Abstract

Recent recommendations have been made to ensure that assessments are aligned with prescribed learning objectives. However, little is known about their usefulness to student and academic groups. Focus groups were conducted with students and academics who studied or taught on a UK undergraduate psychology degree; participants were asked about their perspectives on the purposes of assessments, whether they test the skills they think students should be gaining, and how they use learning objectives in relation to this. Participants were also asked to complete a task matching assessment types to common learning objectives. Results suggested that despite best intentions, both groups still perceive traditional examinations as a test of memory, and students use surface and strategic learning approaches in response. Furthermore, whilst academics use learning objectives to structure teaching, students incorporate learning objectives into strategic and surface level assessment preparations. Results from the matching task suggested that a high proportion of learning objective verbs could cover both surface and deep learning approaches. Consequently, it is argued that students may use learning objectives to develop strategic approaches to learning and assessment preparation, leading to a mismatch between the academic’s intended learning approach and the student’s used learning approach.

摘要

最近提出了一些建议，以确保评估与规定的学习目标保持一致。然而，人们对它们对学生和学术团体的用处知之甚少。焦点小组由在英国本科心理学学位上学习或任教的学生和学者进行；参与者被问及他们对评估目的的看法，他们是否测试他们认为学生应该获得的技能，以及他们如何使用与此相关的学习目标。参与者还被要求完成一项将评估类型与共同学习目标相匹配的任务。结果表明，尽管有最好的意图，但两组仍将传统考试视为记忆测试，学生使用表面和战略学习方法作为回应。此外，当学者使用学习目标来构建教学时，学生将学习目标纳入战略和表面水平的评估准备中。匹配任务的结果表明，很大一部分学习目标动词可以涵盖表面和深度学习方法。因此，有人认为，学生可能会使用学习目标来制定学习和评估准备的战略方法，从而导致学者的预期学习方法与学生使用的学习方法之间的不匹配。