Working with exemplars

1. Working with exemplars A workshop for Education staff developed by Kay Sambell, Sue Robson, Lynne McKenna, Elise Alexander and Linda Graham as part of the ESCalate-funded project ‘Exploring the Rules of Engagement via Exemplars: enhancing staff and student dialogueabout assessment and learning practice.’

2. The diverse nature of Education students • ‘My students are paraprofessionals with extensive hands-on experience, which is not always matched by their academic skills. They will often have been out of formal education for a considerable period of time, and university for them is often about developing their academic skills to a level that matches their practical experience. They are typically combining part-time university study with full-time employment. Some may have been sent by Local Authorities as part of the workforce development agenda. Others see the course as a developmental progression.’ (Module Leader, BA Hons Applied Parenting and Family Studies.)

3. ‘My students come from a range of ‘non-traditional’ backgrounds, and are often the first in their family to attend university. Many are 18 year-olds coming straight from school or college. They have usually studied either A levels or NVQ programmes, and are used to high levels of teacher feedback, direction and support.’ (Module Leader, BA Hons Childhood Studies)

4. ‘ My students are all mature students who are often career-changers and come from backgrounds as diverse as architecture, Law and Psychology. They are all educated to degree level, but have followed very different types of study.’ (Module Tutor, Primary PGCE)

5. Issues addressed by the project • Students increasingly need more support and guidance to make effective transitions to assignment writing in higher education. • Contextual factors • Large class sizes • Physical environments (tiered lecture halls, inflexible furniture...) • Student expectations and preconceptions • Factors specific to your context?

6. What do you want your students to get out of their experience of assessment? • Try to list and then identify your priorities. • Share your list with others and discuss the reasoning behind your choices.

7. Some people said they wanted students to... • Articulate and communicate their understanding of the subject-area... • Develop generic graduate attributes, such as communication, team-work, analytical skills.... • Develop appropriate attitudes and dispositions, seeing themselves as autonomous learners.... • Develop the capacity to self-assess.

8. In your modules, how do you support your students’ understandings of the assessment experience • Preparation? • Knowing what’s expected? • Opportunities to practice? • Guidance on content? • Criteria and standards? • Modelling assessment? • ?

9. Some people said..... • Going through the assessment briefing in detail... • Looking at drafts... • Encouraging students to offer each other feedback on work-in-progress... • Discussing marking protocols, grade descriptors, assessment criteria... • Getting students to generate criteria from looking at sample assignments... • Using exemplars as starting points for discussion.

10. What Are Exemplars? • Exemplars are ‘key examples chosen so as to be typical of designated levels of quality or competence. The exemplars are not standards themselves but are indicative of them. ..they specify standards implicitly.’ (Sadler, 1989, cited in Handley et al, 2008, p44).

11. Why Exemplars? Enhancing staff-student dialogue about assessment and learning practices helps students... • develop an understanding of the tacit knowledge (Rust et al, 2005) and implicit rules of engagement that experts employ when assessing student work, which includes complex subject knowledge, situated in the context of the discipline (Orr, 2007; Bloxham, 2009). • actively make, in a scaffolded and supportive learning environment, evaluative judgments about the relative merit of concrete examples of student writing (O’Donovan et al, 2004) • participate in feedback interactions (Black & Wiliam, 2009) before they hand in their own work for marking and grading • participate in assessment in a generative way (that is, providing, rather than simply receiving, feedback)

12. Constructing effective exemplars • Handley et al (2008: 44) suggest that exemplars • may be complete assignments or excerpts • may be authentic pieces of student work, or may be (re)constructed by staff (so as to illustrate specific pedagogic points in as transparent manner as possible) • may be annotated with feedback to • help students understand what tutors look for • help students build their self assessment skills

13. Three examples from our ESCalate project.

14. Case study 1: Short academic writing task. • Exemplars of short pieces of informal student writing about threshold concepts in the discipline. • Students prepared short piece of writing on a key concept in Childhood Studies (not more that 1 side A4) • Students brought this to session, where they were given 4 exemplars on this topic • Students asked to work in small groups • Place exemplars in rank order • Prepare feedback which would help the student of each exemplar to improve the work • After a lengthy plenary discussion of tutors’ views of the above, students were advised to reflect on how they would improve their own writing, in the light of the session.

15. Case study 2: Poster presentations • Exemplars of 4 students’ posters on the topic of parents, professionals and the balance of power were discussed in the session. These represented a range of achievement in successfully bringing together visual images, text and understanding of the subject area. • Students were asked to critique these, using the criteria set out for the module, and to place them in rank order • Students were asked to prepare guidance for other students preparing posters.

16. Case study 3: Small-group PowerPoint presentations • Exemplars of small-group PowerPoint presentations on the topic of teaching and learning in an area of the Early Years Foundation Stage were discussed in the session. These represented a range of achievement in organising and conveying knowledge and understanding of teaching and learning theory and styles to a parent audience. • Students were asked to critique these, using the criteria set out for the module and to place them in rank order. • Students were asked to prepare guidance for other students preparing PowerPoint presentations.

17. The project is keen to hear of other examples with a view to adding to a collection that can be used and adapted by Education staff across the sector. • Please contact • kay.sambell@northumbria.ac.uk