Build your Scholarship Practice 2024/25

'Implementing socially just assessment and feedback in partnership with students', Professor Jan McArthur, Lancaster University

How can we translate our social justice aspirations for partnership-led assessment and feedback into actionable decisions that benefit our students? The first workshop of the PiAF Network's development programme for academic colleagues will feature leading researcher on socially just assessment and feedback practices Jan McArthur, Professor in Higher Education and Social Justice and Head of Department in the Department of Educational Research, Lancaster University.

Sign up for Workshop 1 on 30 January

‘Co-creating Assessment Rubrics with Students’, Dr Chahna Gonsalves, King’s College London

How can we use co-created assessment rubrics to support meaningful student collaboration? This interactive workshop explores the practical development and implementation of co-created assessment rubrics, emphasizing their role in fostering transparency, student engagement, and assessment literacy. Attendees will leave with actionable strategies and resources to apply in their own disciplines.

The workshop will feature Dr. Chahna Gonsalves, Senior Lecturer in Marketing (Education) at King’s College London and Department Education Lead. Dr Gonsalves’ innovative research and practice centre around rubrics, the language of assessment, and inclusive assessment practices.

Sign up for Workshop 2 on 10 February

‘Co-creating assessment questions with students’, Professor Amanda Millmore, University of Reading

How do we empower students to co-create assessment questions in ways that move beyond consultation into meaningful co-creation? This practical session will focus on sharing the concrete aspects of supporting students to co-create assessment questions.  Areas for discussion include:

• Approaches to empowering students to lead on the development of assessments
• The design, weighting and timing of assessments
• Dealing with challenges and student resistance
• Benefits for student learning and student experience
• Connecting co-created assessments to students’ employability

The workshop features Amanda Millmore, Professor of Law at the University of Reading, a National Teaching Fellow (2022) and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Professor Millmore’s model of partnership-working has been adopted by colleagues in their work within the University of Reading and shared sector-wide.

Sign up for Workshop 3 on 25 February

Praxis Workshop 4: Integrative Peer-led Praxis Workshop: The Partnerships in Assessment and Feedback Network

How are colleagues at the University of Leeds implementing partnership-led approaches to assessment and feedback in the context of CR-led transformations to assessment and feedback processes? Building on the first three praxis workshops of the semester, this integrative peer-led workshop offers opportunities to share and develop practice in co-creating assessment and feedback in the key areas covered to date: social justice and inclusion and working with students to co-create key curricular practices in assessment and feedback such as assessment briefs and assessment questions.

Speakers and themes:

• Dr Alice Borchi and Dr Ben Dunn, School of Performance and Cultural Industries (PCI), ‘Using participatory approaches’
• Amy Feather, Leeds Institute of Medical Education (LIME), ‘Collaborating with students to develop assessment briefs’
• Dr Anna Grimaldi, School of Politics and International Studies, ‘Co-creating assessment questions’

Praxis Workshop 5: Developing reflective feedback literacy: Student-teacher partnerships to synchronize feedback practices’ - Professor David Carless, University of Hong Kong

Dedicated to the theme of literacies for partnerships, this fifth praxis workshop of the Partnerships in Assessment and Feedback Network’s development programme for academic year 2024/25 features world-renowned researcher on feedback literacy, Professor David Carless.

Abstract
Promising feedback processes rely on shared responsibilities between students and teachers. Each party needs to appreciate the perspectives and struggles of the other, even if there are some points of disjuncture. When teachers and students interact purposefully around feedback issues, they are primed for the mutual development of feedback literacy. Considered reflection is a key aspect of these processes. Reflective feedback literacy denotes a critical engagement with previous feedback practices, and willingness to make strategic adjustments in the light of experience. Reflection and the development of feedback literacy have the potential to synchronize feedback practices and reduce some of the dilemmas typically experienced by students and teachers.

Speaker bio
David Carless works as a Professor at the Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong, and is Head of the Academic Unit SCAPE (Social Contexts and Policies in Education). He is one of the pioneers of feedback literacy research and is listed as a top 0.1% cited researcher in the Stanford top 2% list for social sciences. His books include Designing effective feedback processes in higher education: A learning-focused approach, by Winstone and Carless, 2019 published by Routledge. He was the winner of a University Outstanding Teaching Award in 2016. You can read the latest details of David's work on his website.

Praxis Workshop 6: ‘Working with quality assurance processes and student data to support partnership-led assessment and feedback’,

Are you interested in working in partnership with students for assessment and feedback on your modules in the coming academic year? Would you like to make the most effective use of QA systems and student data?

This final workshop of the Partnerships in Assessment and Feedback Network’s development programme for academic year 2024/25 introduces key information and actionable strategies for:

1. Identifying concrete possibilities for working in partnership with students across the assessment and feedback life cycle;
2. Planning partnership-led assessment and feedback in alignment with institutional quality assurance processes and timelines;
3. Using student data to identify priorities for partnership-led assessment and feedback.

Speakers include: Emily Hooper, Quality Manager, Quality Assurance and Enhancement Team and Carla Douglas, Quality Manager (Student Voices)

Unable to make the workshop? You can share your questions here

The why of CR Paperwork: the case for aligning learning outcomes, assessment and feedback

For many of us, student-facing documents — from learning outcomes and assessment briefs to assessment rubrics — have been a prominent feature of Curriculum Redefined. What is the evidence base in the educational literature for this focus and how can we make the most impactful use of these documents in our classrooms?

Join a group of colleagues from across the University in reading and discussing two key SoTL studies which offer useful insights on these two key questions. 

Sign up for 14 October Reading Group

Guiding values of genuine staff-student partnerships and developing partnership-led approaches to assessment and feedback

Working with students as partners is a shared strategic commitment of the University’s Assessment and Feedback Framework and the Curriculum Redefined project. What are the key guiding values of genuine staff-student partnerships and how can they seed the conditions for developing partnership-led approaches to assessment and feedback with our students? Join a group of colleagues from across the University in discussing two SoTL articles which offer valuable insights on these questions.

This themed reading group discussion is a precursor event for the launch later this semester of the new CR-funded network, The Partnerships in Assessment and Feedback Network, which focuses on this area. Details to follow.

Sign up for 14 November Reading Group

Creating brave, safe and inclusive spaces through staff-student partnerships

Building on session two's discussion of genuine staff-student partnerships, this session will explore how staff-student partnerships can be instrumental in creating classroom spaces in which the lived realities of power differentials and disagreements can be addressed, and culturally inclusive learning cultures can be fostered. Join a group of colleagues from across the University as we discuss two articles which address these themes. 

Sign up for 12 December Reading Group