Contextualising higher education assessment task words with an ‘anti-glossary’ approach

Richards, Kendall; Pilcher, Nick

Abstract

Key ‘generic’ assessment task words such as ‘discuss’ and ‘critically evaluate’ are integral to higher education assessment. Although sources such as study skills guides give generic decontextualised glossaries of these words, much research rightly argues for greater dialogue between students (particularly ‘non-traditional’ students) and lecturers to help students understand and use such words. This paper presents the results from ‘staged’ focus groups with lecturers and students from the UK and China that created a forum for such dialogue, where many of these words and their interpretations were talked about. Results show very different interpretations, informed by factors such as ‘language’, ‘culture’ and ‘subject’. We propose these factors be used in an ‘anti-glossary’ approach, which we describe here. This approach is not against glossaries per se, but counteracts the assumption that glossary definitions are explicit, and adopts a social constructivist contextualisation of the task words through teacher-led dialogue.

Citation

Richards, K., & Pilcher, N. (2014). Contextualising higher education assessment task words with an ‘anti-glossary’ approach. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 27(5), 604-625. https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2013.805443

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Mar 1, 2013
• Online Publication Date: Jun 24, 2013
• Publication Date: May 28, 2014
• Deposit Date: Dec 18, 2015
• Journal: International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education
• Print ISSN: 0951-8398
• Electronic ISSN: 1366-5898
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 27
• Issue: 5
• Pages: 604-625
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2013.805443
• Keywords: glossaries, ‘anti-glossary’, assessment task words, study skills, social constructivism
• Public URL: http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/id/eprint/9313
• Publisher URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09518398.2013.805443