Instrumental or sustainable learning? the impact of learning cultures on formative assessment in vocational education

Abstract

There is growing interest amongst researchers, policy makers and teachers at all levels of the British education system in assessment that encourages engagement with learning, develops autonomy and motivation and raises levels of formal achievement. These goals have been influenced by developments in outcome-based and portfolio-based qualifications in post-school education, including higher education. There is parallel interest in developing learning to learn skills and encouraging a positive attitude to learning after formal education through assessment that serves immediate goals for achievement whilst establishing a basis for learners to undertake their own assessment activities in future (see Boud & Falchikov, 2007). More specifically, research in the school sector offers insights about how to promote a sophisticated understanding of formative assessment that changes how students and teachers regard the purposes of assessment and their respective roles in it in order to enhance learning (see Assessment Reform Group, 2002; Black & Wiliam, 1998; Gardner, 2006). Yet, despite such compelling goals and the apparently unproblematic nature of principles and methods to encourage them, theoretical and empirical research about the assessment experiences of post-compulsory students in the UK shows that promoting sustainable learning through assessment is not straightforward. Recent studies show that students and their teachers have different expectations about the type of learners suitable for vocational and academic courses, the purposes of assessment as either to foster subjectknowledge or personal development, and about "appropriate" forms of assessment. Students progressing to university have therefore experienced very different approaches to formative assessment, leading to different expectations about what they can or should expect in terms of feedback and help in improving their work. Taken together, these studies suggest that staff in universities need to understand more about the ways in which learning cultures that students experience before university are a powerful influence on expectations, attitudes and practices as they progress into higher education (see Davies & Ecclestone, 2007; Ecclestone, 2002; Torrance et al., 2005). As a contribution to debate about how staff in universitiesmight encourage formative assessment for sustainable learning, the chapter draws on two studies: one explored the factors that help and hinder teachers in changing their formative assessment practices, the other explored the effects of formative and summative assessment on students' and teachers' ideas about learning, assessment and achievement (Davies & Ecclestone, 2007; Ecclestone et al., in progress; Torrance et al., 2005). First, the chapter summarises some barriers to better understanding of formative assessment in assessment systems in the UK. Second, it summarises the concept of learning cultures as an aid to understanding the effects of formative assessment on attitudes to learning. Third, it applies this concept to case study data from in-depth interviews and observations of assessment activities in an Advanced Vocational Business Studies qualification in a further education (tertiary) college (two tutors, eight students) and an Advanced Vocational Science Qualification (one teacher, two students) in a school. This section explores the different factors in the learning cultures that affected students' and teachers' attitudes to learning and the role of assessment in their learning. Finally, it evaluates implications of this discussion for assessment practices in universities foryoung people progressing to higher education from different learning cultures in schools and colleges.