Kay Sambell

The Construction of the Hidden Curriculum: messages and meanings in the assessment of student learning

ABSTRACT A wide range of diverse responses by individual students to innovative or alternative assessment are described and discussed, drawing on research data. Student perspectives are significant since assessment is a powerful factor in determining the hidden curriculum and assessment reform has frequently been proposed as a means of better aligning actual experience with the official curriculum. At a general level, students appeared to understand and adapt to new assessment requirements but case studies illustrate that students do not respond in a fixed nor simple way. Individuals are active in the reconstruction of the messages and meanings of assessment. Ostensibly the same assessment is interpreted differently not just by ‘staff and ‘students’ but by individuals. Students import a range of experiences, motivations and perspectives which influence their response. However, although the process is complex, insights gained can be helpful in better aligning the hidden and the formal curriculum.

Fitness for Purpose in the Assessment of Learning: students as stakeholders

Abstract A fitness‐for‐purpose approach to determining the quality of assessment practices in higher education requires the consideration of the perspectives of a range of stakeholders including students. Empirical data from case studies of assessment in practice are used to illuminate the student stakeholder viewpoint. Students judge assessment in terms of its effects on learning and motivation; the extent of openness and clarity; the feedback and guidance provided; and the content, form and accuracy of the assessment and its feasibility. It is suggested that students readily identify a range of purposes for assessment, which would be widely regarded as educationally sound, and that they do make judgements about how well purposes are met. Students should, therefore, be considered as valid stakeholders in the process of determining and maintaining quality in assessment.

Carnivalizing the Future: A New Approach to Theorizing Childhood and Adulthood in Science Fiction for Young Readers

The comic narrative strategies that Reeve uses in Mortal Engines set it apart from the bulk of deeply serious, starkly pessimistic science fiction for young readers. Sambell illustrates how Reeve eschews the oppressive admonitory tone of the dystopian genre, by playfully and humorously carnivalising the future instead. She argues that this innovative approach allows him to critique and subvert the polluted adult world in a manner that is not at odds with the desire to offer young readers optimistic possibilities within the post-catastrophe novel. A new style of didacticism is achieved, based upon an emancipatory model of child-adult relations.

Evaluating Assessment Strategies through Collaborative Evidence-Based Practice: Can One Tool Fit All?.

This paper reports on a collaborative project to improve assessment undertaken by a cross‐discipline group of university lecturers (Business, Engineering and Psychology) using action research methodology. First‐stage analysis was based on results from an Assessment Experience Questionnaire developed by the FAST FDTL4 (Formative Assessment in Science Teaching – Fund for the Development of Teaching and Learning Phase 4) project and complementary qualitative data. Collaborative discussion of outcomes led to formulation of improvement plans within each discipline. Further conclusions were made surrounding the selected standardised tool and the process of undertaking collaborative action research across disciplines.

Watch this space: childhood, picturebooks and comics

This is a special issue of Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics exploring the relationships of picturebooks and comics with notions of childhood. There have been productive readings in relation to the mechanics of both these media such as Maria Nikoljeva and Carole Scott’s How Picturebooks Work (2001) and Thierry Groensteen’s The System of Comics (2007), as well as extensive research on the history and specific creators of children’s picturebooks. However, much less attention has been paid to the intersection between these comics, picturebooks and constructions of childhood. This is an area that is potentially significant, as the understandings and definitions of childhood held by creators, publishers, teachers and others shape both what is offered to actual child readers and how children are depicted in texts. We believe, then, that focusing on constructions of childhood, rather than education, or reading for pleasure, is an important area of enquiry that opens the fields of childhood studies and visual culture to new debates. Focusing on the links across illustration, graphic narratives and visual culture, this special issue offers interventions in the fields of comics and picturebooks. It is perhaps worth noting that comics and picturebooks are not typically considered together, with some rare exceptions such as Mel Gibson’s (2010) work in ‘Graphic Novels, Comics and Picturebooks’ and David Lewis’s (1998) work on ‘knowingness’ in relation to Colin McNaughton’s work. Perhaps one material difference between comics and picturebooks is the traditionally serial nature of the former compared with the relatively infrequent production process for the latter. While comics such as Little Nemo in Slumberland (1902–1914), Calvin and Hobbes (1985–1995) and the long-running The Katzenjammer Kids (1912–1949) were produced in weekly, if not daily, newspapers, picturebooks and graphic novels such as Raymond Briggs’s (1978) The Snowman, Maurice Sendak’s (1963) Where the Wild Things Are, or even the Dr Seuss corpus might be regarded as more ‘singular’ publication events. This is not to suggest that picturebooks are somehow more valuable, but only to draw attention to some of the material specificities surrounding each genre. While both genres have spawned their own kinds of adaptations, spin-offs and readerships, there are several links between them that might fruitfully be considered. For example, in relation to audience (a focus in Lewis), comics and picturebooks have frequently been associated with younger readers, despite the two being very flexible media that can be used to address readers of all ages on any topic. When such assumptions are dominant, this is usually related to perceptions of what might be ‘appropriate’ content. As the artist and illustrator Shaun Tan commented in an interview, ‘I’m not sure if there is a conflict across different audiences, but like to think that

Studying Early Childhood: Part 1 - Becoming an active learner

When making the transition to studying at degree level, students will be challenged to think in new and unaccustomed ways, with different study practices than they have used before.