The research explores the experience that students with Dyslexia, on law degrees, have of academic assessment, and the environmental factors that influence their experience and perceptions. The research is situated in one HEI (the Research Institution), which has a student population of 18,800, of which 634 had declared a Specific Learning Difficulty (SpLD) (including Dyslexia) during the academic year 2014/15. Previous research has shown that students with Dyslexia are disadvantaged by traditional forms of academic assessment. Whilst little research has been carried out on Dyslexia and law degrees, the predominance of traditional approaches to assessment is commonly believed to disadvantage students with Dyslexia. This potential disadvantage is explored within the Research Institution (RI). In light of their obligation under the Equality Act 2010 to take reasonable steps to alleviate such disadvantages, specific consideration is given to the RI’s response to potential disadvantages faced by such students. In order to facilitate this objective a multiple-methods approach has been utilised for gathering data. Data has been collected through questionnaires, focus groups and interviews, with law students with and without Dyslexia, with lecturers inside and outside the law school, and with student support staff and other professionals. The range of data was then analysed, utilising an inductive approach. Five main themes emerged, and were explored using a social model of Dyslexia and from an emancipatory perspective. The themes are: 1) diagnosis and categorisation of Dyslexia; 2) the students’ experience of academic assessment; 3) the students’ experience of adjustments to academic assessment; 4) the impact of the law school environment on the experience of students with Dyslexia, and 5) the effect of the wider institutional environment and institutional policy and practice on the experiences and perceptions of how students with Dyslexia, and how they are responded to. The data collected pointed to the fact that students with Dyslexia struggled with traditional academic assessment, to a more significant degree than students without Dyslexia. While reasonable adjustments were provided by the institution to help students with Dyslexia overcome such difficulties, and whilst these were helpful to some extent, their overall effectiveness was shown to be limited. The main reasons for the student experiences that emerged from the research were related to the fact that, due to their Dyslexia, the forms of assessment used by their department presented a direct difficulty for students. Traditional forms of assessment utilised on law degrees are therefore considered to be a ‘disabling barrier’, as they inhibit students with Dyslexia from fully demonstrating their academic ability. The thesis then presents pointers to how law degree providers can respond to this issue. It is argued that this can be achieved by adjusting assessment methods in a way that removes, or at least reduces, the ‘disabling barriers’ faced by law students with Dyslexia. The research suggests that this is made possible by utilising a broader range of assessment methods beyond those traditionally utilised in law degrees. It also details how the individualistic nature of Dyslexia means that the most effective means of improving inclusivity for all students is to provide them with elements of choice as to the form of assessment adopted. The research concludes with proposals for alleviating the disadvantage experienced by law students with Dyslexia in respect of their experience of the academic assessment process and academic assessment outcomes. It is argued that to enhance the quality of their learning opportunities, and in order to be inclusive, academic assessment policy and practice should be informed by/premised upon a social interpretation of Dyslexia.

Patients who are treated empathically tend to be more satisfied and have better health outcomes. Many instruments for measuring empathy in different health contexts have been developed for postgraduate and to a lesser extent undergraduate health professional use. This thesis presents the results of three studies. The first is a systematic review of the literature describing empathy measures for use in the health professional context. The review was conducted to find the best measure specifically designed for and evaluated in the clinical context that assessed empathy reliably and preferably from a patient perspective. The Consultation and Relational Empathy (CARE) measure was selected from the 12 potential empathy measures available. This instrument was developed and tested in general practice consultations in Scotland, and its usefulness for assessing physicians’ empathy has been demonstrated. The second study, which forms the main research component of the thesis, is an evaluation of the utility of the CARE measure in assessing medical undergraduates on general practice placements. This study aimed to establish whether the CARE measure offers a reliable, valid, and practical means of assessing certain aspects of senior clinical medical students’ consultation skills. Fifth-year students who performed a two- or three-month GP attachment in academic years 2009–2010, 2010–2011, and 2011– 2012 were invited to participate. In 2011 participation in the study became a course requirement. Consulted patients were invited to complete a modified CARE questionnaire ‘on the student’. The form initially included 11 questions answered on a five -point scale; from the academic year 2010–2011, the form also included a free-text comment option. Patients completed