Formative Elements within Summative Assessment

While the lecturers most commonly referred to assessment as summative, there was evidence of the use of formative elements as a pedagogical tool that associated assessment practices with the teaching and learning processes. Lecturers’ descriptions of assessment practices included different types of formative elements but commonly, there appeared to be a lack of deep understanding of FA amongst lecturers meant that there was little consistency in how feedback was used to support the development of student performance. In addition, the

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uncertainty of whether or not formative assessment was included during the teaching and learning process suggested that opportunities was often missed to encourage students’ engagement and support their improvement.

For most lecturers, elements of FA were part of the assessment process although the assessment strategies still meet summative needs. Different tools such as, presentation, essay, and field application were used during the final exam. Lecturers made formative use of SA where the information derived from SA help to develop students’ leaning and performance.

The data from this study suggested that formative assessment emerged when students were preparing their presentations. Although (L2) used presentation as an assessment task to summatively assess students’ learning, providing them with constructive feedback was also a priority for the lecturer:

… students are in regular contact with me, they come back to me, send me emails while preparing their presentations, I see what they’ve done, and give them constructive feedback on how to improve. I mean there are some points that I remined them about in each presentation, such as objectives, introduction, references are very important and the conclusion as well as the content, they must deep understand what they will present in order to develop; it’s a superior than having good mark (L2).

In addition, lecturers referred to assessing students’ written work as a means to increase their self-confidence and improve communication skills. For example:

… because it could contribute to their learning. It increases their self-confidence, as they search, read and write to show their best and also because it improves the language … (as a group work) they must participate and discuss and then they divide the topic to many parts, and everyone work on her part, and then meet again and discuss to amend. Then they can submit it to me or print it, and I assess it and give my feedback and I check if all the points are covered well or not, and if they make it the right way or not, if there is any notes or corrections I give it to them again and they make all the amendments, in the end I will do the evaluation, and give them the final mark (L4).

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Evaluating students while they were learning in the field, i.e. in hospital also included a formative assessment element. For example, (L10) provided feedback to students before the final evaluation allowing them “to re-demonstrate” to advance their learning. She said:

… if the performance checklist is out of 20 marks, I cannot make the student pass if she gets 75% in the semester work; I have to let her make the training again, I support her and give her comment to improve her performance in the practical work… regarding the work in the hospital I have to make her competent and advance her learning by adapting pace, challenge and content of activity, she must work hard to avoid doing any mistakes with patients, that's why I'm letting them do re-demonstration, and re-demonstration until her evaluation be 75%, can I let her make bypassing for this gap, which results on more development. For all the semester I don't let her be less than 75% (L10).

Lecturers provided feedback to students during the practical exam. However, these comments only corrected their current mistakes. (L1) explained this:

In the final exam, the last batch, what I made was for obstetrics & gynecology, first I asked the student if she did a mistake in certain area to encourage her to think, and then I taught her what is supposed ideally to be so and so; and the mistake was in that area, for example you missed to fix The speculum somehow it was not correct and it is supposed to be 40 degrees while you entered it at 90 degrees; and another problem you didn’t do low precision for spectrum. Do you see? I show her the error at the same time and how it could be fixed, I mean to show her the area where the defect is. The goal is let her learn not only judging her because in the near future when she is working as a nurse, she will be aware about that (L1). Despite the different descriptions and understandings as outlined in the statements above, a common consensus that arose from these descriptions was that FA was seen as an everyday activity and part of the role of the teacher. Combining and integrating both assessment for and assessment of learning was perceived to enhance and enrich students’ learning.

Lecturers argued that FA and SA could work together effectively if implemented properly. However, there were other barriers to good practice; compared to SA, FA was not perceived to motivate students as powerfully as SA to encourage them to work on the development of their own learning. There was also a strong perception that students were only motivated by

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marks, and that if assessment did not have a mark associated with it, students would not do it. For example:

… they (students) are most keen do have good marks… Students are most keen to grades, even in international activities, like Diabetes International Day, when you say that there are no marks on attending and the participation is voluntary as it would only increase your awareness and contribute to your knowledge, they will not attend, (chuckles) marks are most important for them (L2).

However, another participant took advantages of this situation to encourage her students to be independent learners. This is exemplified in the following quote:

I always take advantage of this point with my students, for example I tell them you will not be able to take a good mark if you have not followed my advices, discuss, ask, and co-operate. So, they work on themselves until you finish these procedures right, as the marks is their priority (L10).

This quotation suggests that final year undergraduate students must be prepared for novel and changing situations as students may find themselves in unexpected situations, Therefore, FA is essential as it enables individuals to take the lead to improve their performance and identifying gaps in the competences they must have in the future.

However, questions have been raised regarding the critical role that FA can play in student learning if lecturers have insufficient knowledge about it and its importance in developing students’ learning. For some lecturers, FA seemed to be an additional activity for students that would only occur if lecturers could find the time and space to fit it in. This attitude towards FA sits uncomfortably with the literature on assessment for learning.

5.5 Lecturers’

Perspectives

and

Experiences

of