Seeking, hearing and acting: Staff perspectives of changes in assessment practice through TESTA

Adamson, Elizabeth; Webster-Henderson, Brian; Carver, Mark

Abstract

Assessment and feedback continues to be a key focus of attention within higher education. The TESTA (Transforming the Experience of Students through Assessment) methodology has been used worldwide across a variety of disciplines, programmes and cultures with encouraging results (Jessop et al., 2014b; Jessop et al., 2014a; Jessop et al., 2011; Boyle and Taylor, 2016). This paper shares the experience of using TESTA in a School of Health and Social Care within a higher education setting in Scotland to examine assessment practice and capture the experience of undergraduate nursing and midwifery students in relation to this. The main focus of this paper is the examination of the experiences and feedback of academic staff at 10 months and 21 months post-changes in terms of the TESTA process. It also explores their professed challenges as well as their perceived benefits to the modifications and changes that were introduced to module and programme assessment as a result of the findings from the TESTA audit. The findings from staff focus groups are shared as well as some discussion about the staff journey in changing the student experience of assessment and feedback practices. A reflection on the learning from this project and some recommendations for academic practice are also made.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: 2017-10
• Deposit Date: Mar 26, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 26, 2018
• Journal: SEDA Educational Developments
• Publisher: Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 18
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 12-15
• Keywords: Assessment, feedback, TESTA, student experience,
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/1134862
• Contract Date: Mar 26, 2018