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Population Analysis Task
This page discusses how the RSD Framework can be used to identify elements of an assessment that are implicit - that is, understood by lecturers but invisible to students - and make them explicit and clearly expressed, thus improving student understanding and performance in the assessment task.
The TaskThe Population Analysis assignment is an open-ended, field-based research task, which is assessed up to Level 4 of the RSD. It requires students to combine and apply the skills they have developed in the literature research and the laboratory research streams of the Semester 1 course. In this assignment, students ask their own questions, develop hypotheses, generate relevant data and find appropriate information. They then evaluate this data and the methods used to find or generate it, organise it appropriately, synthesise and analyse it, and communicate it in a discipline-appropriate format (a scientific report). As the culmination of students' research skill development in First Year Human Biology, this task provides them with a clear sense of the research skills they have developed over the year.
Original Assessment: Population Dynamics 2000While the original Population Dynamics assessment, from 2000, addresses all facets of the RSD model, some are not as clear as others. Facet A is present, as students embark on inquiry and determine a need for knowledge/understanding when they undertake the assignment. However, it is the least developed for the facets. Students are asked to find or generate data (Facet B) by collecting information from cemetaries or other equivalent (non-electronic) sources, and applying prescribed formulae to this information to generate data. Facet C (critical evaluation of information or data and of the processes used to find/generate it) is suggested by the Objective statement 'Students will discover some of the difficulties that arise in the interpretation of data'. Facet D is present in the requirements for students to organise their data by constructing life tables and represent the results of their analysis as graphs. Students synthesise, analyse and apply their new knowledge (Facet E) by developing a coherent discussion based on their findings, and communicate both their knowledge and, implicitly, the processes used to generate it (Facet F) by writing a report in correct scientific format that includes a 'Methods and Materials' section. Awareness of ethical, social and particularly cultural issues is embedded in the assignment at the level of the topic, with its focus on history and cultural change. There is, however, relatively little to do with the disciplinary culture of field research emphasised in the text of the assignment.
Process of ChangeWhen Eleanor and Mario mapped the 2000 assignment, marking rubric and self-assessment checklist against the RSD framework, they realised that Facet A and Facet C were strongly represented in both the marking rubric and self-assessment checklist given to students with the assignment, but not addressed in the text of the assignment itself. For instance, while the assignment does not direct or encourage students to develop an explicit research question or aim, the marking rubric explicitly asks 'Is there an explicit aim or question that the item addresses?' while the self-assessment checklist asks, 'Does the introduction include an explicit aim that is addressed in the body of the assignment?' (Facet A). Similarly, the marking rubric asks, 'Is there evidence of critical appraisal, analysis and synthesis of data?' (Facet C), although the text of the assignment does not discuss the need to include these elements in the report. The development of an aim/research question and the need to undertake critical analysis of the data collected therefore constitute implicit elements of the assignment. However, these skills are also - as the marking rubric and self-assessment guidelines make clear - key to completing it successfully. Eleanor and Mario therefore revised the assignment slightly, using RSD principles to make these implicit elements apparent to the students.
Current Assessment: Population Analysis - Laboratory Report 3, 2008The 2008 Population Analysis task, even after being revised using RSD, remains substantially the same as the original assignment. However, some elements have been added to make the implicit rationale behind the original assignment explicit to both students and markers. Firstly, a Rationale Statement has been added which directly indicates that the purpose of the assignment is to allow students to apply the research skills they have developed in prior literature and laboratory tasks to a task in which they must, for the first time, 'collect and interpret their own scientific data set'. This helps students bring to bear consciously-learned skills from earlier in the year, which they otherwise might not consider appropriate. The Rationale Statement also states that students must not only interpret, but also collect, their own data set, connecting students' work on their own data to their previous work on literature research and positioning students' work as part of research in the field. Secondly, elements of the assignment have been emended to clarify what is required. Students embark on enquiry and determine a need for knowledge/understanding (Facet A) by constructing a research question and planning a research strategy, in response to the marking criteria. Students find or generate needed data (Facet B) both by collecting information from cemetaries and/or other appropriate sources and by conducting research on the literature (an element not emphasised in the 2000 version). They critically evaluate both the information they have gathered and the processes they used to find or generate it while writing their report. In this version of the task, it is explicitly stated that the report must include a discussion of Methods as well as a conclusion based on the analysis of evidence collected (Facet C). They organise the information they have collected (Facet D) by constructing life tables. And as before, students synthesise, analyse and apply their new knowledge by applying specified formulae to their collected data and representing the results as graphs (Facet E) that are discussed in the report, and they communicate their knowledge and the processes that were used to generate it through that report (Facet F). Awareness of ethical, social and cultural issues remains embedded in the assignment through its focus on history and change; however, students are also introduced somewhat more explicitly to the culture of field research in the General Task instructions section and the Methods sections. Finally, specific links are provided in the assignment to relevant notes and resources from earlier in the course. The marking rubric and self-assessment guide were also revised to assist student comprehension and make the assignment's requirements explicit. The marking rubric for the original assignment was broken down into several categories with criteria for comment by the markers, but levels of achievement within those categories and criteria were not differentiated, but left to the marker to define and describe in the 'comments' area. In the marking rubric for the RSD version, criteria were streamlined, contextualised, and reordered to provide both reasons for students to undertake the assignment, and explanations for the grades they received. It was also made less detailed than marking rubrics for previous RSD assignments, suggesting that many things previously covered in detail in those rubrics should now be read as 'understood'. Criteria that had little to do with research skills were largely dropped. A copy of the self-assessment checklist for this version of the assignment is available here. Future of the Population Analysis AssignmentEleanor and Mario will continue to refine the Population Analysis assignment and assessment rubric each year to suit their overall assessment plan.
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© 2009 The University of Adelaide Last Modified 08/11/2009 CLPD CRICOS Provider Number 00123M |
