Ulum, O.G. (2020). The Use of Assignments in Education . (1), 20-26. doi: 10.29329/bedu.2020.253.2
Ulum, O. (2020). The Use of Assignments in Education . , 1(1), pp. 20-26.
Ulum, Omer Gokhan (2020). "The Use of Assignments in Education ". 1 (1):20-26. doi:10.29329/bedu.2020.253.2.
References |
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Halici Page, M., & Mede, E. (2018). Comparing task-based instruction and traditional instruction on task engagement and vocabulary development in secondary language education. The Journal of Educational Research, 111(3), 371-381.
Ok, M., & Çalışkan, M. (2019). Ev Ödevleri: Öğretmen, öğrenci ve veli görüşleri [Homework: Opinions of teachers, students and parents]. OPUS– International Journal of Society Researches, 11(18), 594-620.
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September 2020
What is assignment in education? Assignment meaning is the tasks given to students by their teachers and tutors to complete in a defined time. They can also be referred to as the work given to someone as a part of learning. Assignments can be in the form of written, practical, art or fieldwork, or even online. Their purpose is to ensure that students understand the subject matter thoroughly.
Generally, students are assigned a task as a part of their homework. The allocation of assignments is not only restricted to a class or subject but this method can be applied at any stage of life. They are a great way to judge the ability and understanding of an individual towards a subject matter.
The culture of providing homework starts from kindergarten in various forms. Small children are asked to read and write what they learn in the class. Students in the higher class are given work as a part of their revision exercise and help them prepare for exams. Individuals doing honors write journals as a part of an assignment that determines their knowledge in that subject.
The structure of assignments depends upon the nature of the task and subject. They must be well-researched, including case studies or examples within a proper framework. These studies are useful for students to achieve the desired examination results. It also helps them to concentrate better on education. Knowing what is assignment in education helps teachers assess students better.
Importance of Assignments
Giving assignments to the students is a crucial part of student assessment. The importance of giving assignments to the students is discussed in detail below:
Since assignments are deadline-based, they help students take responsibility and manage time. The work assigned to students may be individual or group activities, or both, to develop teamwork in them.
The above-mentioned information gives us a context of assignment meaning and its importance to the students. Assignments provide a basis for the student assessment and should be given timely.
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It has been estimated that college students across the globe devote in excess of a billion hours per year to “disposable” assignments (Wiley, 2016). Students view the work as simply a hurdle to be crossed, and once submitted and assessed, worthy of nothing more than being discarded. What a waste! Students want to contribute something to make a difference—if only we gave them the chance. Moving from essential to “renewable” assignments means that the students see the tasks as sufficiently meaningful to be kept and even passed on to others.
Meaningful learning tasks are transformative and deep, and rooted in three key elements: emotional connection, sense, and significance (Barkley, 2010):
How might emotional connection, sense, and significance be embedded in an assignment such that students see the task as “renewable” and meaningful? From vastly different disciplines, we have each had an experience of giving tasks where students engaged far more than we anticipated, precisely because these elements were evident. In what follows, we describe each of these tasks in detail, highlight points of commonality, and explain the ways in which the tasks promoted emotional connection, sense, and significance.
For many years, I (Shaw) taught at the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary (ABTS) in Beirut, Lebanon. At ABTS, the medium of instruction is Arabic, and students come from the Arabic-speaking world of the Middle East and North Africa. Throughout these regions there is a paucity of original materials suitable for local church use. What exists in Arabic in terms of Sunday school curricula, youth work materials, and home Bible studies is largely translation from English, often poorly translated and culturally inappropriate. In such a context, I wondered whether I could have my students produce something appropriate for distribution and use in the Arabic Christian community.
In May 2018, I experimented with a course entitled Teaching the Lucan Parables. The purpose of the course was twofold: (1) to develop exegetical skills in interpreting parables and (2) to give practical skills in developing curricula that is learner-centered and encourages transformational learning in the Christian community. To that end, I wondered how students might respond if the major task was done jointly as a class—the final collaborative production being a booklet that provided a series of home Bible study materials designed for local church use.
The 16 students had all previously taken my introductory “Art of Teaching” course, which included elements such as lesson planning and creative instructional methodology. The course comprised of seven three-hour sessions. In the opening session, students were oriented to the work required, as well as given an opportunity to begin the process of lesson development. The students were broken up into pairs and parables were allocated—one longer parable and one shorter parable for each pair of students. I presented a series of basic principles on the interpretation of parables, with a special focus on the original audience of the parable, how this audience would have heard the parable in light of local cultural and linguistic elements, and the significance of the parable. Following this introduction, the student pairs were given time to work on one of their parables, and through a reporting process I was able to assess the extent to which students had grasped the key interpretative elements. We also set a schedule for the remainder of the course, including responsibilities of presenting lessons in the final four sessions. I also discussed appropriate resources with students, what they should do if they were experiencing difficulties, and a process for meeting with me and/or having optional workshop sessions.
The second and third three-hour sessions were conducted in the form of a workshop, with no direct input from me. Students worked in their pairs, and I moved from group to group to ensure that they were on track, they were accessing appropriate resources, and their 45-minute lessons were developing appropriately.
The final four weeks were devoted to field testing the students’ lessons. The materials the students were developing needed to be self-explanatory such that a home Bible study leader in another country could access and use the materials based solely on what was in the text. Consequently, the pair that developed the material were strictly observers in the field test process and were prohibited from making any verbal comment or direction. For each lesson, a student who was not a member of the developing team led the study, and the materials were designed based on the typical 45-minute home group studies. I drew a line at the 45-minute mark, and the students and I spent the next 30 minutes debriefing and making suggestions for improving the lessons.
Students edited and resubmitted their lessons, and we brought them together into a booklet. This booklet has since been published and has been used in numerous churches in various parts of the Arabic-speaking world.
I have never seen students so motivated! My greatest challenge did not include getting the students to study and engage the material, but to ensure that they also gave time to their other classes. The learning was tangible and extraordinary. Not only did the students grow in the desired skills in Bible interpretation and lesson planning, they also learned about working collaboratively for a joint goal, as well as growing in their ability to lead discussion.
