out, for the
  teachers and for the learners, what
  learning and development has been
  achieved
The powerful Hidden Curriculum


           Outcomes




  Assessment          Learning & T
Rationale
 - for aligning assessment and
  outcomes

 If “Assessment is the engine which
  drives learning”, then it behoves us to
  make sure that it drives towards the
  learning we have specified in our
  outcomes
Learning and Teaching:


  - happen in activities designed to
  lead to the desired learning and
  development
Teaching, for me, is:
  the purposeful creation of situations
  from which motivated learners should
  not be able to escape without learning
  or developing
Rationale
 - for aligning learning and teaching, and
  outcomes

 Much learning certainly happens without
  deliberate teaching effort, but………
 We (as teachers) should set out
  purposefully to create situations in which
  the desired learning should happen
Full Alignment implies ‘fit’

           Outcomes




  Assessment          Learning & T
Lack of alignment in the 1990’s:
• Was perhaps the most common
  weakness in courses - evident in QAA
  baseroom evidence, module boxes, in
  internal programme review and on
  external examining visits

• Offered considerable scope for direct
  enhancement
     Common 1995 practice

              Outcomes

Outcomes not assessed;
assessment at variance
    with outcomes

   Assessment            T & Learning
Examples even in the past year
 “Students will be able to solve demanding
  problems”
   Almost 50% of a final year exam paper asked
    questions whose model answers were word for
    word, and symbol for symbol, in the ppt notes
 “Students will formulate critical judgements
  and analyses”
   Assessment rewarded regurgitation of analyses
    and judgements which had featured in lectures
    and seminars
 Some current practice

         Outcomes



       ?
Assessment          T & Learning
 Common 1995 practice

         Outcomes

                  Nothing in the
               programme to help
                 learner to learn


Assessment          T & Learning
Examples even in the past year
 “Students will develop their ability for
  creative problem-solving and design”
   How? When facilitated?
 “Students will learn to work
  effectively in groups, to manage
  teamwork, and to resolve difficulties
  and differences”
   How? When facilitated?
 Some current practice

         Outcomes



       ?            ?
Assessment          T & Learning
  Common 1995 practice

          Outcomes




          Assessment
          drives poor
Assessment learning T & Learning
Examples even in the past year
 Assessment called for routine application of
  standard algorithm
   “Students will demonstrate understanding of the
    concept of ………”
 Final year question had a model answer, all
  of whose points and examples were used
  by all of the (many) students who scored
  more than 18/25. Memory work?
   “All my questions call on the students to think,
    to FHEQ level 3”
 Some current practice

         Outcomes



       ?            ?
Assessment
             ?      T & Learning
Audit and TQA often found examples of:
 Outcomes claimed, but not thoroughly
  assessed

 Assessment in place which could be
  satisfied by performance the outcomes
  didn’t really value

 Outcomes for which there was no
  purposeful development activity in place
How well aligned are your
programmes today?


 Would review confirm that all
 is well aligned?

 - in all programmes and
 modules?
Please discuss with neighbours

    This is what
    I think is our            What is
       situation              yours?


           Can we go along
           with what he is
           arguing, so far?
How well aligned are your
programmes today?


 Would review confirm that all
 is well aligned?

 - in all programmes and
 modules?
2. Alignment now the norm


  Module descriptors, programme
  approval and review show how much
  progress has been made
Generally, in 2006, things
have changed greatly:


Best practice is built upon rigorous
programme specifications in which
outcomes and assessment are
carefully defined and usually well
aligned
And the best self-evaluations:
 Specify criteria for judgement
 Identify sources for data to inform
  judgement
 Report the data so obtained,
 Make and report judgement
 Almost defy reviewers and auditors to
  find fault in any of that!
The noteworthy result is
that:

 Outcomes and assessment can,
 and often do, convey much the
 same message.

 Assessment tasks and criteria
 often specify the learning
 outcomes adequately
Elements are conflating



      Outcomes




 Assessment      T & Learning
Outcomes and assessment
         meld




   Outcomes

 Assessment   T & Learning
 Modern Aligning?


