Issues of empowerment are pertinent to actively engaging students in assessment. In order for learners to be active agents in assessment, and to become independent in their own learning, they need to be actively engaged in the assessment and the learning activities that accompany it.
The issue of engagement is affected by cultural practices and conceptions of learning that position learners as ‘empty vessels to be filled’, or in cases where repetition and reproduction are valued. These cultural differences have implications for assessment practices, and can be discipline-specific as well as culture-specific.
But what does effective student engagement look like?
This figure provides a summary of engagement and empowerment in assessment
click image to enlarge
However, apparent engagement does not necessarily mean intellectual engagement.
Activity: Consider the issues concerning visibility and level of student engagement.
In implementing agentic engagement approaches (promoting students to take an active role in managing and developing their assessment landscape), training needs to consider the relative discomfort of students and academics and their lack of confidence and/or desire to effectively engage (Montenegro, 2017; Reeve, 2013).
Training also needs to recognise that many educators may also not feel comfortable working with students to develop their self-regulatory skills given their relative inexperience of engaging students centrally in assessment (Hawe & Dixon, 2017; Panadero, Jonsson, & Strijbos, 2016).
DEEP DIVE:
Hawe and Dixon (2017) undertake an in-depth discussion of the role of assessment FOR learning, and the potential of assessment to support the learning process.
Evans and Zhu (2023) consider the validity and utility of the assessment engagement scale in supporting students’ understanding of assessment article.
This diagram provides some useful references to help move students from a position of “Am I clear about my role/entitlement in assessment?” towards “I am clear about my role in assessment and how I can contribute, and what support I am entitled to.”
click image to enlarge
