Prioritising progression over proficiency: limitations of teacher-based assessment within technician-level vocational education

Abstract

This article examines the evolution of assessment policy and practice in technician-level vocational education. Using the example of an advanced-level BTEC National programme in Engineering in one college in the UK, the article highlights how the origins of current assessment practice lie in genuine concerns since the late 1950s about the appropriateness of examination-based assessment for assessing technician engineering skills, resulting in a shift to teacher-based, criterion-referenced assessment and an emphasis on formative feedback. Data are presented from a case study of assessment practice in an engineering department of one college of further and higher education in the UK during the academic years 2006–2008, which investigated salient influences and considerations underpinning lecturers’ constructs of assessment. The study found a departmental ethos of facilitating students to achieve a pass, and the use of assessment methods that would ensure that students got through. However, lecturers were dubious whether their assessment practices developed the proficiency required for students’ progression into HE or employment, and their practices did not appear to have a strong educational or occupational rationale for their approach. We argue that the limitations of teacher-based, criterion-referenced assessment and associated formative assessment practices, of which our study provides an example, contribute to a temptation to simply return to what is deemed more rigorous assessment through examination, which however may well bring back the problems identified in the past, of inappropriate approaches for assessing technician-level skills associated with low success rates.

Keywords:

• Teacher-based assessment
• criterion-based assessment
• formative feedback
• vocational assessment
• technician engineering education
• further education
• BTEC

Notes

1. Referencing the Qualifications Frameworks of the UK to the European Qualifications Framework http://scqf.org.uk/content/files/europe/QFUK_Joint_Report_-_Updated_March_2010.pdf.

2. BTEC originally stood for the Business and Technician Education Council but was later renamed the Business and Technology Education Council (Fisher 2003). BTEC was set up in 1983 to offer vocational qualifications, with the purpose of advancing the quality and availability of work-related education for those in, or preparing for, employment. In 1996 BTEC and the University of London Examinations and Assessment Council (London Examinations) merged to form a new company, Edexcel. BTEC continues to be used as the brand name for work-related qualifications offered by Edexcel, which since 2003 has been owned by the private company, Pearson. The BTEC National qualification introduced in 1983 was reclassified as the BTEC Level 3 National Diploma under the National Qualifications Framework (Edexcel 2009). The qualification is still designed to provide the knowledge, understanding and skills needed for employment and for career development of those in employment, but it is also intended to prepare for progression into higher education, degree and professional development.

3. The Regional Joint Committees consisted of representatives from industry and professional and educational bodies, and were responsible for determining the syllabus and standards of the examination (Crowther 1959).

4. The purposes of external verification are to monitor assessment practices and procedures to ensure that national standards are applied consistently (Boys 2000).