Teach.Learn.Share: Episode four
As part of Teach.Learn.Share's podcast miniseries on assessment and well-being, my co-host Jasmine Parent and I have been asking different members of our community why there is little constructive dialogue around assessment and well-being on many university campuses, including McGill. We've also been asking what we can do to make the conversation commonplace and then translate those discussions into concrete actions that benefit well-being at McGill. In episode four, we invited doctoral candidate in Education, Sakina Rizvi, and Connor Sin-Chan, a master's student in Information Studies, to weigh in.
Given their dedication to research, graduate students are sometimes left out of conversations on teaching and learning. Truth is, not only do they engage in learning when in their student role, but they also often collaborate with instructors and other students as teaching assistants, and sometimes even work as course lecturers themselves. Sakina and Connor have a lot to say about how emotions can get tangled up with grades; they also have insights into how to strike the right balance in carrying out fair, learning-centred assessments that don't overwhelm instructors or graders.
Listen to episode four as Jasmine and I engage with Sakina and Connor on why assessment is a vital part of student learning and how student-instructor dialogues on transparent assessment can potentially impact well-being.
Access the transcript
For Allison Cook-Sather (2002), "Authorizing student perspectives means ensuring that there are legitimate and valued spaces within which students can speak, re-tuning our ears so that we can hear what they say, and redirecting our actions in response to what we hear" (p. 3). This podcast episode is an invitation to "re-tune" your ears to hear Sakina and Connor reflect on:
- How and why students often conflate their sense of self with the grades they get.
- What kind of assessment tasks help students learn.
- Why clear communication of assessment criteria and assignment expectations are essential to fair and reliable grading.
- How bringing students into the process for developing assessment criteria can motivate them to focus on their learning.
- What role instructors can play in guiding students' support of each other in their learning process.
Among the strategies discussed in episode four, you'll find:
- Using exemplars to clearly communicate your expectations of students' learning.
- Planning assessment tasks that allow students to get feedback at mid-points along the way to ensure that students' learning is on track. Explore an example of a multi-stage assignment used at McGill.
- Introducing small incremental changes in assessment practices and engaging in student-instructor dialogues around assessment to positively impact students' well-being.
- Giving students some flexibility with assignment deadlines to show that you recognize the importance of students' holistic well-being. Learn more about flexible deadlines.
Don't miss the last episode of our five-part miniseries on assessment and well-being when Jasmine and I talk with Dr. Andrea Creech, Professor of Music Pedagogy at the Schulich School of Music. Andrea shares insights into how assessment forms an integral part of her pedagogy, itself shaped and guided by principles of well-being, such as a sense of belonging, self-efficacy, autonomy, and a belief in one's capacity to make meaningful contributions to our given contexts.
References:
Cook-Sather, A. (2002). Authorizing students' perspectives: Toward trust, dialogue, and change in education. Educational Researcher, 31(4), 3-14.
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