‘Assessment and feedback practices should be designed to enable students to become self-regulated learners, able to monitor and evaluate the quality and impact of their own work and that of others.’
David Nicol (2010)
Research in higher education shows that learning is deeper, more sustainable and satisfying when students become responsible partners in their learning. The most powerful way to achieve this is to involve students actively in assessment and feedback processes, that is, by giving them regular opportunities to make judgements about their own work and the work of others and to provide rationalisations for these judgements. In this way, students will develop their own ability to monitor, evaluate and regulate their own learning, The ability to self-regulate your own learning is necessary for the development of all graduate attributes and for learning that is sustainable beyond graduation.
Drawing on research and practice, this website provides resources for teachers and senior managers in higher education wishing to redesign assessment and feedback based on a self-regulation model.
THEORY AND PRACTICE takes a whole institution approach. It provides a framework for rethinking assessment and feedback practices. It also provides a range of practical ideas for the enhancement of university policy, strategy, course design, the student experience and for the monitoring and evaluation of change.
The REAP [Re-engineering Assessment Practices] project was the first attempt at re-engineering assessment and feedback using a self-regulation model. The project was supported by the Scottish Funding Council (£1m). The REAP project produced a range of resources which are widely used across the HE sector, nationally and internationally. These include research papers, case studies and ideas for implementation, suggestions for senior managers to implement organisational change. Key among these resources were a set of assessment and feedback principles. The resources can be found here [link].
The PEER [Peer Evaluation in Education Review] project was a development of the REAP project. Initial funding came from JISC during 2010-2012. The key finding of the PEER project was the evidence it provided that students could generate productive internal feedback by and for themselves, without any input from a teacher. This self-generated feedback does not refer to the feedback students receive from peers. It refers to the internal feedback students generate about their own work as they engage in reviewing activities. It is this finding that underpins and informs the current Adam Smith Business School initiative.
The TEACHING EXCELLENCE INITIATIVE (TEI) 2018-2020 aims to improve student learning in the ADAM SMITH BUSINESS SCHOOL in the University of Glasgow. This initiative takes the REAP and PEER work forward. It offers a refined conceptualisation of assessment and a radical rethinking of feedback. It is also founded on an updated set of principles.
Regarding assessment the stance taken is that to develop the capacity to regulate their own learning, students must get 'practice' in assessing (not marking) and judging the quality of their own learning processes and performance, rather than just in receiving judgements from teachers and others.
Regarding feedback, the starting point is the recognition that feedback is an internal not an external process as far as learning is concerned. Students generate internal feedback all the time as they monitor their own engagement in learning tasks. It is this feedback that enables them to regulate their own learning. When they receive feedback from a teacher it must also be turned into internal feedback before it has any effect. Hence a key issue addressed in this TEI is:
if students are generating feedback all the time why not concentrate on developing this capacity rather than focus all our efforts on improving the quality of external feedback?
Research within ASBS has already shown that when inner feedback is productively activated not only does it enhance learner self-regulation but also it does so without any increase in teacher workload. See paper which paper should this be?
Although the TEI is centred in the Adam Smith Business School, the resources to be developed and showcased here should be relevant to all disciplines and educational contexts.
the 'at a glance sidebar' needs to be considered