questionnaires anonymously. Forms were collated xvi and forwarded to the principle investigator. A minimum of 25 forms were required for each student in order to minimise potential selection bias in the analysis. In the first year of the study the response rate was 56 %. During the next two academic years, this rate improved to over 95%. The total number of the CARE measure forms returned was 2,145, with 1,808 adequately completed. The average score of the students recruited was 4.57 (standard deviation = 0.19), which is higher than average scores for general practitioners. Generalisability theory calculations showed that the CARE measure had high internal consistency, with 25 patients per student delivering an overall reliability coefficient of 0.74. Using the CARE measure with students significantly correlated at a moderate level with relevant outcome assessments such as the mini-Clinical Evaluation Exercise (mini-CEX), Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) at the end of the GP block, and tutor scores (r = 0.38, r = 0.33, r = 0.33, respectively; P < 0.05). The findings suggest that the CARE measure is a useful tool for assessing senior medical students’ consultation skills, at least in the context of extended general practice attachments. In addition, the measure provides students with valuable and authentic patient feedback for their training. The third study was a ‘mapping exercise’ designed to establish the role of current assessment tools at the University of Dundee in relation to Tomorrow’s Doctors outcomes, and specifically where/how CARE might fit in. Dundee medical faculty staff, block leaders, undergraduate medical educators, and others who engaged directly with assessments and with experience of the existing exams were invited to ‘map’ the value of each aspect of the medical school’s 11 assessment tools against General Medical Council (GMC) attributes. Data was collected electronically from 17 staff xvii members. The results of the exercise revealed both gaps in assessment and over-testing of specific GMC attributes. These findings offer Dundee Medical School an opportunity to optimise their approach to assessment and achieve a broader coverage of GMC outcomes. Thus, the CARE measure offers a logical extension to aspects of the OSCE assessment. The results show that the CARE measure is a feasible, acceptable, reliable, and valid measure for the assessment of students. In addition, as it incorporates authentic patient feedback into training, this measure can offer unique utility to the medical school’s curriculum and assessment as it incorporates the rarely employed patient voice.

This diploma thesis deals with a school assessment. It is divided into two parts, the theoretical and the practical one. In the theoretical part, first of all, the Montessori pedagogy and its principles like a freedom of children, beforehand prepaired surroundings or principals of the age heterogeneity are clarified. Further on the didactical material, used in those types of schools, is discussed. The last part of this chapter deals with the position of teachers and adults at school. Next there is a chapter about the assessment. It circumscribes the definition, functions and types of the assessment used in schools. Last, but not least, the forms of the assessment, which means classification by marking or a word evaluation. The second part is the practical one. It is aimed at finding the difference between the way of assessment in two types of primary schools, which means the Montessori primary school and an ordinary primary school and also at finding out, which types of assessment, concerned by the theoretical part, are used the most during lessons. For the research the method of observation and in-depth conversations with the teachers, at whose lessons the sitting in on a classes took place, were used. The outcome of this work was that both types of primary schools use different types of...

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2017-06-22T12:18:29Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Adriana Spacca Olivares Rodopoulos.pdf: 879552 bytes, checksum: c391a9db463abd7809e4d2018d97681f (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-06-22T12:18:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Adriana Spacca Olivares Rodopoulos.pdf: 879552 bytes, checksum: c391a9db463abd7809e4d2018d97681f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-05-17 / Conselho Nacional de Pesquisa e Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico - CNPq / The present research, of the empirical type, has as a study object the issues related to the public school infrastructure as a formative resource. Considering that the students are the final users of the school equipment and premises, and that the school material and structural conditions have been treated, in the last years, as a non-relevant input towards the educational experience – due to the influence of the knowledge produced by the World Bank over Brazilian educational policies, which has been generating a systematic reduction over the investment rate in this area – the research question which guides this paperwork is: whether and to what extent are the students’ views towards the infrastructure as a formative resource aligned to the recommendations of the World Bank? Since this question encompasses the relationship between school infrastructure and formation, the research objectives were stated as following: (a) identifying the level of importance given by students to the role of the school infrastructure to their formation; and (b) verifying the students’ attributions to