3. a) Like banging your head against a brick wall? The use of reflective assessments to deepen and enhance student learning.(Inox Conference Suite 2)

Like Banging Your Head Against a Brick Wall? The use of reflective assessments to deepen and enhance student learning

Alex Berry (Department for Lifelong Learning), Dr Anthony Warde (Department for Lifelong Learning), Dr Willy Kitchen (Department for Lifelong Learning)

What is this about?

For a number of years now, core academic skills and research modules on DLL’s Foundation Programmes and Degrees have made use of reflective learning journals, student self-assessments and related approaches.  In each case, these activities are intended to develop student self-awareness and appreciation of the broader contexts within which their learning is situated.  This session briefly outlines and evaluates some of the approaches we have adopted, and the outcomes we have observed, through a dialogue between the tutors directly involved in their delivery.   When used effectively, we have found this approach to learning and assessment to be especially fruitful, albeit students (and staff) regularly see the process of reflecting critically on learning as ‘like getting blood from a stone’.

How will colleagues benefit?

The session will provide relevant food for thought, particularly in relation to the development of student self-awareness, reflective and critical faculties.  It will provide some ideas for module design as well as a space to reflect upon both the possibilities and the pitfalls of embedding approaches of this type into mainstream curricula.