CIRTL Seminar: The assessment arms race and its fallout: the case for slow scholarship, May 14th

9 May 2018

What is the impact of assessment on university teaching and learning in circumstances where all student work is graded? 

Professor Tony Harland tracks the proliferation of assessment tasks in Higher Education in New Zealand which has resulted in a grading arms race between academics and between subjects. A consequence of this arms race is that spaces for achieving certain educational objectives, such as fostering self-motivated learners, are marginalized. Professor Harland proposes a ‘slow scholarship’ to stop further escalation and reverse the arms race and will share an example of a curriculum based on ‘learning through research’ that radically alters students’ educational experience and how they are assessed.

Speaker Bio
Tony is Professor of Higher Education and a lecturer in Ecology at the University of Otago, New Zealand. He is Head of Department of the Higher Education Development Centre and Chair of the Ecology Programme Board. His interests in university education are wide but concerned mainly with the purposes of higher education. Broad topics include academic practice and the student experience. In 2013 he embarked on a project on assessment and since then has been developing particular expertise in this complex subject. Tony has written widely on higher education. His latest book (with co-author Ben Daniel) is on research methods for higher education and was published by Routledge in 2018. www.otago.ac.nz/hedc/people/otago615453.html  

The CIRTL seminar will be held at 12.30pm on Monday 14th May in the Creative Zone, Boole Library. A light lunch will be provided to participants in the seminar. Spaces are limited so please confirm your attendance asap by emailing Catherine O’Mahony, e: catherine.omahony@ucc.ie

Click here for slides and to access seminar recording.