Assessing student work and providing feedback

Tips for postgraduates on assessing student work and providing feedback from John Bell (Cambridge University), presented at the UKCLE event on supporting postgraduates who teach on 7 November 2003.

---

Tips on assessment and feedback

What sort of assessment task should be set?

• identify why you want to assess the students
  • to ensure they learn some information
  • to integrate different material which they have been working on
  • to reflect critically on what they have been learning and to engage in evaluation
• take account of the stage they are at: what is a reasonable hurdle for this group of students at this stage in their learning (is a past paper exam question going to be too difficult at the beginning of the year?)
• make it focused

Should I focus on techniques or content?

• some exercises are given to focus on technique (writing essays, answering problem questions, engaging in analysis). You may have to point to guidance on the technique, and explain that you want them to focus on the technique (and so limit the amount of new material to be learnt at that time).
• you may need to build up techniques, for example in getting students to evaluate, you may want them to have a three part note: (1) summarising one article, (2) summarising a second article presenting an opposing point of view, and (3) an evaluation which says why a student prefers one argument to the other

How far should I correct grammar and spelling?

• depending on the ambition of the law school, this may be an important service to students
• at least flag to students in an early assignment that they are having problems and should go to some student service to obtain support
• this is of some importance for overseas students, who will be disadvantaged if they do not write good English
• if it is going to take too much time, then correct the errors on the first page and ask the student to speak to you individually, when you can tell them where help is to be found

Should I use marks or criteria sheets?

• criteria sheets are often found helpful to reinforce the criteria for assessment adopted by your law school. They get the students thinking about what is needed beyond just getting down all they know on a subject.
• criteria may prompt you on areas which require comment
• assessment criteria and marks need to be explained. Students can get 120/120 in AS levels these days, even in English. They may find a mark of 63/100 profoundly depressing, even if you think it is good for a first year student!
• give students, either individually or collectively (in a feedback session) some idea of what they should do next and what is expected of them at this stage in their learning

Am I too strict?

• ask the course team leader or your supervisor to sample mark some of your marking to ensure you are not too strict or too easy
• discuss the marking with her and with fellow tutors – so you are giving consistent messages to students

Tips on motivating students

What should I do about students who won’t do the work?

• find out (discreetly) why. There may be a problem, either with work (not feeling able to cope) or family.

• if it is persistent and has no proper excuse, then feel entitled to challenge the student about what they think the point is in turning up. “My job is to help you with problems in learning the course. What is the point of you coming to class if you haven’t done enough work to identify where I can help?”
• use reporting systems to log your dissatisfaction – you may not be the only one suffering!

How much advance reading is it reasonable to expect students to complete?

• the course co-ordinator should give you the module specification. In this, there ought to be a sense of how the working time is divided. Most universities work on the basis of a 37.5-40 hour learning week. With three modules at once, a student should be spending 12-13 hours on each a week (including lectures, essay writing and classes). The tutorial is a major part of the learning process, so the work for it should occupy most of the non-lecture time. But be aware of how slowly people might read (especially long House of Lords decisions). It is better to star some small number of cases and articles as essential than to give an undifferentiated list.

What should I do if I don’t know something?

• admit it, and say you will get back to them. If you have an e-mail list of the group, get back soon after the tutorial with the information.
• ask them how far they have got and see how far away they are from solving the problem (often there are no answers)

How do I sustain student interest in a teaching session?

• break up the activity into, say, plenary introduction, small group sessions and a plenary presentation of solutions. They are given the chance to say things, as well as to listen to you and to each other. (This typically presupposes the teaching session is longer than one hour, and is in a room where you can set out chairs in a way where small groups can be formed without overhearing each other.)

• they will want to listen to you, and you will want to find out what they know. Touring the small groups to find out where they are having interesting debates or problems is quite useful.
• give people short tasks to do and then present them

How can I make the sessions challenging without losing the students?

• challenge in application is easiest. Present them with a novel situation (for example one from the radio that day) and ask how the law can be applied to it.
• take one article and get groups to debate whether the views are right or wrong; have one side support the argument and the others to speak against it
• this depends on being selective about material, and choosing something which the students can approach. It should be something which stimulates learning and forges links with what they have done. (Be on the look out to avoid clever, but unreadable pieces – these are increasingly common in the literature.)

Last Modified: 4 June 2010