Dr Heather Morgan, Lecturer (Scholarship) in Applied Health Sciences, School of Medicine, Medical Sciences and Nutrition and Dr Nigel Beacham, Senior Lecturer (Scholarship), Computing Science, School of Natural and Computing Sciences
Tutor beliefs, attitudes and behaviours towards the development of inclusive assessments in HE; substantive and methodological reflections
One of the University of Aberdeen’s (UoA) 2040 strategy principles underpinning its refreshed commitments is that inclusion will guide its education, research and projects (UoA, 2021). This includes “Secur[ing] the highest standards of equality, diversity and inclusion, achieving accreditation across multiple strands and characteristics.”
Whilst great effort and progress is being made to enhance policy and practice to support such commitment, little if any attention seems to be focused on student assessment. However, this is important to consider if the University is intending to also widen access and care for the health and wellbeing of staff and students because fair and transparent assessment is central to equality, diversity, health and wellbeing. Providing student assessments aligned with inclusive policies and practices should ideally provide learners with assignments that embrace equality and diversity in all its facets and provide students, tutors, Schools and accreditors with the confidence that their procedures and assessments are fair and transparent for all.
Our research has used a combination of validated questionnaires deployed in ‘think aloud’ interviews with staff to ascertain staff beliefs, attitudes and behaviours around inclusive assessment across STEM disciplines. In this session, we will present early substantive findings and some methodological reflections.