The document discusses inclusive assessment in higher education. It provides an overview of key resources on inclusive assessment and discusses several projects that have investigated assessment experiences of disabled and non-disabled students. It emphasizes that inclusive assessment offers flexibility of assessment choice and a range of methods to assess student competence in a rigorous way. Inclusive assessment leads to higher student satisfaction, improved performance, and removes the need for individual accommodations. The document advocates for inclusive assessment practices over alternative accommodations to meet equalities legislation and diversity of student learning styles and experiences.
The document discusses inclusive assessment in higher education. It provides an overview of key resources on inclusive assessment and discusses several projects that have investigated assessment experiences of disabled and non-disabled students. It emphasizes that inclusive assessment offers flexibility of assessment choice and a range of methods to assess student competence in a rigorous way. Inclusive assessment leads to higher student satisfaction, improved performance, and removes the need for individual accommodations. The document advocates for inclusive assessment practices over alternative accommodations to meet equalities legislation and diversity of student learning styles and experiences.
The document discusses inclusive assessment in higher education. It provides an overview of key resources on inclusive assessment and discusses several projects that have investigated assessment experiences of disabled and non-disabled students. It emphasizes that inclusive assessment offers flexibility of assessment choice and a range of methods to assess student competence in a rigorous way. Inclusive assessment leads to higher student satisfaction, improved performance, and removes the need for individual accommodations. The document advocates for inclusive assessment practices over alternative accommodations to meet equalities legislation and diversity of student learning styles and experiences.
(SPACE): Interdisciplinary guidance based on the assessment experiences of over 800 disabled and non disabled students. http://tinyurl.com/inc-ass-SPACE
Teaching and Learning Research Programme: A project investigating how disabled students academic performance and experience of teaching, learning and assessment varies by disability, subject studied and by type of institution. http://tinyurl.com/fuller-tlrp
Strategies for Creating Inclusive Programmes of Study (SCIPS): A web based resource providing strategies for creating inclusive curricula and assessment. http://tinyurl.com/inc-study-SCIPS
Making your Teaching Inclusive: An interactive website on making teaching and assessment inclusive. http://tinyurl.com/inclusive-teaching
Disability Legislation: Practical Guidance for Academic Staff. http://tinyurl.com/practical-guidance
American Psychological Association: Assessment guides for learning goals and outcomes. http://tinyurl.com/apa-online
Key Resources Overview The pursuit of inclusive assessment is part of a larger debate about the validity and reliability of assessment methods in Higher Education and it highlights the importance of critically examining traditional practice. The traditional unseen, time limited examination is only valid and reliable for those students whose learning style mirrors the demands of the method. Many students feel disadvantaged by unseen examinations and even make course and module choices to avoid them.
Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are being tasked through the widening participation agenda, international recruitment and through equality and anti-discrimination legislation to target the areas of age, disability, gender, race, religion and sexual orientation in the development and delivery of higher education.
To date only the area of disability has a formal framework considering 'reasonable adjustments' in relation to assessment. The Disability Discrimination Act Part 4 Code of Practice (DDA, 2005) stresses that the anticipatory duty is particularly relevant to the area of assessment for disabled people and students at large. To avoid unnecessary barriers and discrimination, whilst still continuing to identify genuine competence standards, requires modifying assessment design or delivery.
Inclusive Practice E-bulletin Series Inclusive Assessment Judith Waterfield and Bob West (University of Plymouth) July 2009 (V2)
Inclusive Assessment Inclusive assessment makes no arbitrary distinction between types of student: disabled and non-disabled, traditional and non-traditional, etc. The issue of disability dissolves into the broader paradigms of student learning styles and experiences and how best to measure individual achievement. The Disability Discrimination Act Part 4 Code of Practice (DDA, 2005) calls for flexible modes of measurement in the awarding of qualifications as a way of reducing the need to make numerous 'reasonable adjustments' for individual students.
Inclusive assessment offers flexibility of assessment choice; a range of tried and tested methods for assessing competence in a rigorous and reliable way, built into course design and subject to student and staff evaluation. Student preferences for assessment modes, based upon their own perceived strengths and weaknesses, form a key component of making assessment inclusive.
Research shows that inclusive assessment achieves higher levels of student satisfaction, provides increased opportunities for discussion and leads to improvements in student marks and grades. For staff, inclusive assessment removes the need for individual modified assessment provisions, reduces the reliance upon alternative assessments, better reflects the achievements of the diverse student population and can make modules more interesting to teach. It can have an impact on staff time, may require more careful appraisal and necessitate dedicated staff development.
The first stage to inclusiveness might include piloting assessment choice through: identifying one or two 'champion' departments; evaluating current student experiences; engaging with relevant professional bodies and subject centres; choosing valid assessment modes to evaluate and auditing change. This is one in a series of e-bulletins available online at: http://tinyurl.com/inclusion-e-bulletins Series Editor: Dr Helen May, Higher Education Academy:helen.may@heacademy.ac.uk Series Manager: Naomi Craig, Higher Education Academy Psychology Network: n.craig@psych.york.ac.uk Key Points Assessment provision for disabled students falls into three distinct categories: 1. Modified Assessment Provisions (MAPs) are a compensatory approach, a form of integration based on the medical model of disability. The volume of MAPs organised annually sector-wide is no longer tenable. Resting responsibility at the point of liaison between disability services and examination offices tends to exclude the academic departments, which also have anticipatory duties. There is no empirical evidence to show that MAPs have the desired outcome of 'levelling the playing field'. Qualitative research shows a degree of student dissatisfaction with them (SPACE, 2006). 2. Alternative Assessments are a 'one off' attempt to match impairments to assessment methods. Arranging an alternative assessment might be necessary when the general 'minimal adaptations' made to meet an HEI's anticipatory duty are considered not to be sufficient and 'specific individual requirements' demand a 'one off' solution (e.g. a viva voce instead of a written assignment). Alternative assessments might always have validity for a small minority as a 'reasonable adjustment'. 3. Inclusive Assessments are built into course design and meet the assessment entitlements of the majority of students. Inclusive assessments are concerned with equality of opportunity. It is an approach that recognises that students have different learning styles and offers a range of assessment methods necessary to assess the different ways in which students can demonstrate the achievement of the learning outcomes.
Considering the requirements of meeting the demands of the equalities agenda inclusive assessments are the preferred method and, as pilot schemes have shown, offering assessment choice is the clearest example of implemented good practice.
Effectiveness of video assisted teaching on techniques of expressing and utilization of expressed breast milk, to establish exclusive breastfeeding among working lactating mothers in selected settings in Coimbatore.