Even before the COVID-19 pandemic forced classes online, much of our research collaborations in the sciences was happening via video calls or using platforms for sharing documents (like Google Docs, OneDrive, or Slack). Given the importance of working in teams via these virtual platforms, I (Rasmussen) had begun experimenting with implementing teamwork facilitated by Microsoft Teams for the assessment task in a course called, Plants and the Soil Environment, a third-year undergraduate course at the University of Nottingham (United Kingdom). Of course, having Microsoft Teams already in place in my class as the pandemic swept the world proved a fortuitous and resilient bonus!
Recognizing the particular need for team skills in developing scientists, I decided to set a group documentary video as the main assignment. In our 2020 class there were 24 students from both the School of Biosciences (Faculty of Science) and the School of Life Sciences (Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences). In addition to bridging two faculties, the students come from degree programs based at both our Sutton Bonington and University Park Campuses. All students were attending as in-person (internal) students. This combination of multiple campuses and in-person attendance created a safe—but real—space for practicing virtual collaboration.
Plants and the Soil Environment explores how plants adapt to different soil environments such as drought, flood, salinity, heavy metals, nutrient deficiency, and includes plant-plant interactions. A combination of semi-traditional lectures and discussions with debates and tours of the research facilities sets the foundation on which the assessments can build. The learning outcomes include: (1) understanding the pathways and mechanisms involved in the uptake, transport, and use of water and nutrients; (2) plant adaptive responses to water, nutrient, salt, and heavy metal stresses; (3) crop improvement strategies based on the roots.
In previous years these learning objectives were addressed via two 1,500-word essays within two of the themes (of their choice) with an expectation of deeper exploration of their chosen topics. However, motivated by heavy student writing loads (students are also writing their honors dissertation at this time), I decided to change the assessment to a group work documentary video that would be made public on the University’s Media Space—still exploring a question of their interest within one of the themes to achieve the concept learning objectives of the course. Additional skill objectives were added: develop skills to (a) communicate complex ideas in multimedia formats; and (b) to work in groups.
Students often feel insufficiently trained in team skills and often dislike teamwork reporting problems such as difficulties arranging meetings outside of class, unequal contributions/“social loafing,” and unfair grading (Wilson et al., 2018, Rasmussen et al., 2011). However appropriate scaffolding to support students and ensure accountability can improve the student perspectives of teamwork (Rasmussen et al., 2011). While previously teaching at the University of Queensland (Australia) I had developed a set of team training sessions to explicitly teach students what’s expected of them when working with others. These were based on, and programmed around, the four stages of team function—forming, storming, norming, and performing (Ayoko et al., 2012). Although controversial in some circles, the intention was to provide scaffolding for student learning and experiences, and it was useful for us to use these broad headings for supporting students who had no previous team training.
Further scaffolding was added in the form of a training session on using Microsoft Teams for collaboration, and sections were created within their Class Notebook (within Microsoft Teams) to guide them through the different tasks required to complete the assessment (including templates for team meetings and spaces with other resources such as GDPR [General Data Protection Regulation] rules and risk assessment forms). This multifaceted scaffolding enabled students to access the information when it was most needed—both synchronously (either in class with the lecturer or their teammates) and asynchronously.
What has been amazing is the incredible level of engagement and ingenuity within the class. When we went into the COVID-19 lockdown and in-person interviews with experts were no longer possible, one group interviewed a US scientist via Skype! Interviewing researchers outside the University of Nottingham is now built into the marking criteria, and in the following two years, we have seen students interview 17 internationally recognized experts from diverse contexts across the world. Additionally, students are spending significant time outside the allocated class time researching, filming, and editing their videos—which are all of an impressive quality!
Here are some other indicators that we’re doing something really special. One is having students approach me before the semester telling me how they hate group work, and they wouldn’t have chosen the class except that they’ve heard how great it is and how positive previous cohorts have found this group work task. Another is seeing comments on survey evaluations such as saying they made life-long friends in the class (despite that year being online-only during the pandemic). Although a completely optional module, the class has increased from 24 the first video year to 47 last spring (2022). The class also has continued to receive high marks despite increasing the expectations in the marking criteria! To me, this demonstrates a high level of engagement and ongoing learning.
In past years, the videos have been stand-alone—this year for the first time I’ll be framing the videos as “episodes” in a series which will be put up online in the order the class decides on. The intention is to further create an atmosphere of creativity and collaboration rather than groups feeling they are in competition with other groups! Watch this space for how that goes!
Our two learning tasks are notably different, with different purposes in different fields of study. And yet both generated a high level of intrinsic motivation within the students and led to substantial deep learning. Both were “renewable” rather than “disposable” assignments. While different in substance, there are many points of commonality in ethos which are suggestive for other fields of study. We believe the following shared principles for developing “renewable” assignments might be adapted to a wide variety of other teaching contexts:
Despite the notable discipline divergence between our two courses, our passion for relevance and meaning in our teaching brought us together. Both concerned about the wasted educational energy devoted to discarded assessment, we discovered resonance in the possibility of renewable tasks, in particular the development of valuable resources for the wider community. We hope our journey can help you find similar pathways.
Perry Shaw, EdD, is a researcher in residence at Morling College (Sydney), adjunct professor of education at the Arab Baptist Theological Seminary (Lebanon), and author of Transforming Theological Education: A Practical Handbook for Integrative Learning.
Dr. Amanda Rasmussen is an assistant professor in the School of Biosciences at the University of Nottingham, UK and fellow of AdvanceHE. Aside from educational practice her other research investigates plant responses to the environment.
References:
Allan, E. 2016. “I Hate Group Work!”: Addressing students’ concerns about small-group learning. InSight: A Journal of Scholarly Teaching , 11, 81-89.
Ambrose, S., M. Bridges, M. DiPietro, M. Lovett, and M. Norman. 2010. How Learning Works: Seven Research-Based Principles for Smart Teaching . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Ayoko, O., Konrad, A., & Boyle, M. 2012. Online work: Managing conflict and emotions for performance in virtual teams. European Management Journal , 30, 156-174.
Barkley, E. 2010. Student Engagement Techniques: A Handbook for College Faculty . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Battro, A. 2010. The teaching brain. Mind, Brain & Education , 4(1), 28-33.
