Brookes International HE Reading Group

The Brookes International HE Reading Group is hosted by the Oxford Centre for Academic Enhancement and Development (OCAED) and meets monthly throughout the year (online) to discuss recent and/or seminal articles and publications that could make a difference to the way we think about our teaching, curriculum or students’ experiences. The articles are chosen to provoke reflection, insight and debate and are grouped around themes (4-5 sessions per theme). Anyone from across the international Higher Education community is most welcome.

Please send suggestions for articles to read to Dr Adrian J. Wallbank (a.wallbank@brookes.ac.uk)

Theme 1: Assessment and Feedback

Assessment and feedback has always been central to discussions around pedagogy, and as Knight (1995, p.13) stated, ‘assessment is a moral activity. What we choose to assess and how shows quite starkly what we value’. With issues such as modularisation, meaningful assessment, validity, constructive alignment, inclusive assessments and recent concerns about over assessment, there’s plenty for us to discuss, and an international perspective with reference to the literature should prove mutually beneficial for us all.

Please join us for one or all of the following sessions:

Wednesday 26 April 2023, 2.00pm - 3.00pm

In this session we delve into a review of how educational theory is used (or not) in educational research, especially as it pertains to assessment and feedback. Nieminen, Bearman and Tai (2023) argue that theory is often underutilised and call for a deeper engagement with interdisciplinary theory to help us avoid a further ‘siloing’ of the field. We hope you can join us for what promises to be a fascinating and thought -provoking discussion.

Nieminen, Juuso Henrik, Margaret Bearman, Margaret, and Tai, Joanna, (2023) ‘How is Theory used in Assessment and Feedback Research? A Critical Review, Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 48:1, pp. 77-94.

You can access the article here: https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2022.2047154

Wednesday 24 May 2023, 2.00pm - 3.00pm

Feedback, especially its uptake and assimilation by students, is an ongoing source of professional head scratching. In this month’s paper, we will discuss Carless and Boud’s (2018) analysis of the operationalisation of peer feedback and analysing exemplars. These modes of feedback are well-established, but Carless and Boyd discuss how they may be re-focused in respect of developing students’ feedback literacies. We hope to see you there.

Carless, David, and Boud, David, (2018) ‘The Development of Student Feedback Literacy: Enabling Uptake of Feedback, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 43:8, pp.1315-1325

You can access the article here: https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2018.1463354

Wednesday 28 June 2023, 2.00pm - 3.00pm

For our final meeting before the summer break we turn our attention to supervisory feedback for graduate students. In this paper, Bastola and Hu (2021) investigate supervisory comments on thesis drafts, beliefs and expectations, and discuss their findings in relation to improving practice. If you’re involved in any kind of project / thesis supervision, this paper should be of great interest. We hope to see you there.

Bastola, Madhu Neupane, and Hu, Guangwei, (2021) Supervisory Feedback across Disciplines: Does it Meet Students’ Expectations?, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 46:3, pp.407-423.

You can access the article here: https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2020.1780562

Previous sessions and recordings

Wednesday 15 March 2023, 2.00pm - 3.30pm

ChatGPT and AI Special

In this extended session we’ll take a look at a selection of the most recent contributions to the debate about ChatGTP and AI in relation to assessment and consider what it might mean for us as markers and educators. Please feel free to read widely and bring your own insights but we’ll mostly be considering the following papers:

Cotton, Debby R. E., (2023) ‘Chatting and Cheating. Ensuring Academic Integrity in the Era of ChatGPT’. Available from: https://doi.org/10.35542/osf.io/mrz8h
Mhlanga, David, (2023) O’pen AI in Education, the Responsible and Ethical Use of ChatGPT Towards Lifelong Learning’. Available from: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4354422 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4354422
Scharth, Marcel, (2022), ‘The ChatGTP Chatbot is Blowing People Away with it’s Writing Skills’, The Conversation. Available from: https://theconversation.com/the-chatgpt-chatbot-is-blowing-people-away-with-its-writing-skills-an-expert-explains-why-its-so-impressive-195908
Sharples, Mike (2022) ‘Automated Essay Writing: An AIED Opinion’, International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education, 32, pp.1119-1126. Available from: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40593-022-00300-7