the concept of formation. In order to achieve these objectives, we collected the students’ answers from a patterned questionaire, which was applied to students aged 14 to 18 years old from a public technical school located in the metropolitan area of São Paulo. The results suggest that the students are more critical about the infrastructure as a formative resource, than about the concept of formation restricted to the preparation of the workforce. Thus, they seem to recognize the formative potential of the infrastructure, but they fail to overcome the predominant concept of formation. The theoretical referential that supports this research is the critical theory of society, specially the studies developed by Herbert Marcuse, Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer and Walter Benjamin, highlighting the ones related to the technological ideology, to the formation and to education / A presente pesquisa, de tipo empírico, tem por objeto de estudo as questões relativas à infraestrutura da escola pública como recurso formativo. Considerando que os estudantes são os usuários finais dos equipamentos e instalações escolares e que as condições materiais e estruturais da escola vêm sendo tratadas, nos últimos anos, como um insumo pouco relevante para a experiência educativa – por influência direta dos saberes produzidos pelo Banco Mundial sobre as políticas educacionais brasileiras, ocasionando uma diminuição sistemática dos investimentos nessa área – a pergunta de pesquisa que orientou este trabalho foi: se e que medida as concepções dos estudantes acerca da infraestrutura escolar como recurso formativo encontram-se em alinhamento com as recomendações do Banco Mundial? Posto que a pergunta enseja a relação entre infraestrutura escolar e formação, elaborou-se os objetivos da pesquisa da seguinte maneira: (a) identificar qual o grau de importância que os estudantes atribuem à infraestrutura escolar para a sua formação; e (b) verificar o que os estudantes atribuem ao conceito de formação. Para atingir esses objetivos, tomou-se como fonte as respostas dos alunos obtidas com base em um questionário padronizado aplicado a estudantes de uma escola de ensino técnico (Etec) situada em um município da Grande São Paulo. Os resultados sugerem que os estudantes posicionam-se de maneira mais crítica em relação à infraestrutura como recurso formativo do que ao conceito vigente de formação. Nesse sentido, os jovens parecem reivindicar uma infraesturutra mais robusta e de melhor qualidade porque reconhecem seu potencial formativo. No entanto, não chegam a questionar o conceito de formação restrito à preparação para o mercado de trabalho. O referencial teórico que fundamenta a presente pesquisa é a teoria crítica da sociedade, sobretudo, os estudos desenvolvidos por Herbert Marcuse, Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer e Walter Benjamnin, especialmente, os que tratam da ideologia da racionalidade tecnológica, da formação e da educação

While there is a consensus among researchers that assessment should and can serve learning, there is less understanding of how it supports learning at a fine-grained level. This thesis uses design-based research to investigate the role of comment-only, holistic peer assessment in writing development. The theory of action synthesises Sadler's accounts of learning through assessment (1989, 2010) with Winne and Hadwin's (1998, 2008) model of self-regulated learning. It is theorised that participating in peer assessment helps students to develop evaluative expertise, which in turn enriches task perceptions, metacognitive standards and ultimately large-scale adaptation: the changes students employ in subsequent essays. Drawing on the theory of action, I designed a series of workshops for first-year English Literature students learning to write examination essays. The thesis reports on the first of two iterations. 21 participants assessed and discussed example essays; criteria were not pre-determined but emerged from discussion of four examples. Students then wrote a timed essay, assessed three peer pieces and received three reviews. A range of data was generated during the workshops, including written comments, reflections and questionnaires. Ten case study writers also took part in pre- and post-workshops writing tasks, think-aloud protocols and interviews. To trace the development of students' evaluative expertise, I coded inductively students' talk and comment about writing. Visualising the connections between emergent codes reveals writing quality as a complex web of criteria, with the essay question at the centre. There was a strong overlap between the official Faculty assessment criteria and the codes emerging from student data. However, students also frequently commented on procedural aspects of writing such as introductions and conclusions, which are left tacit or latent in Faculty criteria. Post-workshops, students' own metacognitive standards became increasingly reader-oriented and question-focussed, and these procedural aspects of writing drove the adaptations they made to their approach. I use rich, in-depth case study data to trace how, why, and when students made such adaptations. I also examine the role of peer feedback, which rather than offering new information, often verified or complemented the judgements students formed of their own writing during the workshops. The thesis thus illuminates processes involved in learning through assessment. It also shows that peer assessment is a practicable way of developing within the discipline both evaluative expertise and writing, which are key to lifelong learning.

