Dr Jan McArthur is Head of Department and Senior Lecturer in Education and Social Justice in the Department of Educational Research, Lancaster University, UK. Her research focuses on the nature and purposes of higher education, and how these relate to teaching, learning and assessment, as seen from the perspective of education and social justice, informed by critical theory. She has published widely in journal articles and several monographs, including Assessment for Social Justice (Bloomsbury). Her most recent article “Rethinking authentic assessment: work, well-being and society” challenges common associations of authentic assessment with “real world” tasks and instead explores how assessment should enrich students’ individual and social wellbeing.
Keynote
Why does so much reimagining of teaching and learning in higher education fail to make greater inroads into our assessment practices? Some people argue that assessment is too important to meddle with. In this talk I will argue that it is too important to ignore. If we are serious about changing and rethinking teaching and learning, then we must be prepared to reimagine assessment. Maybe, even to think the unthinkable. Is treating everyone the same always fair? Are we doing the right things to ensure academic integrity? Why do we need to make fine-grained distinctions between different students’ levels of achievement? Re-imaging assessment offers enormous opportunities to explore richer forms of engagement with knowledge and more satisfying student-teacher relationships.
