Learning and Teaching Enhancement Virtual Seminar 1 of 4: 25 March 2021

Topic

Can and should assessment nurture an orientation to society and social justice?

Presenter

Dr Margaret Blackie

“More may be required to achieve higher education oriented to society and social justice than simply the deliberate inclusion of socially-related activities in the curriculum or as assessment tasks."

This was the message brought by Dr Margaret Blackie, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Chemistry and Polymer Science, Faculty of Science, at the first in a series of four virtual seminars hosted by the Division for Learning and Teaching Enhancement. The theme for the virtual Learning and Teaching Enhancement (LTE) seminar series this year is “Assessment". Dr Blackie's connection to this theme was evident in her exploration of the connections that can be made between how students in the STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) disciplines are assessed and an orientation to wider society is nurtured.

Dr Blackie's presentation was a sharing of part of a large research project entitled 'Understanding Knowledge and Student Agency', an international collaboration led by Prof Paul Ashwin at Lancaster University. The research project is essentially a longitudinal and comparative four-year study of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering undergraduate students in the United Kingdom, United States of America and South Africa. A social justice and critical theory lens was employed, drawing particularly from Honneth (2010), who argues that “What is just, is that which allows the individual member of our society to realise his or her own life objectives in cooperation with others, and with the greatest possible autonomy".  Building on this, Blackie explained the position taken that a person who does not look beyond their own wellbeing and consider broader social wellbeing is unable to realise their own individual wellbeing.

One of the main findings of the research indicates that only a very small number of students display any orientation to society through their responses to assessment tasks, which is surprising, and somewhat distressing. Questioning whether more can be done with assessments in the interest of social justice, Blackie presented two possibilities: the first is to have at least some assignments linked to social issues and the second is to consider the value proposition of the assessment. Blackie went on that we have to acknowledge “the elephant in the room", because students are profoundly shaped by competitive assessment strategies. It is therefore not just about the nature of the task, but also about considering relationships and dispositions.

In summarising, Dr Blackie emphasised that we have to recognise that traditional assessments are competitive, high stakes and individual. Secondly, it distorts our sense of achievement. Here she pointed participants to the notion of 'evaluation judgement' by David Boud and co-workers, as well as the notion of 'understanding the depth of understanding' by Bernard Lonergan.

There was a lively engagement from colleagues present, particularly around the question of whether we are not perhaps over-assessing knowledge and skills and rarely thinking about the underpinning values that we would like to instil in our students.

More information and access to the recording of this seminar available here.

​By Anthea H M Jacobs​​