Assessing Susan and Assessing Robert: Let All the Flowers Bloom

Ilona Box and Raymond Lister

Date and time: 11.30am-12.30pm, Friday 16th April, 2004

Venue: 10.11.04

Chair: James Harland

Abstract:

Think of the class you taught last semester. Think of the group of students who achieved the highest grade, and think of the group who received the lowest passing grade. These are two very different groups of students. Biggs personified these two groups, describing the former group as "Susan" and the latter as "Robert". When Susan and Robert attend the same lecture, Susan "finds an answer to a question that has been worrying her; it forms the keystone for a particular arch of knowledge she is constructing." On the otherhand, Robert "doesn't see a keystone, just another brick to be recorded in his lecture notes". Susan and Robert probably belong in different classrooms, but the fact is they are not. How then do we cope with simultaneously teaching and assessing both types of student?

Traditional norm-referenced assessment approaches, where all students work on the same assessment tasks, result in tasks that may be effective for the middle-achieving student, but they do not stretch Susan. Worse, Robert does poorly on such tasks ... and yet we still pass him. Perhaps the primary lesson learnt by Robert is that "near enough is good enough", when a lack of attention to detail is a deadly sin in computing.

Our solution is two-fold. First, we use a criterion-referenced approach, where qualitatively different tasks are set for each type of student. Second, the differences in the nature of the tasks reflect the differing levels of Bloom's taxonomy. All students are required to demonstrate knowledge and comprehension of the material, but under exam conditions, and with no marks for being half-right. If Robert is successful at such exams, he gains his pass, and need do no more. Other students gain higher grades by attempting traditional assignment tasks, which fit into the middle two layers of Bloom's taxonomy, "application" and "analysis". Susan earns her high grade by going on to work on open ended tasks at the "synthesis" and "evaluation" levels of the taxonomy.

Raymond Lister will describe his experiences with applying this approach to a first year programming subject. Ilona Box will describe her experience in using the approach in a second year subject on object-oriented analysis. Both will argue that the approach can be used in other types of subjects.

Object Oriented Analysis, Criterion Referencing and Bloom

First Year Programming: Let All the Flowers Bloom

About the speakers:

Ilona Box is a Lecturer in the School of Computing and Information Technology at the University of Western Sydney.

Raymond Lister has taught at three Australian universities: the Queensland University of Technology, the University of Western Sydney, and most recently at the University of Technology (Sydney) where he is a senior lecturer. The current semester is the 15th in which he has taught a first year programming subject, and the 5th in which he has applied a criterion-based assessent scheme based on Bloom's taxonomy. Among his fifty publications are seven papers at international conferences and four papers at national conferences on various aspects of teaching information technology. In 2003 and 2004, he was Programme Co-chair of the Australasian Computer Education Conference. He also writes a six-monthly column on education research for the ACM's SIGCSE Bulletin.

Seminars are free and open to the general public. No booking is necessary.

If you are interested in giving a presentation in this seminar series, or to make suggestions for speakers, please contact James Harland, the seminar co-ordinator.