Bozalek, V., Gachago, D., Alexander, L., Watters, K., Wood, D., Ivala, E., & Herrington, J. 2013. The use of emerging technologies for authentic learning: A South African study in higher education. British Journal of Educational Technology , 44, 629-638.
Bransford, J., A. Brown, and R. Cocking. 1999. How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School . Washington: National Academy Press.
Chu, S., Ravana, S., Mok, S., & Chan, R. 2019. Behavior, perceptions and learning experience of undergraduates using social technologies during internship . Educational Technology Research and Development , 67, 881-906.
Csikszentmihalyi, M. 1997. Finding Flow: The Psychology of Engagement with Everyday Life . New York: HarperCollins.
Fuller, A., & Fuller, L. 2020. Neurodevelopmental differentiation: Optimising brain systems to maximise learning. Cheltenham: Hawker Brownlow Education.
García, M., López, C., Molina, E., Casas, E., & Morales, Y. 2016. Development and evaluation of the team work skill in university contexts. Are virtual environments effective? International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education , 13.
Gillespie, J. 2012. Enhancing Social Work Education Through Team-Based Learning. Journal of Social Work Education , 48, 377-387.
Gleadow, R., Honeydew, M., Ford, A., Isaac, B., & Abbott, K. 2015. New tools for a new age: An evolution or revolution in higher education? F1000Research , 4, 1502.
Herrington, J., & Oliver, R. 2000. An instructional design framework for authentic learning environments. Educational Technology Research and Development , 48, 23-48.
Mercer-Mapstone, L., & Kuchel, L. 2015. Teaching Scientists to Communicate: Evidence-based assessment for undergraduate science education. International Journal of Science Education , 37, 1613-1638.
Orlando, J. 2020. “Teaching Students, Not Subjects.” The Teaching Professor , 23 November 2020.
Persellin, D., and M. Daniels. 2014. A Concise Guide to Improving Student Learning: Six Evidence-Based Principles and How to Apply Them . Sterling: Stylus.
Rasmussen, A., Rossini, R., & Kuchel, L. 2011. Is it worth taking time out of first year science courses to explicitly teach team skills? 34th HERDSA Annual International Conference. Gold Coast, QLD Australia: Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia.
Ritchhart, R., Church, M., & Morrison, K. 2011. Making thinking visible: How to promote engagement, understanding, and independence for all learners . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Shackleton-Jones, N. 2019. How People Learn . New York: Kogan Page.
Shaw, P. 2022. Transforming Theological Education: A Practical Handbook for Integrative Learning, 2 nd ed. Carlisle: Langham.
Wiley, D. 2016. “Toward Renewable Assessments.” https://opencontent.org/blog/archives/4691
Willingham, D. 2009. Why Don’t Students Like School? A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions about How the Mind Works and What It Means for Your Classroom . San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Wilson, L., Ho, S., & Brookes, R. 2018. Student perceptions of teamwork within assessment tasks in undergraduate science degrees. Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education , 43, 786-799
Zull, J. 2002. The Art of Changing the Brain: Enriching the Practice of Teaching by Exploring the Biology of Learning . Sterling: Stylus.
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In the most general sense, pedagogy is all the ways that instructors and students work with the course content. The fundamental learning goal for students is to be able to do “something meaningful” with the course content. Meaningful learning typically results in students working in the middle to upper levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy . We sometimes find that novice instructors conflate course content with pedagogy. This often results in “teaching as talking” where the presentation of content by the instructor is confused with the learning of content by the students. Think of your course content as clay and pedagogy as the ways you ask students to make “something meaningful” from that clay. Pedagogy is the combination of teaching methods (what instructors do), learning activities (what instructors ask their students to do), and learning assessments (the assignments, projects, or tasks that measure student learning).
Diversify your pedagogy by varying your teaching methods, learning activities, and assignments. Critically assess your pedagogy through the lens of BIPOC students’ experiences at a PWI . We visualize these two related practices as a cycle because they are iterative and ongoing. Diversifying your pedagogy likely means shedding some typical ways of teaching in your discipline, or the teaching practices you inherited. It likely means doing more active learning and less traditional lecturing. Transforming good pedagogy into equitable pedagogy means rethinking your pedagogy in light of the PWI context and considering the ways your pedagogy may help or hinder learning for BIPOC students.
Understanding where students are on the spectrum of novice to expert learning in your discipline or course is a key challenge to implementing effective and inclusive pedagogy (National Research Council 2000). Instructors are typically so far removed from being a novice learner in their disciplines that they struggle to understand where students are on that spectrum. A key PWI assumption is that students understand how your disciplinary knowledge is organized and constructed . Students typically do not understand your discipline or the many other disciplines they are working in during their undergraduate years. Even graduate students may find it puzzling to explain the origins, methodologies, theories, logics, and assumptions of their disciplines. A second PWI assumption is that students are (or should be) academically prepared to learn your discipline . Students may be academically prepared for learning in some disciplines, but unless their high school experience was college preparatory and well supported, students (especially first-generation college students) are likely finding their way through a mysterious journey of different disciplinary conventions and modes of working and thinking (Nelson 1996).
A third PWI assumption is that instructors may confuse students’ academic underpreparation with their intelligence or capacity to learn . Academic preparation is typically a function of one’s high school experience including whether that high school was well resourced or under funded. Whether or not a student receives a quality high school education is usually a structural matter reflecting inequities in our K12 educational systems, not a reflection of an individual student’s ability to learn. A final PWI assumption is that students will learn well in the ways that the instructor learned well . Actually most instructors in higher education self-selected into disciplines that align with their interests, skills, academic preparation, and possibly family and community support. Our students have broader and different goals for seeking a college education and bring a range of skills to their coursework, which may or may not align with instructors’ expectations of how students learn. Inclusive teaching at a PWI means supporting the learning and career goals of our students.
