Abstract

Much is made of students generally rating assessment lower than other aspects of their educational experience. It is frequently cited in research literature as evidence for a general crisis in assessment, and it strongly influences institutional enhancement efforts and media coverage of student feedback. Focusing on the UK’s National Student Survey, this paper draws on a range of published empirical research to argue against the idea that relatively low scores for assessment-related survey questions indicate a general problem with assessment. Students tend to rate the quality of assessment lower when they are unhappy with the assessment outcome, and students tend to be unhappy with assessment outcomes. We therefore shouldn’t be surprised at the relatively low scores for assessment-related questions. This does not mean that there isn’t a general problem with assessment in higher education, just that low scores for assessment questions in student surveys aren’t good evidence for it. Researchers should cite better evidence of problems with assessment quality; institutions should think more carefully before focusing enhancement efforts on assessment; and we should all generally be much more cautious about interpreting the results of quantitative student surveys.

摘要

很多学生通常对评估的评价低于他们教育经历的其他方面。它经常在研究文献中被引用作为评估普遍危机的证据，并且它强烈影响了机构改进工作和媒体对学生反馈的报道。本文着眼于英国的全国学生调查，借鉴了一系列已发表的实证研究，以反对与评估相关的调查问题相对较低的分数表明评估存在普遍问题的观点。当学生对评估结果不满意时，他们往往对评估质量的评价较低，而学生往往对评估结果不满意。因此，我们不应该对评估相关问题的相对较低的分数感到惊讶。这并不意味着高等教育中的评估不存在普遍问题，只是学生调查中评估问题的低分并不是很好的证据。研究人员应该引用更好的证据来证明评估质量存在问题；院校在将加强工作重点放在评估上之前应更仔细地考虑；我们通常都应该对解释定量学生调查的结果更加谨慎。