Assessment for Learning in Academic and Researcher Support Programmes

This is an account of the issues and findings of a project, ‘Evaluation of Researcher Support Programmes: Assessment within Development Events, and the Attitudes and Experiences towards Academic Careers Provision, of Early Career Academics (ECAs)’, funded by the Centre for Excellence in Preparing for Academic Practice. The project, through exploratory methodology and mixed method, has been enquiring into evaluation of development events (of all types) for ECAs (postgraduate and early career researchers as well as academics), with respect to participant learning and attainment (impact levels 2 and 3 of the Rugby Team Impact Framework, expounded in Bromley, after Kirkpatrick), asking the question to what extent can assessment of participants be deployed in development events, especially those which do not lead to an award?

The fieldwork, group discussions and individual interviewing and questionnaires, has focused upon the experiences of participants in a diverse range of development events, including some staged to include additional activities and assignments for assessment. The project finds that participating is seen as valuable in its own right for learning, assessment being seen as unnecessary by some, and grading offensive by those evoking a ‘romantic’ narrative. Other participants, especially those in development events which are not normally complemented by an assignment task, are largely open variously to assessment that is for learning and of learning. A conclusion is that the tail of summative assessment, where that is defined according to the needs of accredited and award-bearing provision, does not wag the dog of learning through committed purposive participation. At the same time, there is a strong indication that the selective integration of tasks into development provision, as means by which the performance and competence of participants may be assessed, would constitute a fruitful investment of resources. The findings are especially poignant with the advent of the new Research Development Framework (RDF 2011), replacing the ‘Joint Skills Statement’ (RCUK 2001).

Bromley, Tony (2009). Evaluating Training and Development Programmes for Postgraduate and Newer Researchers. London, England: Society for Research into Higher Education (series 2 no.7 of the SRHE Guides, Issues in Postgraduate Education: Management, Teaching and Supervision, http://www.srhe.ac.uk/publications.gpi.asp)

Kirkpatrick, Don L. and Kirkpatrick, Jim D. (2006). Evaluating Training Programmes: The Four Levels (3rd Ed.). San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.

RCUK (2001): Skills training requirements for research students: joint statement by the Research Councils/AHRB. http://www.vitae.ac.uk/jss

RDF (2011): The Researcher Development Framework. http://www.vitae.ac.uk/rdf