Our Work

Centre for Excellence in Assessment for Learning

Description

The CETL was built on excellent practice on the use of Assessment for Learning (AfL) in four subject areas.

Contact: Lottie Hann

Email: charlotte.hann@unn.ac.uk

Telephone: 0191 227 4646

The four subject areas on the use of AfL were:

Education & Childhood Studies in School of Health and Community Education Studies (HCES), Engineering within the School of Computing, Engineering and Information Sciences (CEIS), English and History, part of the School of Arts and Social Sciences (SASS) and Psychology within the School of Psychology and Sports Sciences (PSS) with CETL fellows leading AfL activities in each of these subject areas.

The vision of this CETL was to accelerate a transformation in assessment by ensuring students benefited from assessment which does far more than simply test what they know. Assessment for Learning (AfL) approaches involve students in the kinds of activities that are: valuable long term; help them to develop; provide them with guidance and feedback; and enable them to learn how to assess themselves as future professionals.

Students across the university benefited from new learning and teaching spaces designed to facilitate AfL approaches and engagement in collaborative learning opportunities across the core subjects. Staff across the university joined CETL activities through schemes for CETL Associates and Recognised Teams and opportunities for mini secondments.

Projects:

The initial focus was the enhancement of AfL approaches in modules delivered by CETL fellows and the introduction of AfL into core subject-based study skills modules and modules in subjects perceived as ‘difficult’ by students.

Through the development, research and evaluation of AfL, the centre moved toward transformational change, embedding AfL in the culture across the university at all levels and in all modes of learning.

What is being offered to the wider teaching/subject community:

Northumbria University runs biennial Assessment Conferences in conjunction with The European Association of Researchers in Learning and Instruction (EARLI). This conference was one of the ways in which external visitors could begin to become involved in finding out more about the CETLs work in the area of Assessment for Learning.

Planned Events:

A conference took place on 30 August - 1 September 2006.

Organisations / Institutions

Northumbria University

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