The influence of disciplinary assessment patterns on student learning: a comparative study

Figures & data

Table 1. Distinctive disciplinary patterns of assessment.

Discipline group	Assessment emphasis	Types of assessment used
‘Hard pure’	Memorisation; application of course content; fact retention and solving logical problems	Examinations; practical work; laboratory reports; numeric calculations and Multiple Choice Quiz
‘Hard applied’	Practical competence; application of theory to practice and factual understanding	Multiple Choice Quiz; examinations; simulations and case studies
‘Soft pure’	Analysis and synthesis of course content and continuous assessment	Essays; oral presentations; short answer papers and project reports
‘Soft applied’	Emphasis on personal growth and intellectual breadth and application of theory to practice	Simulation and case studies

Table 2. AEQ factor analysis summary.

No.	Factor	Eigenvalue^a	% of variance explained^a	Cronbach's α
(1)	Appropriate Assessment (AA)	4.37	15.62	.72
(2)	Learning from Examination (LE)	2.14	7.65	.84
(3)	Clear Goals and Standards (CGS)	1.88	6.71	.68^b
(4)	Use of Feedback (UOF)	1.58	5.65	.71

^aBefore rotation.

^bValues represent Cronbach's α if one item is omitted.

Table 3. Disciplines under study.

Humanities	Sciences	Professional courses
Theology Religious Studies	Pharmacy	Teaching × 2
History × 2	Computing	Nursing
Philosophy	Web Systems	Social Work
Politics	Geography	Law
English	Psychology
American Studies
Media Studies

Table 4. Comparative patterns of assessment for a three-year undergraduate degree.

Audit variables	Humanities (mean)	Sciences (mean)	Professional (mean)
Total number of assessments	54	74	42
Number of summative assessments	42	43	32
Number of formative assessments	12	31	10
Varieties of assessment (n)	11	15	14
Proportion of examinations (%)	14.3	30.6	15
Time to return feedback (days)	23	20	23
Amount of oral feedback	3 hours 17 minutes	4 hours 56 minutes	10 hours 33 minutes
Amount of written feedback (words)	7382	3615	7040

Table 5. Means and standard deviations (in brackets) of AEQ scores among disciplines and one-way ANOVA tests of differences between them.

AEQ subscale	Humanities	Sciences	Professional courses	F(2, 808)	p
AA	2.14 (0.69)^a	2.67 (0.84)^b	2.78 (0.93)^b	43.29	<.000
LE	3.12 (1.06)	3.32 (0.98)	3.18 (1.02)	2.46	.09
UOF	3.80 (0.67)	3.72 (0.82)	3.80 (0.70)	1.02	.36
CGS	3.75 (0.73)^a	3.62 (0.76)^a	3.41 (0.84)^b	12.48	<.000

Note: Different superscripts indicate differences significant at p < .001.