Enhancing Students’ Assessment Literacy

 by Lin Rongchan

Assessment literacy is a multidimensional concept that involves teachers, students and other stakeholders (Stiggins, 1991). More specifically, Willis et al. (2013) put forth the following definition for assessment literacy from a sociocultural lens:

“Assessment literacy is a dynamic context dependent social practice that involves teachers articulating and negotiating classroom and cultural knowledges with one another and with learners, in the initiation, development and practice of assessment to achieve the learning goals of students.” (Willis et al., 2013, p.242)

Evidently, it is not enough to just focus on teachers’ assessment literacy without considering the role of students in assessment. Student involvement in assessment practices is central to the development of students’ assessment literacy, an area that has received increasing attention from scholars (e.g., Charteris & Thomas, 2017; Davari-Torshizi & Bahraman, 2019; Deeley & Bovill, 2017; Smith et al., 2013).

In this article, I outline the rationale of involving students in assessment and discuss relevant strategies. I will also share an example of how I involved secondary school students in assessment in a poetry writing course. This example was chosen to offer an alternative context (i.e., non-academic nature) to complement the examples shared by other contributors in this issue of our bulletin.

Rationale of involving students in assessment

Our understanding of the relationship between assessment and learning has evolved over the years. In line with paradigm shifts in learning theories, assessment practices could be classified into three generations: 1) “assessing learning of what is taught”, 2) “assessing learning as individual sense-making”; 3) “assessing learning as building knowledge as part of doing things with others” (see James, 2008, pp.21-29). Tracing the role of the learner across these three generations of assessment practices, the increase in student agency and voice is evident.

As what Watkins (2005) eloquently expressed, “students are crew, not passengers” (p.35) in a classroom community. Focusing on student-driven learning, Watkins (2017) further posed a powerful question for us to reflect on: “Are learners invited and helped to: View themselves as driving the learning, contribute their own questions, strategies and explanations, choose their challenges, develop their criteria, and assess their progress?” (p. 3).

Assessment literacy is contingent on learners’ active collaboration with teachers and peers. In the 21^st century classroom that values active and collaborative learning, it is paramount to involve students in assessment to ensure the congruence of students’ learning and assessment experiences as well as to empower them in their learning. Meaningful teacher-student partnership in assessment via democratic practices can foster intrinsic motivation, active engagement and deeper ways to learning, thereby increasing students’ assessment literacy (Deeley & Bovill, 2017).

Ways to involve students

One way to engage students in assessment is through feedback practices. As defined by Carless & Boud (2018), feedback is “a process through which learners make sense of information from various sources and use it to enhance their work or learning strategies” (p.1315). Through developing students’ feedback literacy, students would be able to appreciate feedback, make judgments about their own/peers’ work, manage affect and take action accordingly (Carless & Boud, 2018). There is a growing body of research in developing students’ feedback literacy (e.g., Carless & Boud, 2018; Ketonen et al., 2020; Molloy et al., 2020). Readers who are interested in this area could refer to our February 2021 issue.

From a macro perspective, student involvement in assessment could also be conceptualized based on the extent of involvement. Building on Brew’s (1999) typology, Falchikov (2005) has classified studies on self and peer assessment into three different levels. Table 1 summarizes key information mentioned in Falchikov (2005).

 

Table 1

Levels of Involvement

Level	Key aspect	Illustration
1	Checking knowledge, performance or skill level	Students use model answers, marking schemes, rating scales and other teacher-provided criteria.
2	Discussing and negotiating criteria	Students participate in discussions and negotiation of criteria which they subsequently use to judge their work.
3	Decision-making by students (i.e., student choices in assessment)	Students are empowered to make decision (e.g., criteria selection, weightings and scores).

 

 

At this juncture, I would like to invite you to reflect on the following questions:

 

• How did/would your students respond to the related assessment practices across the three levels?
• Which level of self- and peer-assessment is more prevalent in your current professional setting? What are the reasons behind this phenomenon?
• What are the factors that impede us in further empowering students in assessment practices?
• What conditions need to be created to further involve students in assessment in your respective assessment contexts? What resources would you need?

