Assessment as a learning process: the use of Exploratory Practice to empower students and to foster teacher development

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is twofold: on the one hand, it presents a yearlong study (2016-2017) that reports on the design and implementation of a module assessment through a peer review process(BOSTOCK, 2000;TOPPING 2000; FALCHIKOV, 2005) Using Turnitin, which is a commercial, Internet-Based Plagiarism-Detection Service.  The peer review aims to help the students to understand the marking criteria and standards, which are focused on the development of research skills and encourage them to take control of their learning. The peer reviewprocesses representthe formative feedback that students give to each other to enable them to achieve the required standard that their work must ultimately reach prior to its final submission. On the other hand, the paper also highlights the professional development issues that emerged as a consequence of adopting the principled framework of Exploratory Practice (EP) (ALLWRIGHT, 2003, 2005; GIEVE &MILLER, 2006; ALLWRIGHT &HANKS, 2009), which Allowed the teacher and the students to work for a better quality of life,as they enhanced theirunderstandings of what they were trying to achieve together in the classroom. A number of benefits have been identified as a result of this investigation. The students gained a better grasp of the literature review process, heightened their motivation to learn about the topics that they need to investigate,engaged more deeply students’ engagement during lectures, and developed a sense of ownership of their learning. The teacherherself voices her reflection about the perceivedbenefitsgained from working collaboratively with students and with experts in related fields and finds that the process has generated insightsthat have transformedher teaching in various ways.