Kind and Chan (2019) propose that Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) is the synthesis of Content Knowledge (expertise about a subject area) and Pedagogical Knowledge (expertise about teaching methods, assessment, classroom management, and how students learn). Content Knowledge (CK) without Pedagogical Knowledge (PK) limits instructors’ ability to teach effectively or inclusively. Novice instructors that rely on traditional lectures likely have limited Pedagogical Knowledge and may also be replicating their own inherited teaching practices. While Kind and Chan (2019) are writing from the perspective of science education, their concepts apply across disciplines. Moreover, Kind and Chan (2019) support van Driel et al.’s assertion that:
high-quality PCK is not characterized by knowing as many strategies as possible to teach a certain topic plus all the misconceptions students may have about it but by knowing when to apply a certain strategy in recognition of students’ actual learning needs and understanding why a certain teaching approach may be useful in one situation (quoted in Kind and Chan 2019, 975).
As we’ve stressed throughout this guide, the teaching context matters, and for inclusive pedagogy, special attention should be paid to the learning goals, instructor preparation, and students’ point of entry into course content. We also argue that the PWI context shapes what instructors might practice as CK, PK, and PCK. We recommend instructors become familiar with evidence-based pedagogy (or the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning , SoTL) in their fields. Moreover, we advise instructors to find and follow those instructors and scholars that specifically focus on inclusive teaching in their fields in order to develop an inclusive, flexible, and discipline-specific Pedagogical Content Knowledge.
Although diversifying and critically assessing teaching methods, learning activities, and assignments will vary across disciplines, we offer a few key starting points. Diversifying your pedagogy is easier than critically assessing it through a PWI lens, but both steps are essential. In general, you can diversify your pedagogy by learning about active learning, peer learning, team-based learning, experiential learning, problem-based learning, and case-based learning, among others . There is extensive evidence-based pedagogical literature and practical guides readily available for these methods. And you can also find and follow scholars in your discipline that use these and other teaching methods.
Convert traditional lectures into interactive (or active) lectures.
For in-person or synchronous online courses, break a traditional lecture into “mini-lectures” of 10-15 minutes in length. After each mini-lecture, ask your students to process their learning using a discussion or problem prompt, a Classroom Assessment Technique (CAT), a Think-Pair-Share, or another brief learning activity. Read Lecturing from Center for Teaching , Vanderbilt University.
Provide both a process and concrete questions or tasks to guide student learning (for example, provide a scenario with 3 focused tasks such as identify the problem, brainstorm possible solutions, and list the pros/cons for each solution). Read How to Hold a Better Class Discussion , The Chronicle of Higher Education .
Integrate active learning, especially into courses that are conceptual, theoretical, or otherwise historically challenging (for example, calculus, organic chemistry, statistics, philosophy). For gateway courses, draw upon the research of STEM and other education specialists on how active learning and peer learning improves student learning and reduces disparities. Read the Association of American Universities STEM Network Scholarship .
Include authentic learning, learning activities and assignments that mirror how students will work after graduation. What does it mean to think and work like an engineer? How do project teams work together? How does one present research in an educational social media campaign? Since most students seeking a college education will not become academic researchers or faculty, what kinds of things will they do in the “real world?” Help students practice and hone those skills as they learn the course content. Read Edutopia’s PBL: What Does It Take for a Project to Be Authentic?
Graded assignments should range from low to high stakes. Low stakes assignments allow students to learn from their mistakes and receive timely feedback on their learning. Options for assignments allow students to demonstrate their learning, rather than demonstrate their skill at a particular type of assessment (such as a multiple choice exam or an academic research paper). Read our guide, Create Assessments That Promote Learning for All Students .
Critically assessing your pedagogy through the PWI lens with attention to how your pedagogy may affect the learning of BIPOC students is more challenging and highly contextual. Instructors will want to review and apply the concepts and principles discussed in the earlier sections of this guide on Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs), PWI Assumptions, and Class Climate.
Reflect on patterns of participation, progress in learning (grade distributions), and other course-related evidence. Look at your class sessions and assignments as experimental data. Who participated? What kinds of participation did you observe? Who didn’t participate? Why might that be? Are there a variety of ways for students to participate in the learning activities (individually, in groups, via discussion, via writing, synchronously/in-person, asynchronously/online)?
Respond to feedback on climate from on-going check-ins and Critical Incident Questionnaires (CIQs) as discussed in the Climate Section (Ongoing Practices). Students will likely disengage from your requests for feedback if you do not respond to their feedback. Use this feedback to re-calibrate and re-think your pedagogy.
Seek feedback on student learning in the form of Classroom Assessment Techniques (CATs), in-class polls, asynchronous forums, exam wrappers, and other methods. Demonstrate that you care about your students’ learning by responding to this feedback as well. Here’s how students in previous semesters learned this material … I’m scheduling a problem-solving review session in the next class in response to the results of the exam …
First-generation college students, many of whom may also identify as BIPOC, have typically achieved a great deal with few resources and significant barriers (Yosso 2005). However, they may be more likely to internalize their learning mistakes as signs that they don’t belong at the university. When correcting, be sure to normalize mistakes as part of the learning process. The correct answer is X, but I can see why you thought it was Y. Many students think it is Y because … But the correct answer is X because … Thank you for helping us understand that misconception.
This was already suggested in the Climate Section (Race Stressors), but it is worth repeating. BIPOC students and multilingual students may need more time to prepare, not because of their intellectual abilities, but because of the effects of race stressors and other stressors increasing their cognitive load. Providing discussion or problem prompts in advance will reduce this stress and make space for learning. Additionally both student populations may experience stereotype threat, so participation in the “public” aspects of the class session may be stressful in ways that are not true for the majority white and domestic students. If you cannot provide prompts in advance, be sure to allow ample individual “think time” during a synchronous class session.
This was stated in the Climate Section (Teaching Practices to Avoid), but it’s such an entrenched PWI practice that it needs to be spotlighted and challenged. If I am a numerical “minority” and I am asked to come to consensus or agreement with a numerical “majority,” it is highly likely that my perspective will be minimized or dismissed. Or, I will have to expend a lot of energy to persuade my group of the value of my perspective, which is highly stressful. This is an unacceptable burden to put on BIPOC students and also may result in BIPOC students being placed in the position of teaching white students about a particular perspective or experience. The resulting tensions may also damage BIPOC students’ positive relationships with white students and instructors. When suitable for your content, create a learning experience that promotes seeking multiple solutions to problems, cases, or prompts. Rather than asking students to converge on one best recommendation, why not ask students to log all possible solutions (without evaluation) and then to recommend at least two solutions that include a rationale? Moreover, for course content dealing with policies, the recommended solutions could be explained in terms of their possible effects on different communities. If we value diverse perspectives, we need to structure the consideration of those perspectives into our learning activities and assignments.
