%X Assessment has been shown to direct student learning behaviour by
influencing the quality and quantity of effort, the aspects of the course syllabus
that will be attended to and the qualitative outcomes of learning. From the late
1960s through to the 1990s a wealth of education research was undertaken to
explore student learning behaviour and this shaped the design and delivery of
modern day curricula, including the emergence of 'constructive alignment'. With
this, distinct efforts to express learning outcomes which link to assessment
procedures were made and criteria against which performance standards were
to be judged were published. Along with such initiatives the variety of
assessment methods also increased, yet little evaluation of the impact of such
changes on student learning behaviour has been made. However, a recent
report submitted to the Higher Education Academy suggests that the modern
teaching and assessment environment is associated with a range of negative
learning responses. These include less effort, less coverage of the syllabus and
a less deep approach to studying.
This work examined the assessment characteristics of an undergraduate
physiotherapy programme situated in a modern university with an educational
philosophy of constructive alignment. It considers the relationship between the
assessment environment and resultant student learning behaviour. The study
showed that students endeavoured to adopt a deep approach to their learning
and were engendered with a professional responsibility to commit themselves
to a personal stance of understanding and meaning-making. It is suggested
that this outcome is due to the vocational nature of the programme and the
inherent community of practice that this brings, and the associated affiliation of
the profession to the concept of clinical reasoning.
A further finding questions the assumed pedagogic stance surrounding deep
and surface approaches to learning. It is suggested that a deep learning motive
— achieving assessment strategy may well describe many learners and befits a
contemporary, mass higher education system.
%D 2009
%A Joy Needham
%I Institute of Education, University of London
%L discovery10019910
%T The impact of assessment practices in the university setting upon the learning behaviour of student physiotherapists
%O Thesis: (EdD) University of London Institute of Education, 2009.