Action learning as a path forward
المؤلف:
Catherine Layton
المصدر:
Enhancing Teaching and Learning through Assessment
الجزء والصفحة:
P347-C29
2025-08-02
431
Action learning as a path forward
The contemporary debate about the assessment of complex performances such as that evidenced in work placements would suggest that portfolios are likely to be the most effective assessment tool (Biggs, 2003; Loacker, 2005; Tai, 2005), with the placement experiences potentially providing some examples of the quality of a student's performance that they might like to include in their portfolio. An emphasis is also placed on the value of formative assessment processes when the summative process is unlikely to measure the performance, and on institutionally based low-stakes approaches to assessment (Knight, 2005).
However, placements form a part of learning in institutions at many different stages of development, some of them quite traditional. In the latter instances, particularly where service learning is seen as an add-on rather than a means of acquiring or demonstrating complex performance skills, the complexities of the learning and its assessment must be recognized in slightly different ways. An approach is needed that takes account of contexts, relationships, uncertainty and complexity, as well as individual learning. It needs to be an approach which is not mechanistic, and, as Luckett & Luckett suggest, this may best be 'action learning' (Luckett, S. & Luckett, K., 1999).
Action learning has its origins in quality management, in programs for managers on how to manage better in the course of their risky, unpredictable and emotional daily working lives (Garratt, 1991; Pedler, 1991). The premise that 'responsible action is our greatest disciplinarian as well as our most sympathetic helper' (Pedler, 1991) means that action learning processes recognize the importance of moral imagination and of the feelings that underpin right action (Pedler, 1991). Rather than learn what should be done prior to action, learners focus on the action before them, and then learn what is necessary to improve the current situation.
The process is characterized by an action learning 'set' (a group of people sharing similar problems). The group tackles the problems in real time and freely criticize, advise and support their fellows, drawing when they choose, on appropriate specialist help. One practitioner tells participants, 'I don't know where we're going, or the route. I only know that you'll experience it, and it may not always be great' (Hughes, 1991). The open nature of the process develops the micro-political skills of diagnosis and 'ally' identification (allies are those who might assist with the problem) (Pedler, 1991). In some instances, particularly organizations already engaged in this type of approach, the action learning 'set' would be workplace-based, using the lecturer as the 'set advisor'; in others, it would be student cohort-based, again with the lecturer as 'set advisor'. Having the lecturer as the 'set advisor' would allow for early feedback on, and discussion about how best to deal with, differing affordances in the environment, as a form of coaching and formative feedback (Brown & Knight, 1995; Coll et al., 2002). Training and ongoing support for lecturers would also be required (Gould & Masters, 2004).
How might one assess students' work given this complexity and unpredictability in action, and what can be assessed? The action learning literature has a personal and organizational development focus, and pays scant attention to external assessment. Nonetheless, it pro vides one life-line in terms of the how: self- and peer assessment is a minimum requirement. There are many examples of how best to do this (Boud, 1995; Chin et al., 2005; Farooqi & MacDonald, 2005). In terms of what could be assessed, the work of Angelo and Cross (1993) and Nightingale et al. (1996) would suggest that aspects of learning that would be amenable to assessment might include synthesis and creative thinking; problem posing/solving; application and performance; attitudes, values and self-awareness; and managing and developing oneself.
The focus of, and processes for assessment would be discussed by the action learning set, in terms of an action plan/learning contract, in which the goals are specified, the resources that might be drawn upon are identified, the types of learning strategies that will be employed are discussed, along with the identification of possible measures of success and how these will be demonstrated (this could be a portfolio, before and after videos, entries on the forum, etc.). It should be noted that what may be lost in this process are the subtle shifts of positioning that are evident in naïve accounts of the day's experiences: it is doubtful, for example, that Brittany would have said to everyone in her placement that her goal was to 'win over the girls' (which she mentioned in her diary).
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