 

Considering that assessment is a situated practice, a good understanding of the context, including related impetuses and potential obstacles, would facilitate the planning, enactment and evaluation of student involvement in assessment.

An example: A poetry writing course  for secondary school students

As outlined above, there are different ways as to how educators could involve students in assessment to develop students’ assessment literacy. I would like to take this chance to share my endeavors in engaging secondary school students in a poetry writing course.  

As my service to the community, I have been involved in the Author-in-Residence Programme organized by the Committee to Promote Chinese Language Learning (CPCLL), Singapore, since 2012. As my understanding of assessment literacy deepens, I have been refining my course design based on the framework on patchwork texts in assessment (Trevelyan & Wilson, 2011; Winter 2003). The essence of the framework is to empower learners and promote students’ learning through a series of carefully-sequenced patches that culminate in a final integrative piece, with an intention to promote continuous and deep learning, facilitate an integrated understanding of a topic as well as stimulate self-reflection (Trevelyan & Wilson, 2011).

In the context of my 8-hour course (over 4 lessons), there was a total of five patches which led to a final integrative piece as depicted in Figure1. The relationship between each patch and the final piece can be a tight one (i.e., students could directly build on a particular patch and submit it in the final integrative piece) or a loose one (i.e., students could create new work from scratch). More specifically, for the final piece, students had to submit two poems (minimally). For this final assessment, I provided summative qualitative feedback on students’ work and had to select outstanding work to be considered for the school’s and/or programme’s publication. For students whose work were selected, they had to act on my feedback by further refining their work (if necessary) before submitting their work to the respective editorial committee.

Figure 1

Patchwork Texts in Assessment for a Poetry Writing Course

 

 

The course content built on students’ prior knowledge (i.e., content covered in their Chinese language class) such as their understanding of rhetorical devices. The entire course was conducted virtually this year due to COVID-19. Logistics-wise, a google folder was created and each student completed the various patches on their respective document to facilitate collaboration and sharing between the students. Table 2 summarizes the instructional processes and related patches.

Table 2

Enactment of patchwork texts in a poetry writing course

Lesson	Instructional processes	Patch
1	Introduction ·    The class discussed key elements of contemporary poetry. ·    Instructor guided students to appreciate and analyze interesting poetry types (e.g., shape/concrete poetry) to trigger interest. ·    Instructor emphasized the integration of meaning and form in poetry.	Patch 1 ·    Each student conceptualized a shape poem and explained their choice of shape in relation to the proposed content of the poem. ·    Each student shared their conceptualization. ·    Teacher asked questions and gave verbal feedback for students’ further refinement of ideas.
2	Association of ideas ·    Teacher introduced exercise on association of ideas. ·    Based on the given prompt, students had to think of a word or a short phrase in a sequential manner till they derived at a total of eight words or phrases, including prompt provided. (An illustrative example: Sky – Blue – Sadness – Loss – Hope – Sunlight – Plants – Life)  ·    The instructor invited a few students to share what they have thought of and asked for clarification if necessary. Students could refine their string of words where appropriate. ·    Students read “Question and Answer” (by poet Xixi) which was written using a series of ideas associated with one another in a sequential manner (Zheng et al., 2005).	Patch 2 ·    Students drafted their own poem based on the string of words they thought of. ·    In pairs, students gave peer feedback (written form) on their peer’s google document. ·    Instructor invited selected students to share their work. The class discussed the work presented. ·    Instructor introduced other work to further elaborate on association of ideas.
3	Rhetorical devices ·    Instructor built on students’ prior knowledge by reviewing key rhetorical devices (e.g., simile) that students have learned through discussing selected poems. ·    Instructor introduced poetry that employs antonyms and engaged students in analyzing the poems.	Patch 3 ·    Each student came up with different antonyms. Students took turn to share antonyms they thought of without repeating what was already mentioned by peers. ·    Each student drafted a short poem by integrating antonyms into their work. The class discussed selected students’ work. ·    Students were encouraged to draw on what they have learned to create more poems outside of class in preparation for final submission.
	Structure of poetry ·    Instructor introduced enjambment and end-stopped lines. ·    Students analyzed the lines and stanzas of poems and discussed the impact varying structures would have on the reader.	Patch 4 ·    Students were given a paragraph from a prose. They were asked to organize it into lines and stanzas. ·    Selected students explained their decision. ·    Instructor asked questions and gave feedback. ·    Instructor shared alternative ways to structure the paragraph and further discussed the impact of different structural forms. ·    Students were prompted to think about the use of enjambment and end-stopped lines in their own work, while considering the use of rhyme. ·    Once again, students were encouraged to draw on what they have learned to create more poems outside of class in preparation for final submission.
4	Poetry Slam ·    Students shared their work in class.	Patch 5 ·    Each student presented a complete work with the class. For this particular sharing, students could build on the patch(es) completed in class previously. Alternatively, they could create a completely new work by drawing on the skills that they learned in past lessons. ·    The class discussed peers’ work. ·    Students voted for their two favorite work written by peers for instructor’s consideration in final assessment.
	Final Submission	Final Integrative Piece ·    Students were given time to further refine their work and submitted two poems from their portfolio for summative feedback. ·    Instructor to consider students’ voting results when nominating work to be included in the publication by the school and the programme respectively.

