s many people in the University community now know, the Institute for Teaching and Learning (ITL) runs a one-year, part-time Graduate Certificate in Educational Studies (Higher Education). The twenty-three members of university staff who are currently enrolled have actively engaged with a range of issues in higher education, with the central focus being on student-focused approaches to teaching.

One of the central themes in the course is that of Constructive Alignment, the proponents of which argue among other things for the need to align, in an integrated and consistent way, all elements of a unit of study: aims, student learning outcomes, teaching methods and above all assessment. Below, two current participants in the Graduate Certificate (both in the sciences) discuss how they have applied their enhanced understanding of teaching and learning in practice, with respect to assessment.

Dr Christine Asmar,
Graduate Certificate Co-ordinator, ITL

Rosanne Taylor

Assessment has been a major focus of the Graduate Certificate in Higher Education this year and in trying to put the new ideas into practice, I keep coming back to the question, "How should we best assess to support quality learning?" I have been trying to change student perceptions of what is "really important" to learn in veterinary neurophysiology by modifying the way students are assessed. Students consider this topic difficult and believe it is best learnt by rote memorisation and recall. As one student said; "Neurophysiology is hard and complicated, and it's only worth 15%, so I memorised the parts that might be in the exam". Consequently there was little impetus for students to pursue better quality learning outcomes (abstraction of meaning, construction of relationships between parts or reinterpretation of knowledge) and the capacity to integrate and apply information was never tested. This led students to ignore these components, so even though they appreciated the need to apply this knowledge to solve clinical cases in the future, few attempted to approach their learning from this perspective. Clearly the nature of the assessment tasks (multiple choice and short answer exam) had a detrimental impact on students' learning approaches and outcomes.

After this insight struck me, I decided to modify the assessment tasks to encourage students to engage actively with the material and develop their own, complex understanding of the material, in keeping with a constructivist approach to learning. Clearly students had to be prepared for this change, so I devoted class time to linking aspects of neural processing and applying key concepts to real life problems. The assessment was an open book test with a choice of questions (e.g. falling cat landing on its feet) that required students to identify pathways for information processing and describe how they functioned together to enable the animal to perceive and respond to the stimulus. The divergent nature of the questions meant that each student constructed a unique, personal view of the problem. Their answers were exciting to read as students produced their own highly original concept maps, skilfully depicting the complexity of the system and their depth of understanding, suggesting that they had actively engaged with learning in this topic. Marking their work was more interesting and challenging (due to the variation), but no more time consuming than the usual exam.

The feedback was positive and as one student reported "There was a huge difference in my approach to study. Instead of concentrating on cramming what was going to be in the paper it allowed for a complete overview, so we could see the big picture, which we will remember." Students perceived that the emphasis was on relationships and application rather than recall of specific details, and were confident that they would be rewarded for demonstrating these learning outcomes. However some students had difficulty in adapting because the expectations were so different to those for other topics and Units they were taking, emphasising the importance of encouraging change in assessment practices across the Faculty.

Tania Gerzina

"&To fathom a new view on my world, to never know where the boundaries are". So a student recently defined "learning" to me. The analysis of interviews with students, such as inspired this observation, formed the essence of the first project in the Graduate Certificate in Educational Studies (Higher Education). At that interview the student's words seemed esoteric but of course their perception was actually advanced. The Certificate so far has clearly illuminated the most important ingredients of elegant, effective teaching and learning, among those: academic rigor, student-focus and the quest for an improved teaching and learning model.

In Dentistry, where we have embarked on a brilliant new program educating bright and enthusiastic students, my main responsibilities until recently have been in assessment. In taking on further duties in curriculum, my horizon has broadened. In the family of disciplines that is Dentistry, the application of the knowledge supporting evidence-based clinical diagnosis and management is happily married to the practice of fine, precise skills required for proficient patient care. At the foundation of the curriculum is the development in our students of the ability to self-assess both their knowledge and their skills sensitively and accurately.

Assessment in Dentistry is designed to highlight to students those parts of the curriculum which we know to be central to successful patient care which aims to yield the best possible clinical outcome. To achieve those goals, the curriculum is problem-based and is built on well-validated clinical competencies - assessments are constructively aligned to those tenets. The Graduate Certificate has provided the academic support for these principles in an atmosphere of collegiality and mutual respect. It has been easy to embrace the quest for a better model when teachers are there to show us how.

I have now understood that student's definition.