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Title:	Investigating student experience of assessment in higher education : a case study
Authors:	Lee King Siong (P33304)
Supervisor:	Hazita Azman, Professor Dr
Keywords:	Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia -- Dissertations Dissertations, Academic -- Malaysia Education Higher-Malaysia-Evaluation-Case studies Educational change--Cross-cultural studies
Issue Date:	19-Jul-2012
Description:	This study is grounded in the belief expressed by several eminent scholars in higher education and in assessment that the student learning experience is ultimately the most meaningful and lasting measure of academic quality, as well as the clearest evidence of the quality of an institution. Hence, the student, the main stakeholder, is at the heart of this inquiry. Extensive contemporary scholarly work clearly links the quality of education to assessment, and in fact, places assessment at the heart of the undergraduate experience, hence the focus on the student experience of assessment in higher education. The aim of the study is to go beyond investigating students’ perspectives on assessment; thus a macro perspective of assessment that focuses on its socio-cultural aspects as a lens is used to understand how the beliefs and values held by these undergraduates about assessment and higher education are linked to dominant academic and institutional practices. The study draws from Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of reproduction in education as well as Paulo Freire’s critical pedagogy. The inquiry uses a qualitative case study method. Data collection is from three sources: a sample of 16 undergraduates in their final year of a programme in English Studies, six academics, and selected relevant institutional documents. The methods of data collection include focus group discussions, semi-structured interviews, observations of lectures and tutorials, email communication, and document analysis. Multiple sources of data as well as a variety of data collection methods are used to afford thick description, experiential understanding and multiple realities. Data from students and lecturers, and from documents were coded, analysed, and findings compared, and a Bourdieuian approach was used to facilitate the interpretation of findings. The findings reveal undergraduates as being constructed as passive products in the machinery of higher education and the assessment mechanism. Some findings about their values and beliefs about assessment and higher education are rather worrisome, calling into question the meaning of “higher education”, and do not augur well for the goal of developing “quality human capital”. What is equally disturbing is that academics themselves seem to be subjected into compliance, having to accommodate the general perceived inadequacies of their students for the programme by adjusting standards to enable them to “perform”. While there are clearly attempts by academics to resist the dominant system, ultimately, only a reconceptualization of assessment by lecturers can help move towards empowering themselves and their students, effecting transformation from within to build real value into assessment and learning. Thus, besides advancing knowledge in the underresearched area of assessment in higher education, the study offers a first step forward as a way out of the current critical situation, towards achieving a better quality of higher education.,Certification of Masters/ Doctorial Thesis" is not available
Pages:	343
Call Number:	LB2331.65.M4L435 2012 tesis
Publisher:	UKM, Bangi
Appears in Collections:	Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Fakulti Sains Sosial dan Kemanusiaan

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