At the start of the new academic year, Rob Kickert, assistant professor at Erasmus School of Social and Behavioural Sciences (ESSB) and Community for Learning & Innovation (CLI) fellow, presented about programmatic assessment during a CLI Lunch & Learn. Programmatic assessment is a promising new method of organising assessments, offering the possibility to revolutionise the educational system. What exactly is it, and what have been the early experiences of implementation at the Educational Master Primary Education (EMPO)?
Introducing Programmatic Assessment (PA)
Programmatic assessment (PA) is a holistic approach to assessment in which progress decisions are based on a combination of various data points. These data points can be papers, tests, presentations, but also self-reflections or internship feedback meetings. Rich feedback is a fundamental principle of PA at EMPO. Instead of grades, students receive narrative feedback at the end of each data point. This helps students to understand their learning progress and gives them opportunities to shape their educational path. Ultimately, the long-term collection of data enables teachers to make more informed decisions about a student’s learning. This way, students can be evaluated not only based on their performance at specific data points but also on their growth throughout a whole course or programme.
A conscious choice for programmatic assessment (at EMPO)
In 2022, ESSB launched EMPO, which marked the first time PA was used in a study programme at EUR. EMPO is a two-year Master’s programme that trains students to become qualified academic teachers for primary education in a metropolitan context. The programme currently has 14 first-year students for the 2024-2025 academic year.
During the CLI Lunch & Learn, Rob Kickert explained some underlying motivations for implementing PA in the curriculum. Foremost, Rob emphasised that assessment is the motivational bottleneck. “If you have a rich curriculum but very poor assessment, there’s going to be poor learning,” he states. For example, suppose a course uses problem-based learning (PBL), which fosters lively discussions and critical thinking, but assessment is a multiple-choice test. In that case, student motivation is reduced, and learning beyond factual information is limited. Assessment is, therefore, your formal method of encouragement and discouragement. Without constant reassurance via grades, students are also encouraged to judge their own quality of learning. A great way to prepare students for the working environment!
EMPO - A practical case of implementation
The implementation of PA at EMPO highlighted the need for active participation from both students and teaching staff. Throughout the academic year, students are required to fill a portfolio with data points, such as mandatory assignments and internship feedback, as well as self-selected data points. To guide students through this “untraditional” process, they are assigned a “portfolio coach”.
Teachers provide narrative feedback for each data point, emphasising a student's strengths and areas for growth rather than assigning a traditional grade or pass/fail decision. Hence, "a data point is not a finish, but a checkpoint along the way.” At the end of the year, the decision committee, consisting of EMPO teachers, is responsible for deciding whether a student will receive their 60 credits, be given a remediating assignment, or be required to retake the year. The decision-making process includes assessing the feedback given to a student, with attention given to the quality of the data points and the progress shown.
Experiences of students and teachers
So, how did EMPO students and teachers experience PA? The expectations of this method were found to align with practical experiences. PA effectively addresses the limitations of a “one-size-fits-all” approach, allowing students to follow their own paths of development. This also positively impacted students’ well-being, as they “feel more recognised and only compared to themselves, instead of other students,” said Rob. Despite some concerns about the removal of traditional grades, “feedback has become the new grade.” Students have shown strong interest in receiving feedback instead of just focusing on grades. This in turn makes teachers feel that giving feedback is valuable time spent on education.
Alternatively, PA showed that both students and teachers need to make significant adjustments and put in extra effort. Students had to adjust to not getting grades and to the increased autonomy. The integration of the curriculum created challenges for teachers, and the decision-making process for the decision committee was less efficient and comfortable compared to traditional grading. This was because of the large amount of narrative feedback provided by various people, each using their own feedback style. Therefore, effort needs to be made to discuss and practice how to give feedback.
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Are you an EUR teacher interested in implementing programmatic assessment? Request the MicroLab on Programmatic Assessment, organised by CLI in collaboration with Risbo.
With his CLI Fellowship, Rob aims to optimise PA in EMPO in terms of student motivation and decision-making. Keep an eye on this page for updates on this project.
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