HEA Conference June 22nd – 23rd 2010Shaping the Future: Future Learning

It’s all in the words: the impact of language on the design and development of assessment briefs for

international students.

Dr Diane Sloan, Newcastle Business School Elizabeth Porter, Newcastle Business SchoolPD Learning Enhancement & Dev. Senior Lecturer Post Graduate Portfoliodiane.sloan@northumbria.ac.uk elizabeth.porter@northumbria.ac.uk

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Structure of the presentation

1. Background2. Methodology3. Findings staff/student4. Impact on current practice5. Future research

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1. Background Enhancing learning and teaching: an initiative

The CEM Model (Sloan & Porter 2009)

contextualisation, embedding and mapping of the Academic Literacy programme in Newcastle Business School

Contextualisation: specificity relating to the context in which an Academic Literacy programme is presented and communicated to students

Embedding: the position of the Academic Literacy tutor within the degree and the programme teams

Mapping: the identification and understanding of the student needs and the appropriateness and timeliness of the Academic Literacy programme delivery throughout the academic year

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2. Methodology

2008-09 3 business tutors –

interviews

3 styles of assignment briefs

Masters cohort of students – focus groups

2009-2010 Students – focus

groups

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Methodology cont. : Assignment brief styles

Style 1: quotes + brief task (1-2 lines)

Style 2: task & guidance (interlaced) (1-2 pages)

Style 3: task & guidance (separated but aligned – 1 page)

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3. Findings

Staff concerns Students unable to

provide good critical evaluation in a particular context

No application of theories to real world context

Not linking their analysis to their recommendations

Student concerns Understanding the

different styles of assignment briefs.

Language used in the briefs: formal, academic, difficult to analyse what they were required to do.

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Findings cont. : Impact of style of brief on students’ understanding

Style 1: quotes + brief task

Student feedback: ‘I don’t understand why they put this

in this way.’

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Findings cont. : Impact of style of brief on students’ understanding

Style 2: task & guidance interlaced

Student feedback: ‘It was difficult to understand the assignment because the instruction paper explains a lot of points but it is too many points in one paper that it is impossible to understand what is the most important points.’

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Findings cont.: Impact of style of brief on students’ understanding

Style 3: task & guidance separate but aligned

Student feedback: “this was the best design of an

assignment task.”

Elements of the task Guidance

Part 1 Guidance notes Part1

Part 2 Guidance notes Part 2

Part 3 Guidance notes Part 3

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Findings cont. : Students’ views on assignment briefs We don’t really know what the lecturer want actually; what they want in the

contents, how we do it and if we need more literature review on it, more our own opinions and things like that. (International student)

Using your authoritative sources and using frameworks which you consider appropriate to the study of organisations, critically analyse an organisation of your choice and report on the analysis.’ Yeah right! What is this! (French student)

We recognise that we don’t want to be spoon fed but still we need to get a much clearer instruction about how to do every part of the assignment ..a much easier way to understand. That would probably help us . (International student)

Sometimes the language is pretty complicated and it’s not going out clear what is to be actually done. Sometimes it makes the assignment too complicated. As in this assignment about managing systems, I’m not actually getting what is to be done in the assignment. (British student)

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Findings cont.: Impact of language on student understanding

“Discuss and apply appropriate methodologies utilizing current practice and literature, for the inclusion of performance measures within standard business tools to enable assessment of environmentally sustainable processes.”

Student: How many tasks do I have to do here? 2? 3? 4?

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Findings cont. : Impact of language on student understanding

“Critically evaluate the changing role of the line manager in training and learning organisations?”

Student: What structure should I use? Why not advise me?

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Findings cont.: Impact of language on student understanding

“Your discussion of derivatives should be supported by a detailed example that illustrates how either futures, options or swaps can be used in practice either to minimize risk or enhance return within your suggested portfolio.”

Student: How many tasks? How many choices do I have here?

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4. Impact on current practice

Business Module assignment brief Evaluation of language of brief

Two tutors: business tutor academic literacy / English tutor

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Impact on current practice

“Like most of us, I have been running my PG module for a number of years, perhaps never explicitly taking into account the specific needs of the international students in the writing/presentation aspects of the assessment brief.  The Academic Literacy tutor ..... gave me feedback on my semester one .....assignment, which I am more than happy to feed into future module assessments.  I have forwarded this feedback to you for at least interest, but equally if you wish to follow the same route on your MBA assessment, I would be more than happy for you to work with the tutor on this.”

 

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4. Impact on current practice

Responding to student needs Need for staff development on

language awareness? Should we adopt standard layout and

language in briefs? Should we work more closely with

Academic Literacy / English colleagues? L&T Policy – assignments reviewed by

Academic Literacy tutor

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References Price, M., O’Donovan, B. & Rust, C. (2007) Putting a social constructivist assessment process

model into practice: building the feedback loop into the assessment process through peer review. Innovations in Education and Teaching International, 44, 2, pp. 143-152.

Carless, D. (2006) Differing perceptions in the feedback process. Studies in Higher Education, 31, 2, pp. 219-233.

McDowell, L. (2008) Negotiating assignment pathways: students and academic assignments. Teaching in Higher Education, 13, 4, pp. 423-435.

O’Donovan, B., Price, M. & Rust, C. (2008) Developing student understanding of assessment standards: a nested hierarchy of approaches. Teaching in Higher Education, 13, 2, pp. 205-217

Sloan, D. E. & Porter, E. (2008) The CEM Model Contextualising In-sessional Language and Study Skills Support for International and EU Students. Red Guide 46, MARCET Staff Development Resource Centre, Northumbria University.

Sloan, D E & Porter, P (2009) ‘The management of English language support in post graduate education: changing student and staff perceptions.’ International Journal of Management Education, 7(2), pp.51-58

Sloan, D. E. & Porter, E. (2009) European Learning Styles Information Network, Switzerland 16th-19th June. Should you let sleeping dogs lie? A review and recommendations for changing the learning style of English language support in post graduate education.

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Any questions?