Wednesday 15 February 2023, 2.00pm - 3.00pm

In this final session on the theme of assessment and feedback we take a more holistic view and consider Jessop, El Hakim and Gibbs’s (2013) analysis of feedback, expectations and inconsistencies across modules. The article describes an truly worldwide initiative that aims to help redesign assessment regimes, so the session promises to be of great interest to all of us in terms of fostering assessment coherence across programmes. We very much hope to see you at the link below:

Jessop, Tansy, El Hakim, Yassein, and Gibbs, Graham, (2014) ‘The Whole is Greater than the Sum of its Parts: A Large-scale Study of Students’ Learning in Response to Different Programme Assessment Patterns’. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 39(1), pp 73-88.

Access the article: https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2013.792108

Wednesday 18 January 2023, 2.00pm - 3.00pm

To build on the November session on inclusion, in this session we’ll consider Hanesworth, Bracken and Elkington’s (2019) discussion and analysis of socially just assessment praxis. The article discusses Universal Design for Learning (UDL and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy (CSP), and as such should have relevance for us all in our endeavours to promote assessment for learning for all students. We hope you can join us at the link below:

Hanesworth, Pauline, Bracken, Sean, and Elkington, Sam, (2019) ‘A Typology for a Social Justice Approach to Assessment: Learning from Universal Design and Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy’. Teaching in Higher Education, 24(1), pp 98-114.

Access the article: https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2018.1465405

Wednesday 23 November 2022, 2.0pm - 3.00pm

Whilst assessment accommodations (often individual) are the most frequent response to the challenging of making assessment inclusive, in this article Nieminen (2022) proposes a rethinking of assessment with inclusion designed in through a critical, socio-political analysis of academic ableism. Inclusion is at the forefront of our thinking about pedagogy in recent times and as such this article should give us plenty of food for thought. We hope you can join us for what promises to be a stimulating discussion at the link below:

Nieminen, Juuso Henrik, (2022) ‘Assessment for Inclusion: Rethinking Inclusive Assessment in Higher Education’, Teaching in Higher Education, pp.1-19

Access the article: https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2021.2021395

Wednesday 19 October 2022, 2.00pm - 3.00pm

Anonymous marking, sometimes spearheaded by students unions, has been brought in across many areas of the sector, often in the interests of fairness. However, its effect on student learning and relationship building with lecturers has been less well understood. In this session we’ll interrogate Pitt and Winstone’s (2018) examination of whether it undermines the learning potential of feedback and whether it really does promote fairness. We hope you can join us at the link below:

Pitt, Edd, and Winstone, Naomi, (2018) ‘The Impact of Anonymous Marking on Students' Perceptions of Fairness, Feedback and Relationships with Lecturers’. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 43(7), pp 1183-1193.

Access the article: https://doi.org/10.1080/02602938.2018.1437594

Recording - coming shortly.

Wednesday 14 September 2022, 2.00pm - 3.00pm

The systematic review of the research on how learner’s receive, respond to and use feedback. Winstone et al (2017) provide us with a taxonomy to help us contextualise ‘feedback dialogues’ and ‘recipience processes’ which should provide us with basis for some insightful discussion and debate. We hope you can join us at the link below:

Winstone, Naomi E., Nash, Robert A., Parker, Michael, and Rowntree, James, (2017) ‘Supporting Learners' Agentic Engagement with Feedback: A Systematic Review and a Taxonomy of Recipience Processes’. Educational Psychologist, 52(1), pp 17-37.

Access the article: https://doi.org/10.1080/00461520.2016.1207538