Motivation
In the current undergraduate Psychology curriculum, there is a strong emphasis on passing summative final exams. This focus encourages short-term thinking and hinders integration of learning. Students experience high performance pressure and lack insight into course objectives and their personal development. In addition, lecturers experience peak workload due to the large amount of testing and have little space to offer reflection and meaningful feedback. Can programme-based testing help strengthen the learning process and the development of academic and professional skills?
Hypothesis
Maartje and Rob are conducting a pilot to find out whether programme-based testing can improve the learning process by focusing on development rather than learning for the test. This is done by not only testing at course level, but also mapping personal growth throughout the curriculum. The pilot will be conducted within the Personal and Professional Development (PPO) learning line. Here, students collect various 'data points' in a portfolio, on which they regularly reflect and receive feedback from peers and mentors.
Desired solution
Interim feedback on the development of competences gives students earlier insight into their strengths and weaknesses, which stimulates academic development. The pilot focuses on stimulating self-regulated learning, allowing students to more actively evaluate their progress towards final goals and take responsibility for their learning process. In addition, lecturers will have to coordinate more at curriculum level, which will strengthen programme coherence. The aim of the pilot is to gain insight into how programme-based testing can promote students' academic growth and what concerns are important for wider implementation within the programme.
Plan of action
The project starts with a literature review of programmatic testing and retrieval of best practices through contact with other universities, conducted by Government trainee Rivka van der Water. In addition, the final goals of PPO and the programme are determined. Based on this, Rivka advises on the use of programmatic testing within PPO. Students are involved in the development of the course and portfolio system Portflow, which allows them to chart their development in relation to the programme objectives. Porflow will contain the data points and their connection to the courses within PPO. The pilot will then be implemented in the PPO curriculum and evaluated with all stakeholders, including students, teachers, the examination board and the development team.