[ES] En el sistema de educación superior de los Estados Unidos, es muy común enseñar clases de idiomas a nivel elemental de manera híbrida (Blake et al., 2008; Hampel & Stickler, 2015; Meskill & Anthony, 2015; Mizza & Rubio, 2020; Seaman et al., 2018) principalmente por su flexibilidad, individualidad, énfasis en la comunicación y el aprendizaje colaborativo (Rubio, 2014). Sin embargo, los estudios comparativos de clases tradicionales e híbridas han producido resultados pequeños o estadísticamente insignificantes con respecto a la competencia oral (Blake 2008, Chenoweth et al., 2006, Scida & Jones, 2016; Thoms, 2012). Por lo tanto, Rubio (2008) anima a los investigadores a ir más allá de contrastar y más bien evaluar "qué" enseñamos y "cómo" enseñamos. Este estudio longitudinal tuvo como objetivo mostrar cómo se desarrolló la competencia oral a través de un enfoque de métodos mixtos mediante la observación de cuatro secciones de español elemental en un centro de estudios superiores de EE. UU. durante dos semestres. A través de la triangulación de fuentes de datos, se analizaron observaciones de clase, contenido del curso, cuestionarios y evaluaciones orales de los estudiantes. Contrariamente a lo esperado, la modalidad híbrida no tuvo los resultados esperados en las habilidades orales de los estudiantes. Al final del segundo semestre, los estudiantes no pudieron alcanzar los niveles esperados lo que podría estar relacionado con el tipo de instrucción tradicional. El análisis de errores reveló áreas que los estudiantes aún tenían dificultades para comprender, como el uso de artículos, la concordancia de género y número de sustantivos y la semántica, entre otras. Aunque estos errores son comunes en estudiantes de primer año de lengua española, el estudio muestra la necesidad de un reciclaje sistemático de determinadas estructuras del lenguaje para que sean plenamente asimiladas. Por lo tanto, el estudio genera información sobre lo que ocurre en los cursos híbridos que adoptan un enfoque tradicional de enseñanza de idiomas en lugar de cambiar pedagógicamente para incluir actividades más comunicativas. / [CA] En el sistema d'educació superior dels Estats Units, és molt comú ensenyar classes d'idiomes a nivell elemental de manera híbrida (Blake et al., 2008; Hampel & Stickler, 2015; Meskill & Anthony, 2015; Mizza & Rubio, 2020; Seaman et al., 2018) principalment per la seua flexibilitat, individualitat, émfasis en la comunicació i l'aprenentage colaboratiu (Rubio, 2014). No obstant, els estudis comparatius de classes tradicionals i híbrides han produït resultats menuts o estadísticament insignificants sobre la competència oral (Blake 2008, Chenoweth et al., 2006, Scida & Jones, 2016; Thoms, 2012). Per lo tant, Rubio (2008) anima als investigadors a anar més allà de contrastar i més be evaluar "què" ensenyem i "cóm" ensenyem. Este estudi llongitudinal va tindre com a objectiu mostrar cóm es va desenrollar la competència oral a través d'un enfocament de métodos mixts per mig de l'observació de quatre seccions d'espanyol elemental en un centre d'estudis superiors dels EE. UU. durant dos semestres. A través de la triangulació de fonts de senyes, es varen analisar observacions de classe, contingut del curs, qüestionaris i evaluacions orals dels estudiants. Contràriament a lo esperat, la modalitat híbrida no va tindre els resultats esperats en les habilitats orals dels estudiants. Al final del segon semestre, els estudiants no varen poder alcançar els nivells esperats lo que podria estar relacionat en el tipo d'instrucció tradicional. L'anàlisis d'errors va revelar àrees que els estudiants encara tenien dificultats per a comprendre, com l'us d'artículs, la concordancia de gènero i número de sustantius i la semàntica, entre unes atres. Encara que estos errors són comuns en estudiants de primer any de llengua espanyola, l'estudi mostra la necessitat d'un reciclage sistemàtic de determinades estructures del llenguage per a que siguen plenament assimilades. Per lo tant, l'estudi genera informació sobre lo que ocorre en els cursos híbrits que adopten un enfocament tradicional d'ensenyança d'idiomes en lloc de canviar pedagógicamente per a incloure activitats més comunicatives. / [EN] Teaching elementary-level language classes in a hybrid environment has become the trend in the United States higher education system (Blake et al., 2008; Hampel & Stickler, 2015; Meskill & Anthony, 2015; Mizza & Rubio, 2020; Seaman et al., 2018) primarily due to its flexibility, individuality, with emphasis on communication and collaborative learning (Rubio, 2014). However, comparative studies of traditional and hybrid classes have produced small or statistically insignificant results regarding speaking proficiency (Blake 2008, Chenoweth et al., 2006, Scida & Jones, 2016; Thoms, 2012). Therefore, Rubio (2008) encourages researchers to go beyond contrasting and rather assess "what" we teach and "how" we teach. This longitudinal study aimed to show how speaking proficiency was developed through a mixed-methods approach by observing four sections of Elementary Spanish at a US community college during the fall and spring semesters. Through data-source triangulation, class observations, course content, questionnaires, and oral assessments were analyzed. Contrary to expectations, the hybrid modality did not have the expected results in students' speaking skills. By the end of the second semester, students were not able to reach the novice-high to intermediate-low levels expected at the end of the first year of Spanish, which could be linked to the form-focused type of instruction students received. The error analysis revealed areas that students still struggled to understand, such as article use, noun agreement in gender and number, and semantics, among others. Although these errors are common in first-year Spanish language learners, the study shows the need for systematic recycling of certain language structures for them to be fully assimilated by students. Therefore, the study generates insight into what occurs in hybrid courses that adopt a traditional language teaching approach rather than changing pedagogically to include more communicative activities. / Ortiz, D. (2023). Speaking Proficiency in a Hybrid Environment. A Mixed-Method Study of Spanish Beginner Learners [Tesis doctoral]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/200582