Why do we assess the way we do?
This Tip was also published in English in the Finnish version of the Tips of the Week.
Assessment, assessment, assessment. All of us teachers do it, but do we give enough thought to what it is we are actually doing?
As UEF Professor of Education Science Päivi Atjonen has put it, when discussing what students will focus on in our courses: “Sitä saat mitä tilaat”. That is, literally translated, ”You get what you order”, with the meaning of “You reap what you sow”. To put it simply, students will focus their effort on what will be assessed (and graded).
So, to use Atjonen’s metaphor, what kind of orders are we placing to students in our courses? Have you recently reflected on your own assessment and grading practices?
Why not listen to Juuso Nieminen’s interview titled Toward Assessment Utopias for the podcast Teachers Going Gradeless as your end-of-semester personal and professional development. In the interview, Nieminen (an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Education, University of Hong Kong, a Banting Fellow at Ontario Tech University, Canada, as well as an Honorary Research Fellow at Deakin University, Australia) discusses for example his own personal experiences as a teacher when trying to put into practice co-created assessment rubrics with his students.
While listening to the podcast, why not also take a look at Nieminen’s article Assessment for inclusion: rethinking inclusive assessment in higher education, published in Teaching in Higher Education in 2022.
PS: Finnish-language speakers: Have you noticed how many useful resources on assessment Professor Atjonen has online, for example her channel on YouTube? Not to mention our UEF Digiopettajan starttipaketti, the audiovisual guide available online (in Finnish at the moment, will be published in English, too), and the links within its section on assessment to Atjonen’s resources.