Tutors’ assessment practices and students’ situated learning in higher education: chalk and cheese

Abstract

This article uses situated learning theory to consider current tutor assessment and feedback practices in relation to learning practices employed by students outside the overt curriculum. The case is made that an emphasis on constructive alignment and explicitly articulating assessment requirements within curricula may be misplaced. Outside of the overt curriculum students appear to be interdependent learners, participating in communities of practice and learning networks, where sense-making occurs through negotiation and there is identity development. Such negotiation may translate curriculum requirements articulated by tutors into unexpected meanings. Hence, tutors’ efforts might be better placed on developing students’ ability to self-assess and to effectively evaluate and negotiate information, rather than primarily on their own delivery of the curriculum content and feedback. Tutors cannot be fully effective if they fail to consider students’ learning outside the overt curriculum, and ways to facilitate such learning processes are suggested together with future research directions.

Keywords:

• higher education
• situated learning
• communities of practice
• assessment

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank both professor Harry Torrance and Dr Karen Handley for their useful discussions concerning drafts of the manuscript. Thanks are also due to the two anonymous referees for their helpful comments on our initial submission.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.