What is the importance of formative assessment in measuring the:
a) Written curriculum?
b) Taught curriculum?
c) Understood curriculum?
All are equally important and the proper implementation and understanding is essential. Often institution may outline good curriculum guidelines and policies, but do not implement them properly. This should translate to all academic staff, Senior Management and students as well as to local and nation accreditation bodies. In US and Canada the ABAT accreditation is one example of these principles.
See more: http://www.abet.org/accreditation/
https://accreditation.ca/become-accredited/
Dear Mr Zahir Hussain,
I am writing to express my thinking about formative assessment.
We know that Formative assessment provides diagnostic feedback to students and instructors at short-term intervals (during a class or on a weekly basis).
Accordingly, we can conclude that we only measuring understood curriculum with stakeholders.
I hope I have been of some help.
Best
Andrija
I think that it can be equally important in all three areas. However, since it is meant to evaluate student progress, I would put more emphasis on the understood curriculum. Formative assessments can be used to identify a student's strengths and weaknesses. This provides information to a teacher on what methods of teaching and assessments to utilize.
This is a very good question, indeed. It is really imperative to have assessment (formative & comprehensive) concerning the curricula from (A) to (Z).
I shall restrict my discussion to a curriculum within a single department of a university. The curriculum will include a list of theoretical & practical courses that have been written after consulting what other more advanced universities have.
There are preliminary courses that have clear-cut benchmarks that none is allowed to infringe. You cannot change a course's description to please Mr. A or Mrs. B since this will not be scientific, at all.
Once the courses are described by experts, then the instructors must understand what they are supposed to teach within a reasonable range. The curriculum has to move the students upward as time proceeds. If there is no noticeable positive transform or if there is a decline in the quality of students, then this is a big problem which requires appropriate repair.
In some 3rd world universities, there is a huge mess when amateurs write titles of courses, description of these courses, and assigning incompetent instructors to teach these courses. Sometimes, they will "tailor" courses in order to get overtime money without paying attention to the interests of students.
Outstanding external experts are much needed to assess what is going on in some 3rd world universities. A short visit is not enough, they ought to stay for months, and they are presumed to meet what they select from staff or students & not what a given administration has selected for them.
As experts, they will perceive that a 3rd world administration will lay all the blame upon shortcomings of the lower rank & file and will present itself as a "wise angel that is doing all its best" ! The world is really full of mockery from pretentious bigheads.
In a extension to the above comment, the assessment process of curricula ought to be carried out by knowledgeable competent persons. Such professionals will know what courses have to be eliminated & what courses have to stay.
In some 3rd world universities, some high quality courses have been removed for "personal reasons" i.e. an administration hates a particular scholar so it will order its servants to get rid of the courses that are taught by this scholar. Therefore, a proficient assessing committee has to request a historical review of what has been done in a certain department & will inquire about why it was done.
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