Dr Graham Heaslip, Maynooth University School of Business, has been awarded a Teaching Fellowship for 2016. This is the third time Graham has been awarded the prestigious Maynooth University Teaching Fellowship, a statement of his dedication to advancing teaching and learning initiatives.
Graham’s fellowship focuses on improving student engagement through student self-assessment using assessment rubrics. By incorporating student input into the design of assessment rubrics the research will facilitate students in taking more responsibility for their own learning. As a consequence of engaging in self-assessment students will develop their critical thinking abilities, including self-critique and independent judgement, important graduate attributes.
Literature has argued that to improve student engagement in learning, and to support better quality learning outcomes, it is necessary that assessment tasks are designed to direct student attention to what needs to be learned and to the activities that best lead to this (Sadler, 2009; Boud, 2010). The more time students spend on higher-level abilities such as analysing and evaluating, the better they will get at assessment. Habeshaw, et al., (1995) suggest one approach to getting students involved in their assessment, by having them develop their own assessment criteria. If students are concerned with the subject's assessment they will be encouraged to engage in their subjects in deeper and more meaningful ways.
Further information on Dr. Graham Heaslip's research can be found here.