Knowledge-based components

This section provides detail on formative assessments (e.g. quizzes; tests) and feedback provided to support trainees to improve their knowledge. It then focuses on summative assessment, which is the type of assessment where formal grades are provided and that see the trainee pass units that lead towards both the knowledge and competence qualification.

3.8.1.1 FE colleges

As part of completing the qualification formative assessments (typically tests / quizzes) would be dispersed throughout. These assessments offered trainees the opportunity to test their knowledge and get feedback prior to summative assessments.

“Before the students sit any summative assessment, they always have the opportunity to sit formative assessments, which they get feedback on. And the feedback will always be a combination of verbal feedback and written feedback.” ..

“The formative tests very much just give them an opportunity to, you know, kind of, consolidate their knowledge and get used to exam structures and things ... .”

FE college 12

“In the weeks prior or leading up to the summative test the tutors will do mock tests with them, like formative assessments with them.”

FE college 8

Three FE colleges offered City and Guilds-accredited qualifications; 11 offered Pearson Edexcel-accredited qualifications and three offered SQA-accredited qualifications. This dictated the way in which summative assessments took place. For example, those colleges offering Pearson Edexcel qualifications would assess trainees’ knowledge using written assignments for each unit of the qualification.

“They are given assignments which usually centre around a particular topic within a unit. So out of 19 units they get 84 assignments over two years.”

FE college 11

43 “We teach the unit like in a block of teaching and then they’ll sit the assessment

paper for it once they’ve completed the teaching.”

FE college 16

In contrast, the three FE colleges that were using SQA assessed trainees with a combination of exams and assignments.

“It's a mixture. We don't have any single unit where it's only assignment. Most of the units are either a mixture of an exam plus practical or an exam plus an assignment.”

FE college 12

“There’s a variety of methods of assessment that are used. Some of the, and again it’s stipulated in the [Scottish Qualification Authority’s National Certiciates], so students may have to complete a closed book assessment and they may have to complete an open book assessment and these would be done in college, in the classroom, and it would be invigilated. We would never allow a student to complete an assessment which was closed book or open book without an invigilator, a lecturer present actually, obviously to ensure that there was the authenticity of the assessment process. Perhaps the unit specification will stipulate that the student has to design a report and they would do that in their own time; they would go away and maybe use something like moodle or the internet, or they would go into our own learning reader centre here where they’ve got access to books and computers and whatever they wanted and then they would develop their report and hand that in. It depends on what’s needed in the unit specification.”

FE college 13

Issues with assessment methods were noted by a few interviewees when asked to provide comments about the pharmacy technician qualifications. For example, one interviewee noted that it was ideal to have a mixture of exams and assignments to assess trainees. Placing the weight on either exams or assignments alone posed challenges for trainees, which is

illustrated in the quote below:

“What we need is half and half. We need it half by written assessments and we need it half by exam, you know, the students are now stressing because they’ve

got 19 exams and they say why can’t we do it in assessments and written assignments, and whereas my old students used to say couldn’t we just have an exam to get this all over and done with, I’m permanently writing assignments, so the ideal and especially for this type of student, a technical student, would be a mixture of both, but neither of the qualifications offer that and I am bound with what the awarding body says that I’ve got to assess.”

FE college 14

Assessments would be graded as a pass, merit or distinction by education providers offering Edexcel and City and Guilds qualifications and the final qualification would be certificated in the same way. If minimum (i.e. pass) requirements were not met, the next submission or resit would often be capped at a pass grade.

“So for the first attempt, you can get a pass, merit and distinction, but then if you fail, then you only get one more attempt and only a pass is available.”

FE college 3

FE colleges offering SQA qualifications described grading assessments with scores that converted to pass or fail criteria.

“It’s a score of…that again it’s stipulated in the unit specification from SQA, so it’s stipulated there what the pass mark is for [national certificates]. It’s generally about 60 per cent for NCs, and the student will know that; it will be on the

assessment before they get it.”

FE college 13

It was difficult for trainees to fail units of the knowledge qualification because they would be coached to reach at least a pass level and they had opportunities of resubmitting work or resitting exams.

“Not many people do [fail] because if I can say that they’re on the right track, then I can give them guidance to pass, and therefore…well, from the student perspective, they are told that they will be able to submit twice, and unless they’re almost there that could mean that they could fail on that second submission. The reality is by the second submission, they’ve looked at the feedback from the first, and most students will then pull it up to the mark, or more or less, and if it just needs a little bit of tweaking, then that’s allowable.”

