Designed to encourage students to engage deeply with course content and prepare adequately for in-class discussions, this assessment sees students write and submit several critical responses to weekly reading materials (in the case of ENGL2065, a primary literary text). In addition to submitting their responses via TurnItIn prior to tutorials, students bring a copy of their response to class as prompts for discussion. In these dedicated sessions students can ask clarifying questions to assist in consolidating their understanding, but are also encouraged to deliberate with other students as part of a peer learning process that fosters collegiate discussion and enhances overall engagement. By completing this assessment students learn to construct a critical and concise argument and to successfully articulate this argumentative position during in-class discussions. This technique has wide transferability to across all HaSS courses that require students to engage thoroughly with course content and to participate in class discussions. This assessment also teaches students to interact with peers with strong ethical and social understandings as they must effectively communicate their argument clearly, respectfully, and honestly. In the case of ENGL2065, students write five critical responses throughout the semester cumulatively worth 25% of their overall grade.
Details
- CLASS SIZE
- 40-60
- CLASS LEVEL
- First year, Second year, Third year, Post-graduate
- ASSESSMENT SECURITY
- Low security
- TIME REQUIREMENTS
- Low time
- GRADUATE ATTRIBUTES
- Effective communication skills, Critical judgement
- CONDITIONS
- Sequence
- TAGS
- discussion prompt
Advantages
Encourages students to engage thoroughly with course content as part of an interactive process that promotes collegiality and peer-based learning. Hones critical thinking and communication skills through in-depth and robust in-class discussions. Easily translated to a variety of disciplines (and courses) where in-depth discussion of weekly readings will enhance learning outcomes and positively contribute towards a constructive learning environment.
Challenges
Lack of student enthusiasm can mar this task. Students must participate earnestly in discussions (as well as invest sufficient time and effort to their critical reflections) for the ideal delivery of this task. For this reason grading students on both their written submissions as well as in-class participation (to a collective weighting of moderate significance) is effective to encourage full participation.
Tips for implementation
Staff should aim to set readings for discussion that are either progressive (i.e. extracts from the same primary text), or that are of a length, and depth appropriate for the year level, number of other assessment items, and discussable within a standard tutorial/workshop.
How it supports academic integrity
While the written element of this task is not Identity verified, it is assessed via Turnitin and informs weekly in-class (observed) discussions. Staff may be able to informally verify if students written proficiency does or does not align with their level of understanding during in-class discussions as a means of detecting academic misconduct.
Dr Judith Seaboyer
j.seaboyer@uq.edu.au
I teach contemporary fiction at honours and undergraduate level. Contemporary authors taught represent a range of national literatures and include Alison Bechdel, J. M. Coetzee, Damon Galgut, Mohsin Hamid, Barbara Kingsolver, Ian McEwan, and Ruth Ozeki. Courses in the long nineteenth century have included Jane Austen, Kate Chopin, Charles Dickens, George Eliot, Elizabeth Gaskell, and Virginia Woolf, along with non-fiction.
I am a participant researcher in a 2011-2013 Australian Learning and Teaching Council cross-institutional project that researched and developed practical skills designed to encourage students to become better readers, and thus better writers and researchers.
In Semester 1 2013 I held a UQ Learning and Innovation Fellowship that allowed me to test and develop a flipped classroom project that fostered online and classroom student engagement and better reading through online assessment.
I am particularly interested in the practical aspects of developing research communities among students and between students and staff members. I have fostered an ongoing mentoring project for honours and postgraduate students, and supported a staff-student research project into the pastoral. Find out more