Presentation at Solent Learning and Teaching Community Conference

1. Investigating Formative
Frameworks
SLTI / School of Business and Law

2. The background
Responding to the strategic objectives of
the Director of the school of Business and
Law:
To understand how students’ prior
educational experience influenced how
they engaged with and benefited from
different formative interventions.

3. The project
1. What do existing assessment
strategies look like from a staff
and student perspective?
2. Could this reveal ways of
enhancing their effectiveness?
3. Could this help understand and
anticipate the impact of varied
educational backgrounds?

4. The Approach
Involved students and staff engaged in
two level 5 Business Management units
(BIS249 and BIS250).
Built around an action research model
that would allow interventions to be
planned, tested and evaluated.

5. Stage 1
Gathering staff and student viewpoints:
1. Interviews with staff.
2. Survey of students:
• understanding the assignment brief
• developing relevant knowledge and
skills
• Practice and feedback

6. Outcomes:
Staff Students
Group work:
• To promote effective learning
• To allow more ‘authentic’
assessment
Seminars:
• For discussion around learning
and assessment
• To support tutors in giving
personalised feedback
• To facilitate group working
Drawbacks:
• Engagement
Understanding the assignment brief:
• Explanations in seminars (12)
• Electronic and paper based resources (9)
• Tutors answering student enquiries (2)
developing relevant knowledge and skills:
• Group work (6)
• increased self-belief
• ability to test and acquire ideas
• feedback from peers, tutors and other contributors.
• Seminar activities:
• mind mapping • Gantt charts
• fishbone diagrams • Referencing
Feedback and Preparation:
• 13:7 on whether preparation was effective

7. However
“Not very [useful] as it is a very minor part of assessment.”
“time slots for individuals (one week)”;
“More details and in depth about the whole thing and more clear and direct as
well”
“In class feedback individually based”.
“More specific to each person”

8. The intervention
Formative tasks were specifically designed to complement the lecture
material and the summative assessment task, they were:
• introduced and explained in the lecture sessions
• provided students with an opportunities to practice using a particular
consultancy tool or model on a weekly basis.
• facilitated by the seminar tutor who gives direct feedback on their approach
to using the tool within their live brief.
• Promoted to students as resources that could be included as appendices in
the assessed report

9. Stage 2
In this survey the questions:
1. Sought to identify if students were
conscious that mechanisms had
changed
2. Otherwise reflected the areas of
enquiry targeted in the first survey

10. Outcomes
Notice change Understanding Assessment Practice, Preparation and Feedback
18 student recognised
change
5 did not…
“They ALL relate to the
assignment”
“Related to work a lot
more”
“More specific theory that
relates directly to the
assignment”
“…Relevant exercises”
“[the activity or tutor] teaches subject
relevant to assessment very generally”.
“Some bits have been and some have not”
“Given no clear direction”
“The activities have made me to understand
how I need to do my assessment and what I
should put that can help me get the high
mark”.
“In depth information about what is
required”
“Its allowed me to discuss what needs to be
done clearly and I can go about it”
“It has helped as a lot of detail has been
given to make sure I know what is needed”
All but one agreed it helped
“All information was available for assessment”
“Providing exercises relevant to the assessment”
“The ones that help understand what you need
have been useful in the preparation”
“The Wednesday Seminars going through theory
from the lectures are good”
“More interactive has been helpful as it allows us
to directly talk about our company”
“The tools provided were very useful”
“Because helpful resources are given”
“Having talks about it and giving explanations”
“Step by step progress with group”
“Everything explained clearly”

11. Next steps
Must remember this is a tool to aid planning, not concrete evidence for the impact
of assessment.
A number of issues remain ambiguous:
• Lots of students wanted feedback that was more ‘in depth’, ‘more detailed’ and
more specific.
• How is it that even students who recognised the value of group working as a
formative experience wanted more one to one engagement
Need for a focus group.

12. Nevertheless…
An effective formative strategy should enable a constructive bridge
between teaching & learning activities and the summative tasks,
facilitating additional feedback to students and providing
relevant learning value to formative tasks

13. What do we mean by formative
Understanding the formative dimension:
• Formulate : To create, invent or produce by
careful effort.
• Transform : To change in composition or
structure, character or condition
Both terms imply a ‘something’ (the self)

14. Activities
Formative
process
Envisioning the formative
Content
Environment
Teachers
Shared, negotiated
and visible.
Internal and owned
by the student
Assessment
Support