As outlined above, students were involved in the assessment to varying extent. For example:

 

• Patch 2: Students worked in pairs to give peer feedback. The instructor provided feedback on selected work to further sharpen students’ thinking.
• Patch 3 and 4: Students had the opportunity to ask one another questions to help one another in refining their thoughts.
• Students were encouraged to create more poems outside of class (i.e., beyond the assigned tasks) across the patches in preparation for final submission. These served as blank patches for students to determine the theme and techniques independently.
• Patch 5: Students had the opportunity to translate feedback to feedforward depending on what they chose to share in the Poetry Slam. They subsequently voted for two best poems for instructor’s consideration in the final assessment. To some extent, this reflects level 3 of student involvement as noted by Falchikov (2005).
• Final integrative piece: Once again, students were required to translate feedback to feedforward. The final integrative piece would then entail a resubmission of past patch(es) in a more refined form. After final assessment, students again had the opportunity to act on instructor’s summative qualitative feedback by further refining their work in their submission for publications.

 

Through engaging learners across various patches over an extended period of time, the scope of student involvement is broadened. It is envisaged that students would refine their understanding and hone their skills in a coherent and continuous manner, thereby increasing the likelihood of them creating work of higher quality. I also hope that students enjoy continuous and deep learning as well as develop an integrated understanding of poetry writing (see Trevelyan & Wilson, 2011, on objectives of patchwork texts). For more discussion on employing patchwork texts in local contexts, please see Tan (2011) and Tan (2019).

Conclusion

In this article, I highlight the centrality of student involvement in assessment by addressing the “why” and “how”. While I adopt a practitioner-oriented perspective when discussing related ideas, it is not my intention to provide an exhaustible list of strategies or prescribe model approaches. Rather, this article serves as an introductory piece to spark conversations. Together with other contributors for the bulletin, I would love to continue this conversation with you in our post-publication conversation. (Click here to register.)

Acknowledgment

I would like to thank A/P Kelvin Tan and Dr. Tay Hui Yong for their valuable feedback on a previous draft.

Suggested citation:

Lin, R. (2021). Enhancing students’ assessment literacy. Assessment for All Learners (AfAL) Bulletin, July 2021. https://assessmentforall.blogspot.com/2021/06/enhacing-students-assessment-literacy.html

References

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Charteris, J., & Thomas, E. (2016). Uncovering ‘unwelcome truths’ through student voice: Teacher inquiry into agency and student assessment literacy. Teaching Education, 28(2), 162-177. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10476210.2016.1229291

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