We recognize the challenges of assessing your pedagogy through the PWI lens and doing your best to assess the effects on BIPOC student learning. This is a complex undertaking. But we encourage you to invite feedback from your students as well as to seek the guidance of colleagues, including advisors and other student affairs professionals, to inform your ongoing practices of teaching inclusively at a PWI. In the next section, we complete our exploration of the Inclusive Teaching at a PWI Framework by exploring the importance of auditing, diversifying, and critically assessing course content.
Kind, Vanessa and Kennedy K.H. Chan. 2019. “Resolving the Amalgam: Connecting Pedagogical Content Knowledge, Content Knowledge and Pedagogical Knowledge.” International Journal of Science Education . 41(7): 964-978.
Howard, Jay. N.D. “How to Hold a Better Class Discussion: Advice Guide.” The Chronicle of Higher Education . https://www.chronicle.com/article/how-to-hold-a-better-class-discussion/#2
National Research Council. 2000. “How Experts Differ from Novices.” Chap 2 in How People Learn: Brain, Mind, Experience, and School: Expanded Edition . Washington D.C.: The National Academies Press. https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/9853/how-people-learn-brain-mind-experience-and-school-expanded-edition
Nelson, Craig E. 1996. “Student Diversity Requires Different Approaches to College Teaching, Even in Math and Science.” The American Behavioral Scientist . 40 (2): 165-175.
Sathy, Viji and Kelly A. Hogan. N.D. “How to Make Your Teaching More Inclusive: Advice Guide.” The Chronicle of Higher Education . https://www.chronicle.com/article/how-to-make-your-teaching-more-inclusive/?cid=gen_sign_in
Yosso, Tara J. 2005. “Whose Culture Has Capital? A Critical Race Theory Discussion of Community Cultural Wealth.” Race, Ethnicity and Education . 8 (1): 69-91.
Gen ed writes, writing across the disciplines at harvard college.
Gen Ed courses transcend disciplinary boundaries in a variety of ways, so the types of writing assignments that they include also often venture outside the traditional discipline-specific essays. You may encounter a wide variety of assignment types in Gen Ed, but most can be categorized into four general types:
Traditional academic.
For most of us, these are the most familiar types of college-level writing assignments. While they are perhaps less common in Gen Ed than in departmental courses, there are still numerous examples we could examine.
Two illustrations of common types include:
Example 1: Short Essay Professor Michael Sandel asks the students in his Gen Ed course on Tech Ethics to write several short essays over the course of the semester in which they make an argument in response to the course readings. Because many students will never have written a philosophy-style paper, Professor Sandel offers students a number of resources—from a guide on writing in philosophy, to sample graded essays, to a list of logical fallacies—to keep in mind.
Example 2: Research Paper In Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Cares?, a Gen Ed course co-taught by multiple global health faculty members, students write a 12–15 page research paper on a biosocial analysis of a global health topic of their choosing for the final assignment. The assignment is broken up into two parts: (1) a proposal with annotated bibliography and (2) the final paper itself. The prompt clearly outlines the key qualities and features of a successful paper, which is especially useful for students who have not yet written a research paper in the sciences.
In Gen Ed, sometimes assignments ask students to engage in academic work that, while familiar to faculty, is beyond the scope of the typical undergraduate experience.
Here are a couple of examples from Gen Ed courses:
Example 1: Design a conference For the final project in her Gen Ed course, Global Feminisms, Professor Durba Mitra asks her students to imagine a dream conference in the style of the feminist conferences they studied in class. Students are asked to imagine conference panels and events, potential speakers or exhibitions, and advertising materials. While conferences are a normal occurrence for graduate students and professors, undergraduates are much less likely to be familiar with this part of academic life, and this kind of assignment might require more specific background and instructions as part of the prompt.
Example 2: Curate a museum exhibit In his Gen Ed class, Pyramid Schemes, Professor Peter Der Manuelian's final project offers students the option of designing a virtual museum exhibit . While exhibit curation can be a part of the academic life of an anthropologist or archaeologist, it's not often found in introductory undergraduate courses. In addition to selecting objects and creating a virtual exhibit layout, students also wrote an annotated bibliography as well as an exhibit introduction for potential visitors.
One of the goals of Gen Ed is to encourage students to engage with the world around them. Sometimes writing assignments in Gen Ed directly mirror types of writing that students are likely to encounter in real-world, non-academic settings after they graduate.
The following are several examples of such assignments:
Example 1: Policy memo In Power and Identity in the Middle East, Professor Melani Cammett assigns students a group policy memo evaluating "a major initiative aimed at promoting democracy in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA)." The assignment prompt is actually structured as a memo, providing context for students who likely lack experience with the format. It also outlines the key characteristics of a good memo, and it provides extensive advice on the process—especially important when students are working in groups.
Example 2: Letter In Loss, Professor Kathleen Coleman asks students to write a letter of condolence . The letter has an unusual audience: a mother elephant who lost her calf. Since students may not have encountered this type of writing before, Professor Coleman also provides students with advice on process, pointing to some course readings that might be a good place to start. She also suggests a list of outside resources to help students get into the mindframe of addressing an elephant.
Example 3: Podcast Podcasts are becoming increasingly popular in Gen Ed classes, as they are in the real world. Though they're ultimately audio file outputs, they usually require writing and preparing a script ahead of time. For example, in Music from Earth, Professor Alex Rehding asks students to create a podcast in which they make an argument about a song studied in class. He usefully breaks up the assignments into two parts: (1) researching the song and preparing a script and (2) recording and making sonic choices about the presentation, offering students the opportunity to get feedback on the first part before moving onto the second.
These are the types of assignments that perhaps are less obviously "writing" assignments. They usually involve an artistic or otherwise creative component, but they also often include some kind of written introduction or artist statement related to the work.