45

FE college 4

R: “They can fail but then, yeah, they’re supported to achieve, they can redo, they can retake.”

I: “So it is, is it fair to say it is difficult then to fail really because if you slip up and don't achieve the pass marks you’ll then be supported to achieve...?”

R: “You’d be supported to...it is difficult to fail, yeah.”

FE college 6

After completing assessments, trainees would receive written feedback from the member of staff that delivered the teaching for the unit relating to the assignment; this was consistent across all FE colleges. Additional feedback could be delivered face-to-face during classes as the trainees attended the college on a weekly basis.

I: “You provide written feedback on assignments?” R: “Yes, yeah”.

…

“But also because I see the students I can also talk to them as well so that’s the advantage.”

FE college 5

3.8.1.2 Distance providers

In preparation for summative assessments, trainees using distance providers could complete different activities in their workbooks that could then be marked by their line manager (e.g. supervising pharmacist) as described below:

“There are exercises and activities for them to work through as they go through the module. They're marked within the workplace by the supervising pharmacist.”

Distance provider 2

Other ways of conducting formative assessment would be through online testing where automated feedback could be generated.

R: “Some of the formative assessment’s done through the computer, so they can go online and actually do multiple choice questions and actually get some idea of” -

I: - “Okay, so they get feedback on it automatically?” R: “Yes, absolutely.”

Distance provider 4

As with the FE colleges, summative assessments for the knowledge qualification could be in the form of assignments or exams. Most distance providers used written exams to assess trainees rather than assignments. These would be sat in trainees’ workplaces under exam conditions.

“They have written [exams] at the end of each unit which they need to do in the workplace. So they do have those which they need to do in the workplace and those are sent in for marking to our assessors who will then give them quite detailed feedback and advice and if they need to re-sit an assignment they'll give them a plan for further study.”

Distance provider 1

“Yes. What happens is we send out the modules and the student would get those. But the actual named supervising pharmacist would get the summative questions and the assessment questions which go out in a sealed pack. So they would hold onto them until they're ready to give them out to their student.” …

“[T]hey would sit that in the pharmacy, supervised by their pharmacist under exam conditions.”

Distance provider 3

One interviewee did, however, consider the potential issues associated with the

arrangements of the trainee completing assessments at a distance with the support of a supervising pharmacist, without a trained assessor working with them or observing them. They described how some trainees, without the help of a trained assessor in the workplace,

47 may not fully understand the content of what they are producing for their assessments due to, for example, learning ‘by rote’.

“If you’ve got an online test to do, then the pharmacist could be there, or

somebody else could be there supporting, and maybe helping with the answers, and not realising…and because obviously they’re not trained assessors, they’re not trained in teaching, but they know the job, so they assume … that their member of staff understands something, and they actually don’t. I have seen that before as well, where they’re kind of almost given the answers, but their explanation isn’t really that great. Also, when somebody’s doing an assignment, and they’re just writing it up and getting it sent off, again it could be something that they’ve kind of almost learnt by rote, and they’re regurgitating an answer, but the understanding and practice isn’t there.”

Distance provider 5

Three distance providers (distance providers 4, 5 and 6), using a Pearson Edexcel-approved qualification, assessed through submitted assignments (distance provider 5 and 6 used the materials developed by distance provider 4 and therefore the assessment method was the same).

“They don’t do exam conditions tests at all.” …

“It is all submitting assignments, yes, that we produce.”

Distance provider 4

The grading of assignments was done in the same manner as most FE colleges, with pass, merit and distinction criteria being used for the final outcome at the point of certification. Feedback for summative assessments was provided by assessors employed by the education providers and the assessors typically assessed trainees’ knowledge and competence together throughout their training. Written feedback was often provided that could be shared with trainees online or sent to them through the post. Verbal feedback could take place during telephone conversations and these conversations may also have involved ‘professional discussions’, considered in the following section.

“They have written assignments at the end of each unit which they need to do in the workplace. So they do have those which they need to do in the workplace

and those are sent in for marking to our assessors who will then give them quite detailed feedback and advice and if they need to re-sit an assignment they'll give them a plan for further study.”

Distance provider 1