Quality Assurance Procedures with Regard to Students Ability-Based Assessment - Essay Example

Quality Assurance Procedures With Regard To Ability-Based Assessment Quality assurance plays a vital role in ensuring effective managementof an organization. It refers to a number of review procedures which are designed to safeguard academic standards, and promote educational opportunities for students of good quality. Some incidents do happen at various institutions of higher learning which requires that the institution put in place stringent quality assurance procedures. Student’s ability-based assessment is one such quality assurance that colleges administrators embark on in order to be able to improve the quality of education. This paper will explore an analysis of quality assurance with regard to Student ability-based assessment. The paper will also develop and examine the underlying issues and causes that trigger student’s ability-based assessment as a way of quality assurance in college. Student’s Ability-Based Assessment Institutions of higher learning for adults are very complex and dynamic. It is, thus, necessary to carry out student ability-based assessments for lecturers to be able to understand whether what they teach in the classroom is being understood by the students. Student ability-based assessment is seen to lead to program assessment. Wilkin (2000 p.18) notes that the ultimate goal is not only to determine the student’s competency but also to determine corrective actions that may be taken to ensure that competency is reached. Student assessment scores are also used by the college as a measure of yearly progress (Denton and Brown 2009 p.217-229). Cicchelli and Ashby-Davis (2011) argues that one of the major determinants of achievement of the learning task is to be able to establish the cognitive-entry characteristics of a person. Therefore, it is important to assess such entry characteristics before issuing instructions since many lecturers today are faced with teaching exceptional students and adults in the regular classroom. What triggered the introduction of student ability-based assessment in my college was the fact that a number of students were found only to show competencies in some of the subjects without due regard to the others. For example, in a course that exhibits two abilities as outcomes targets, some students were found to perform superbly in one, in which they even obtain a grade (“A”) but could completely show a big contrast in the other with a grade “F”. In some situations, the overall grade of some students would reflect an average performance of grade “C” giving the student opportunity to progress through the curriculum. However, the truth of the matter is that the student lacks the ability to be deemed necessary by the faculty of the college. For this reason, the college administration, through assessment division, deemed it necessary for student assessments to be done as a quality assurance procedure so that a curriculum based on the student’s ability can be introduced as suggested by Denton and Brown (2009 p.217-229). The introduction of student ability-based assessment was also to enable the college set a curriculum that is able to nature students with competence in their areas of study that meet labor market demands. This is after a survey showed that many graduates of the college lacked expected competency that meets the skills demanded in the labor market. The initial perception among the students was that the assessment was being carried out as a normal exam test procedure. It was until late that students came to discover that it was a way of examining individual student competency so that the college administration could come up with student curriculum validation procedures that meet the skills required in the labor market. Analysis of the Incident Wilkin (2000 P.6) argues that national demand for educational accountability has triggered interest in a number of assessment techniques through which institutions of learning can demonstrate responsibility and effectiveness. Ability-based education is such an approach used as quality assurance procedure in my college (Denton and Brown 2009 p.217-229). The main center of focus on ability-based education is what students can do as per the instruction. In order for ability based education to be successful, Wilkin (2000 p.11) notes that it must be practiced. He also acknowledges that in ability-based education, the college’s basis of assessment is performance. This implies the description of student’s actions and behaviors that the student is expected to demonstrate in case they are to be established to be capable of performing the outcome course (Wilkin 2000 p.11). With regard to what triggered student ability-based assessment in our college, the members of academic staff and the accrediting agencies noted that there was a mismatch between the schools curriculum and the standards expected in the labor market. Most students who graduated from the college found it difficult to get jobs as their qualifications were not commensurate with the skills and expertise needed in the field. In some incidences, some of the graduates were not in a position to demonstrate what they have learnt in practice (Brown, Race and Smith 1997 p.14-66). This is due to the fact that a graduate from the college could have his/her transcript showing that he had passed based on average performance, but the fact is that he or she is not competent in the job market. The reason was that in one subject, a student could perform superbly and fail in the other one, the overall grade being a pass. This meant that there was a mismatch on curriculum thus assessment. In carrying out assessment, our college assessment team decided to explore the use of external-based performance assessment to determine whether all students can demonstrate