The following are several examples from recently offered Gen Ed courses:
Example 1: Movie Professor Peter Der Manuelian offers students in his class, Pyramid Schemes, several options for the final project, one of which entails creating a 5–8 minute iMovie making an argument about one of the themes of the course. Because relatively few students have prior experience making films, the teaching staff provide students with a written guide to making an iMovie as well as ample opportunities for tech support. In addition to preparing a script as part of the production, students also submit both an annotated bibliography and an artist’s statement.
Example 2: Calligram In his course, Understanding Islam and Contemporary Muslim Societies, Professor Ali Asani asks students to browse through a provided list of resources about calligrams, which are an important traditional Islamic art form. Then they are required to "choose a concept or symbol associated with God in the Islamic tradition and attempt to represent it through a calligraphic design using the word Allah," in any medium they wish. Students also write a short explanation to accompany the design itself.
Example 3: Soundscape In Music from Earth, Professor Alex Rehding has students create a soundscape . The soundscape is an audio file which involves layering sounds from different sources to create a single piece responding to an assigned question (e.g. "What sounds are characteristic of your current geographical region?"). Early on, as part of the development of the soundscape, students submit an artist's statement that explains the plan for the soundscape, the significance of the sounds, and the intention of the work.
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Cristy Bartlett and Kate Derrington
As discussed in the previous chapter, assignments are a common method of assessment at university. You may encounter many assignments over your years of study, yet some will look quite different from others. By recognising different types of assignments and understanding the purpose of the task, you can direct your writing skills effectively to meet task requirements. This chapter draws on the skills from the previous chapter, and extends the discussion, showing you where to aim with different types of assignments.
The chapter begins by exploring the popular essay assignment, with its two common categories, analytical and argumentative essays. It then examines assignments requiring case study responses , as often encountered in fields such as health or business. This is followed by a discussion of assignments seeking a report (such as a scientific report) and reflective writing assignments, common in nursing, education and human services. The chapter concludes with an examination of annotated bibliographies and literature reviews. The chapter also has a selection of templates and examples throughout to enhance your understanding and improve the efficacy of your assignment writing skills.
At university, an essay is a common form of assessment. In the previous chapter Writing Assignments we discussed what was meant by showing academic writing in your assignments. It is important that you consider these aspects of structure, tone and language when writing an essay.
Essays should use formal but reader friendly language and have a clear and logical structure. They must include research from credible academic sources such as peer reviewed journal articles and textbooks. This research should be referenced throughout your essay to support your ideas (See the chapter Working with Information ).
If you have never written an essay before, you may feel unsure about how to start. Breaking your essay into sections and allocating words accordingly will make this process more manageable and will make planning the overall essay structure much easier.
An effective essay introduction needs to inform your reader by doing four basic things:
1 | Engage their interest and provide a brief background of the topic. |
2 | Provide a thesis statement. This is the position or argument you will adopt. (Note a thesis statement is not always required. Check with your tutor). |
3 | Outline the structure of the essay. |
4 | Indicate any parameters or scope that will/will not be covered. |
An effective essay body paragraph needs to:
1 | State the topic sentence or main point of the paragraph. If you have a thesis statement, the topic sentence should relate to this. |
2 | Expand this main idea, define any terminology and explain concepts in more depth. |
3 | This information should be paraphrased and referenced from credible sources according to the appropriate referencing style of your course. |
4 | Demonstrate critical thinking by showing the relationship of the point you are making and the evidence you have included. This is where you introduce your “student voice”. Ask yourself the “So what?” question (as outlined in the critical thinking section) to add a discussion or interpretation of the how evidence you have included in your paragraph is relevant to your topic. |
5 | Conclude your idea and link to your next point. |
An effective essay conclusion needs to:
1 | Summarise or state the main points covered, using past tense. |
2 | Provide an overall conclusion that relates to the thesis statement or position you raised in your introduction. |
3 | Not add any new information. |
You may be required to write different types of essays, depending on your study area and topic. Two of the most commonly used essays are analytical and argumentative . The task analysis process discussed in the previous chapter Writing Assignments will help you determine the type of essay required. For example, if your assignment question uses task words such as analyse, examine, discuss, determine or explore, you would be writing an analytical essay . If your assignment question has task words such as argue, evaluate, justify or assess, you would be writing an argumentative essay . Despite the type of essay, your ability to analyse and think critically is important and common across genres.
These essays usually provide some background description of the relevant theory, situation, problem, case, image, etcetera that is your topic. Being analytical requires you to look carefully at various components or sections of your topic in a methodical and logical way to create understanding.
The purpose of the analytical essay is to demonstrate your ability to examine the topic thoroughly. This requires you to go deeper than description by considering different sides of the situation, comparing and contrasting a variety of theories and the positives and negatives of the topic. Although in an analytical essay your position on the topic may be clear, it is not necessarily a requirement that you explicitly identify this with a thesis statement, as is the case with an argumentative essay. If you are unsure whether you are required to take a position, and provide a thesis statement, it is best to check with your tutor.
These essays require you to take a position on the assignment topic. This is expressed through your thesis statement in your introduction. You must then present and develop your arguments throughout the body of your assignment using logically structured paragraphs. Each of these paragraphs needs a topic sentence that relates to the thesis statement. In an argumentative essay, you must reach a conclusion based on the evidence you have presented.
Case studies are a common form of assignment in many study areas and students can underperform in this genre for a number of key reasons.
Students typically lose marks for not:
When structuring your response to a case study, remember to refer to the case. Structure your paragraphs similarly to an essay paragraph structure but include examples and data from the case as additional evidence to support your points (see Figure 20.5 ). The colours in the sample paragraph below show the function of each component.
The Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (NMBA) Code of Conduct and Nursing Standards (2018) play a crucial role in determining the scope of practice for nurses and midwives. A key component discussed in the code is the provision of person-centred care and the formation of therapeutic relationships between nurses and patients (NMBA, 2018). This ensures patient safety and promotes health and wellbeing (NMBA, 2018). The standards also discuss the importance of partnership and shared decision-making in the delivery of care (NMBA, 2018, 4). Boyd and Dare (2014) argue that good communication skills are vital for building therapeutic relationships and trust between patients and care givers. This will help ensure the patient is treated with dignity and respect and improve their overall hospital experience. In the case, the therapeutic relationship with the client has been compromised in several ways. Firstly, the nurse did not conform adequately to the guidelines for seeking informed consent before performing the examination as outlined in principle 2.3 (NMBA, 2018). Although she explained the procedure, she failed to give the patient appropriate choices regarding her health care.
