M. Segers

The Era of Assessment Engineering: Changing Perspectives on Teaching and Learning and the Role of New Modes of Assessment

Assessment of student achievement is changing, largely because todays students face a world that will demand new knowledge and abilities, and the need to become life-long learners in a world that will demand competencies and skills not yet defined. In this 21st century, students need to understand the basic knowledge of their domain of study, but also need to be able to think critically, to analyse, to synthesize and to make inferences. Helping students to develop these skills will require changes in the assessment culture and the assessment practice at the school and classroom level, as well as in higher education, and in the work environment. It will also require new approaches to large-scale, high-stakes assessments. A growing body of literature describes these changes in assessment practice and the development of new modes of assessment. However, only a few of them address the critical issue of quality. The paradigm change from a testing culture to an assessment culture can only be continued when research offers sufficient empirical evidence for the various aspects of quality of this new assessment culture (Birenbaum & Dochy, 1996). This book intends to contribute to this aim by presenting a series of studies on various aspects of quality of new modes of assessment. It starts by elaborating on the conceptual framework of this paradigm change and

The Effect of Prior Knowledge on Learning in Educational Practice: Studies Using Prior Knowledge State Assessment

The paper outlines different issues concerning the use of prior knowledge state assessment for enhancing learning. Assessing prior knowledge by means of measuring a set of personal and contextual variables does not seem an effective track for further research and development. Therefore, the use of instruments like prior knowledge state tests and progress tests is discussed. As a cost-benefit analysis, different studies are carried out. The results indicate that beginner students are especially willing to use prior knowledge state assessment for different purposes, stressing the importance of regular feedback on the results of the assessment. Concerning the actual use of the assessment instruments, the findings suggest that beginner students need more external pressure to use the assessment instruments than advanced students. When it comes to attending final examinations, it seems that beginner students benefit more from prior knowledge state assessment and progress assessment than experienced students. Th...

Effects of Problem-based Learning in Business Education : A Comparison between a PBL and a Conventional Educational Approach

Over the past decade, business schools have been increasingly criticized for being too theoretical, too specialized, not internationally oriented and not engaged in developing the necessary expert knowledge in students (Gijselaers & Woltjer, 1998). In the workplace of the current “Age of Mind” (Todd, 1999), knowledge is a valuable asset of the contemporary organization. In order to be successful in the current dynamic and competitive environment, the use of existing knowledge and the development of new knowledge becomes a prominent prerequisite for solving the complex problems faced today. In view of these developments, the question that needs to be asked is: “What qualities must graduates of business education possess?” Many answers to this question have been formulated in the literature. These share a common view. Society demands graduates who are capable of efficiently resolving complex problems (Engel, 1997; Poikela & Poikela, 1997; Segers, 1997).

Contextual antecedents of informal feedback processes in the workplace

This study brings together findings from different research angles on informal feedback in the workplace. We explore the individual and joint influences of three contextual antecedents of seeking feedback: support for learning, psychological safety, and work pressure. Based on our survey of 138 employees from various organizations, hierarchical regression analyses revealed that support in the work environment positively influenced the quality of the self-initiated feedback from colleagues and (in particular( from the supervisor. Psychological safety positively related to the quality of the self-initiated feedback from colleagues. No relation was found between support, psychological safety and the frequency of feedback seeking, however, an indication for the existence of a curvilinear effect of work pressure on the frequency of feedback seeking was found. The study highlights the importance of fostering supportive and psychological safe work environments, so that employees and supervisors will look for and give constructive feedback. Learning in organizations can be stimulated by creating enough time and opportunities for informal feedback, and the results suggest several valuable and promising avenues for future research.

Impact of assessment on students' learning strategies and implications for judging asssessment quality

Assessment is considered to be an important tool for making education work. However, is there a relationship between the assessment practices used in classrooms and what or how students learn? If yes, how does this work? This article focuses on the importance of pre-, post-, and pure assessment effects on learning. It presents some recent studies aiming to contribute to our understanding of the effects of assessment on student learning. Moreover, given the influence of assessment on student learning, it is stressed that attention should be paid to the quality of current classroom assessment practices by using quality indicators that align with the features of these classroom assessment practices.