Project

LICENSE to SKILL

Skills are either not assessed at all or assessed as part of courses in most programmes at WUR. This assessment is often done through summative forms of assessment in exams, reports, and group projects. However, to measure students’ development in skills, a more varied and robust way to assess students is needed.

In the last decade, programmatic assessment has gained traction as one of the ways to assess students’ development. Core principles of programmatic assessment likely to be relevant are:

  • Multiple assessments are used as ‘data points’ to gather information about learning process.
  • Feedback on learning, is used by students to guide and steer their learning process.
  • An assessment committee will evaluate the development of the skills.

Method

This research will set up a pilot with 12 students over a period of around one year. Students will be supported in collecting these assessments and evaluations as data points to monitor and steer their learning in the skills. At the end of the pilot year, the students will evaluate and be evaluated on their development together with an assessment committee to indicate the progress they made in their skills development and how to continue doing so.

Besides student learnings, important qualitative information on assessment of skills trajectories will be collected for the BES and other programmes at WUR.

(Expected) results and conclusions

The project will be successful if it generates concrete insights (formats, guidelines and procedures) in how (principles of) programmatic assessment of skills could be implemented in a BSc programme.

Publications

  • Black, P., & Wiliam, D. (1998). Inside the black box: Raising standards through classroom assessment. London: GL Assessment.
  • Gulikers, J. T. M. & Baartman, L. K. J. (2017). Doelgericht professionaliseren: formatieve toetspraktijken met effect! Wat DOET de docent in de klas? [Targetted professonial development: formative assessment practices with effect! What the teacher DOES in the classroom] (NRO Review Report No. 405-15-722).
  • Kruiper, S. M . A., Leenknecht, M. J. M., & Slof, B. (2022) Using scaffolding strategies to improve formative assessment practice in higher education, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 47:3, 458-476, DOI: 10.1080/02602938.2021.1927981.
  • Van der Vleuten, C. P. M., Schuwirth, L. W. T., Driessen, E. W., Govaerts, M. J. B. & Heeneman, S. (2015). Twelve Tips for programmatic assessment, Medical Teacher, 37(7), 641-646, DOI: 10.3109/0142159X.2014.973388.
  • Wiliam, D. & Leahy, S. (2015). Embedding formative assessment. Practical techniques for K-12 classrooms. US: Learning Sciences International.
  • Yan, Z., Li, Z., Panadero, E., Yang, M., Yang, L. & Lao, H. (2021). A systematic review on factors influencing teachers’ intentions and implementations regarding formative assessment. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice, 28(3), 228-260, DOI:10.1080/0969594X.2021.1884042