Topic sentence | Explanations using paraphrased evidence including in-text references | Critical thinking (asks the so what? question to demonstrate your student voice). | Relating the theory back to the specifics of the case. The case becomes a source of examples as extra evidence to support the points you are making.
Reports are a common form of assessment at university and are also used widely in many professions. It is a common form of writing in business, government, scientific, and technical occupations.
Reports can take many different structures. A report is normally written to present information in a structured manner, which may include explaining laboratory experiments, technical information, or a business case. Reports may be written for different audiences including clients, your manager, technical staff, or senior leadership within an organisation. The structure of reports can vary, and it is important to consider what format is required. The choice of structure will depend upon professional requirements and the ultimate aims of the report. Consider some of the options in the table below (see Table 20.2 ).
Executive or Business Reports | Overall purpose is to convey structured information for business decision making. |
Short form or Summary Reports | Are abbreviated report structures designed to convey information in a focused short form manner. |
Scientific Reports | Are used for scientific documentation purposes and may detail the results of research or describe an experiment or a research problem. |
Technical Reports | Are used to communicate technical information for decision making, this may include discussing technical problems and solutions. |
Evaluation Reports | Present the results of or a proposal for an evaluation or assessment of a policy, program, process or service. |
Reflective writing is a popular method of assessment at university. It is used to help you explore feelings, experiences, opinions, events or new information to gain a clearer and deeper understanding of your learning. A reflective writing task requires more than a description or summary. It requires you to analyse a situation, problem or experience, consider what you may have learnt and evaluate how this may impact your thinking and actions in the future. This requires critical thinking, analysis, and usually the application of good quality research, to demonstrate your understanding or learning from a situation. Essentially, reflective practice is the process of looking back on past experiences and engaging with them in a thoughtful way and drawing conclusions to inform future experiences. The reflection skills you develop at university will be vital in the workplace to assist you to use feedback for growth and continuous improvement. There are numerous models of reflective writing and you should refer to your subject guidelines for your expected format. If there is no specific framework, a simple model to help frame your thinking is What? So what? Now what? (Rolfe et al., 2001).
What? | Describe the experience – who, what, why, when, where? |
So what? | What have you learnt from this? Why does it matter? What has been the impact on you? In what way? Why? You can include connections to coursework, current events, past experiences. |
Now what? | What are you going to do as a result of your experience? How will you apply what you have learnt in the future? Are there critical questions to further pursue? Make an action plan of what you will do next. |
The Gibbs’ Cycle of reflection encourages you to consider your feelings as part of the reflective process. There are six specific steps to work through. Following this model carefully and being clear of the requirements of each stage, will help you focus your thinking and reflect more deeply. This model is popular in Health.
This model (Ryan and Ryan, 2013) was designed specifically for university students engaged in experiential learning. Experiential learning includes any ‘real-world’ activities including practice led activities, placements and internships. Experiential learning, and the use of reflective practice to heighten this learning, is common in Creative Arts, Health and Education.
What is it.
An annotated bibliography is an alphabetical list of appropriate sources (books, journals or websites) on a topic, accompanied by a brief summary, evaluation and sometimes an explanation or reflection on their usefulness or relevance to your topic. Its purpose is to teach you to research carefully, evaluate sources and systematically organise your notes. An annotated bibliography may be one part of a larger assessment item or a stand-alone assessment piece. Check your task guidelines for the number of sources you are required to annotate and the word limit for each entry.
When choosing sources for your annotated bibliography it is important to determine:
Important considerations include:
It is easy to get confused by the terminology used for literature reviews. Some tasks may be described as a systematic literature review when actually the requirement is simpler; to review the literature on the topic but do it in a systematic way. There is a distinct difference (see Table 20.4 ). As a commencing undergraduate student, it is unlikely you would be expected to complete a systematic literature review as this is a complex and more advanced research task. It is important to check with your lecturer or tutor if you are unsure of the requirements.
A literature review | A systematic literature review |
A review which analyses and synthesises the literature on your research topic in a systemic (clear and logical) way. It may be organised: • Conceptually • Chronologically • Methodologically | A much larger and more complicated research project which follows a clearly defined research protocol or process to remove any reviewer bias. Each step in the search process is documented to ensure it is able to be replicated, repeated or updated. |
Generally, you are required to establish the main ideas that have been written on your chosen topic. You may also be expected to identify gaps in the research. A literature review does not summarise and evaluate each resource you find (this is what you would do in an annotated bibliography). You are expected to analyse and synthesise or organise common ideas from multiple texts into key themes which are relevant to your topic (see Figure 20.10 ). Use a table or a spreadsheet, if you know how, to organise the information you find. Record the full reference details of the sources as this will save you time later when compiling your reference list (see Table 20.5 ).
Overall, this chapter has provided an introduction to the types of assignments you can expect to complete at university, as well as outlined some tips and strategies with examples and templates for completing them. First, the chapter investigated essay assignments, including analytical and argumentative essays. It then examined case study assignments, followed by a discussion of the report format. Reflective writing , popular in nursing, education and human services, was also considered. Finally, the chapter briefly addressed annotated bibliographies and literature reviews. The chapter also has a selection of templates and examples throughout to enhance your understanding and improve the efficacy of your assignment writing skills.
Gibbs, G. (1988). Learning by doing: A guide to teaching and learning methods. Further Education Unit, Oxford Brookes University, Oxford.
Rolfe, G., Freshwater, D., Jasper, M. (2001). Critical reflection in nursing and the helping professions: a user’s guide . Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Ryan, M. & Ryan, M. (2013). Theorising a model for teaching and assessing reflective learning in higher education. Higher Education Research & Development , 32(2), 244-257. doi: 10.1080/07294360.2012.661704
Academic Success Copyright © 2021 by Cristy Bartlett and Kate Derrington is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.