competencies that they would need to render services. Here, the faculty evaluates whether students are in a position to integrate abilities during the performance of an assigned task. However, the evaluation process depends on the nature of the faculty. Wilkin (2000 p. 19) notes that with regard to medical education, the assessment is based on objective-structured clinical examination (OSCE). In this case, students are evaluated as they relocate from one station to another, performing clinical activities involving standardized patients. For the assessment, the college faculty is in position to determine whether the students have grasped well what is being taught in class or not. This is the quality assurance assessment procedure that was conducted in the faculty where I belong. Student ability-based assessment is seen as the best quality assurance procedure due to a number of reasons. Among them being, through assessment, the lecturers would be able to determine whether what they teach in the classroom is being grasped well by the students. The reason being that it reveals the feeling of the students with regard to all the subjects (Brown, Race and Smith 1997 p.14-66). Assessment also helps the college in understanding the student’s response with regard to how they perceive some of the lecturers teaching styles and competence. Student ability-based assessment is also used as a way of determining the learning styles that students prefer so that it can be incorporated in the learning curriculum (Palomba and Banta 2001 p.44-120). This help in improving quality of education in the college the result of which builds confidence of all the college’s stakeholders and employers. Student ability-based assessment is also used as a tool to map curriculum as a quality assurance procedure. Wilkin (2000 p.17) argues that curriculum mapping is vital when it comes to setting up of programs for student instruction and assessment of competency outcomes. In this case, for every ability outcome, the college faculty can be surveyed to establish courses in which ability outcome is addressed. Wilkin (2000) argues that when the college assessment team charts the result of the assessment on the spreadsheet to develop a curriculum map, determining if the curriculum supports the results or whether there is a disjuncture between what is actually being taught in class and the ability outcome becomes easy. Wilkin (17) asserts that in case a discrepancy is discovered, faculty would then be obliged to rewrite the ability outcomes or even change the whole curriculum to ensure that the student ability outcomes are met by the college. This helps in making adjustments that enhance quality of education. For instance, in case a written communication is chosen as the college’s competency assessment outcomes, the faculty through a mix of deductive and inductive reasoning process can then agree on the working formula at different levels of performance. In this case, every faculty member can proceed and indicate on the curricular map what criterion and outcomes can be used to address his or her course (Palomba and Banta 2001 p.44-120). Wilkin (2000 p. 18) argues that once data is charted, it become easier to figure out evidence as to whether any criteria in the curriculum is given inadequate coverage or whether unproductive duplication exists in the courses. This helps in improving quality of education that match individual competency. In conclusion, student ability-based assessment is a quality assurance procedure aimed at improving quality of education at institutions of higher learning. It is a way by which students are evaluated to determine their competency in their respective subjects of study. This helps in building a curriculum based on outcomes and competencies. The assessment also assists the lecturers in knowing whether what they teach in class is being understood by the students. It has been noted that assessment leads to the establishment of quality curriculum that leads to provision of quality education that meets the expertise and skills demanded in the market. The assessment can be performed using the external performance-based assessment. Proponents of ability-based education argue that the approach is not conforming and restrictive, but promotes individuality which in turn liberates learning (Wilkin 2000 p.23). It is also acknowledged that not all educational targets must be ability outcomes and certain worthy goals are not empirically measurable. However, quality assurance demands assessment of those outcomes that are measurable. In fact, it is notable that student ability-based educational assessment has helped improve quality of education within the college. This is due to the fact that it has enabled lecturers understand the students better by adopting teaching style that commensurate with the students’ expectations and competencies. Consequently, it has led to the adoption of a curriculum that meets quality assurance standards within the college. This hopefully will assist in improving quality of education and enhance most of the graduates’ chances of developing skills that meet demand of the labor market. References Brown, S., Race, P., & Smith, B. (1997). 500 tips for quality enhancement in universities and colleges. London: Kogan Page Limited. Cassidy, S. (2009). Interpretation of competence in student assessment: Nurse Education Center. 7 Jan, 39-46. Denton, S., & Brown, S. (2009). A practical guide to University and College Management: Beyond Bureaucracy. New York: Taylor & Francis. Palomba, C.A., & Banta, T.W. (2001) Assessing students competence in accredited disciplines: Pioneering approaches to Assessment in Higher education. Virginia: Stylus publishing, LLC. Wilkins, N.E (2000). Handbook for pharmacy educators: contemporary teaching principles and strategies. New York: Routledge. Read More