  It isn’t always easy to match
  higher level and interpersonal
 outcomes with appropriate and
    effective learning activities
Outcomes
   and               T & Learning
Assessment
What do you think?
 Are outcomes and assessment more and
  more conveying the same message
  nowadays?
 Can students tell what we want in their
  learning from the assessment and criteria?
 Do they even need learning outcomes?
 Is there still scope to align some learning
  activity, and make it more appropriate,
  purposeful and effective?
Please discuss with neighbours

    This is what
    I think is our            What is
       situation              yours?


           Can we go along
           with what he is
           arguing, so far?
What do you think?
 Are outcomes and assessment more and
  more conveying the same message
  nowadays?
 Can students tell what we want in their
  learning from the assessment and criteria?
 Do they even need learning outcomes?
 Is there still scope to align some learning
  activity, and make it more appropriate,
  purposeful and effective?
3. Self-assessment becomes
integral and central

  In self-directed and flexible learning,
  the necessary management and
  direction arise naturally from self-
  assessment, probably assisted by
  peer-assessment.
Student-centred learning is
more and more common:
 It centres on declared, and understood,
  though often negotiated, outcomes
 It calls on students to direct and manage
  their learning
 Teachers facilitate, and do not direct
 It depends upon carefully defined and
  explained tasks and roles
 It may lead to valuable (and, increasingly,
  valued) unintended learning outcomes
Students nowadays must direct and
manage
 They depend on formative self-assessment,
  whether or not that is part of the explicit
  programme structure
 In socio-constructive settings, their self-
  assessment is aided by peer-assessment
 They should know where they want to get
  to, and what they should plan to achieve
 They will notice if their progress is not
  effective or in the correct direction
 They will adjust their plan accordingly
In objective self-assessment…
 …….. we don’t jump to our judgement
  of the standard and/or quality of our
  work
 We should do that against explicit
  criteria, easier called headings
 We should use data obtained in a
  predetermined way
 We will follow a process which others
  can follow, and check
                       Heading




                         ?
          Performance




Making the judgement
Outcomes remain central
 They must be understood
 They should be explicit
 They should allow reasonable
  flexibility in:
   Pace, within an overall schedule
   Method of learning, to suit learning style
   Choice of content, while achieving
    outcomes
 They must be the basis of assessment
Dave Boud and I concluded in 2004
that the next logical step will be:

 To bring these two remaining aspects
 more and more into a further overlap

 So that we’ll have (intrinsic self- or
 peer-) assessing – structured in, to
 happen as the learning progresses
From here we can move …




 Outcomes
    and         T & Learning
 Assessment
…. to here



     Assessment
         and
 Desired Outcomes
         and
 Learning and Teaching
Summarising these assertions:
• Effective learning – and teaching - happens
  when desired outcomes, learning activities
  and assessment are properly aligned
• Sound alignment was rare in UK higher
  education, but …………
• ……we are moving nearer and nearer to
  that compatibility in the elements of our
  curricula………..
• And integration is then an attractive and
  potentially effective next step
Are these assertions true in
your setting?




Does integration rather than
alignment seem a viable and
desirable next step?
Please discuss with neighbours

    This is what
    I think is our            What is
       situation              yours?


           Can we go along
           with what he is
           arguing, so far?
Are these assertions true in
your setting?




Does integration rather than
alignment seem a viable and
desirable next step?
Summary


 It all began 40 years ago:
 Freedom to Learn: A vision of what
 education might become
Since Rogers first preached
that gospel…….


 Many have found how remarkably it
            can succeed
Integration can entail:
 Self-assessing learners who direct their own
  learning
 Self-assessing learners who monitor their
  own learning and achievement, leading to
 Self-assessments presented for “auditing”
 Peer-assessing in learning groups,
  harnessed– cost-effectively - for feedforward
 A sea change in the real learning outcomes
  for many learners
The result?



      More effective
        learning
Let’s go……..


      ………for integration