Janelle cox.
Many teachers use differentiated instruction strategies as a way to reach all learners and accommodate each student’s learning style. One very helpful tactic to employ differentiated instruction is called tiered assignments—a technique often used within flexible groups.
Much like flexible grouping—or differentiated instruction as a whole, really—tiered assignments do not lock students into ability boxes. Instead, particular student clusters are assigned specific tasks within each group according to their readiness and comprehension without making them feel completely compartmentalized away from peers at different achievement levels.
There are six main ways to structure tiered assignments: challenge level, complexity, outcome, process, product, or resources. It is your job, based upon the specific learning tasks you’re focused on, to determine the best approach. Here we will take a brief look at these techniques.
Challenge level.
Tiering can be based on challenge level where student groups will tackle different assignments. Teachers can use Bloom’s Taxonomy as a guide to help them develop tasks of structure or questions at various levels. For example:
When you tier assignments by complexity, you are addressing the needs of students who are at different levels using the same assignment. The trick here is to vary the focus of the assignment based upon whether each group is ready for more advanced work or simply trying to wrap their head around the concept for the first time. You can direct your students to create a poster on a specific issue—recycling and environmental care, for instance—but one group will focus on a singular perspective, while the other will consider several points of view and present an argument for or against each angle.
Tiering assignments by differentiated outcome is vaguely similar to complexity—all of your students will use the same materials, but depending on their readiness levels will actually have a different outcome. It may sound strange at first, but this strategy is quite beneficial to help advanced students work on more progressive applications of their student learning.
This differentiated instruction strategy is exactly what it sounds like—student groups will use different processes to achieve similar outcomes based upon readiness.
Tiered assignments can also be differentiated based on product. Teachers can use the Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligences to form groups that will hone particular skills for particular learning styles . For example, one group would be bodily/kinesthetic, and their task is to create and act out a skit. Another group would be visual/spatial, and their task would be to illustrate.
Tiering resources means that you are matching project materials to student groups based on readiness or instructional need. One flexible group may use a magazine while another may use a traditional textbook. As a tip, you should assign resources based on knowledge and readiness, but also consider the group’s reading level and comprehension.
From time to time, students may question why they are working on different assignments, using varied materials, or coming to dissimilar outcomes altogether. This could be a blow to your classroom morale if you’re not tactful in making your tiers invisible.
Make it a point to tell students that each group is using different materials or completing different activities so they can share what they learned with the class. Be neutral when grouping students, use numbers or colors for group names, and be equally enthusiastic while explaining assignments to each cluster.
Also, it’s important to make each tiered assignment equally interesting, engaging, and fair in terms of student expectations. The more flexible groups and materials you use, the more students will accept that this is the norm.
Tiering assignments is a fair way to differentiate learning. It allows teachers to meet the needs of all students while using varying levels of tasks. It’s a concept that can be infused into homework assignments, small groups, or even learning centers. If done properly, it can be a very effective method to differentiate learning because it challenges all students.
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Education assignments take different formats based on the unit you are studying and the goals a tutor wants to achieve. The concept being tested will also dfetermine the type of assignment.
Here are the 9 most common types of assignments you will find in a class setting.
If you as what is assignment in education, the most obvious answer you will get is an essay. Essays come with topics and prompts that direct the student on the issues to study. A student may also be required to craft a topic around a subject.
An essay-assignment requires you to adhere to the instructions provided. You must also follow a set academic structure and format your paper by adhering to particular rules. A sample, example, or template will help you to produce a better essay.
A case study involves examining a particular situation from an academic lens. You are mainly required to use the knowledge acquired while studying a specific topic. For instance, you may study the civil rights movement and are asked to study Rosa Park’s influence. The cases help you to understand a concept better.
A creativity exercise is one of the types of assignment in education that examine the ability of the student to practice what he has learned in class. Once you learn to write a short story or film script, the assignment may require you to write one. The results will help your tutor to evaluate your level of understanding.
The education system is supposed to teach kids the power of collaboration. Some of the assignments will involve group work. The students are supposed to work on an essay or collect data together. It ensures that students can learn to work as a team, a skill they will need in workplaces and when completing personal projects.
Group work requires a team leader. In this social distance era, the team has to discover ways to collaborate. They can use online tools for meetings and document editing. This is the ultimate test for collaboration.
Field assignments involve collecting data, interviews, and observations. It may also involve a visit to historical sites, watching games, and observing phenomena like the launch of a rocket. It is a type of education assignment that brings the student face to face with an actual situation. It takes the students away from the library, giving them a different learning experience.
The tests came with questions about past topics. The tutor in such a case wants to assess how well you understood past topics. It will help him to improve your performance in future topics. It will also help you to determine how well you understood the topic and whether you need further clarification.
The questions or tests focus on topics that you are yet to cover. It is a model of assignment on education that will prepare the student for what is to come. Assignments on future tests require you to read ahead. You will be better prepared for the next lesson. It also tests your diligence in the search for new materials that can be used to make the topics easier to understand.
The tests involve practical work. You build a robot or enact a play. It is also an application type of assignment. The tutor wants you to innovate and test the skills or concepts you have learned.
Research assignments want you to discover a mystery behind a subject or topic. You have to collect data, review literature, and develop a hypothesis. It is the purest form of academic writing.
The different kinds of writing assignments combine with practical work to assess your ability to demonstrate your knowledge. You can get help on all these assignments by choosing to pay someone to do my homework online. They also require a strategy that will help you to achieve the set objectives.
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Looking for advantages and disadvantages of Assignments For Students?
We have collected some solid points that will help you understand the pros and cons of Assignments For Students in detail.
But first, let’s understand the topic:
What are the advantages and disadvantages of assignments for students.
The following are the advantages and disadvantages of Assignments For Students:
Advantages | Disadvantages |
---|---|
Boosts understanding of topics | Can increase stress levels |
Encourages independent learning | Limits free time |
Enhances time management skills | May discourage creativity |
Improves research and writing abilities | Risks of plagiarism |
Reinforces classroom learning | Difficulty understanding instructions |
Disadvantages of assignments for students.
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About Us The Orange Unified School District serves approximately 28,000 students in grades kindergarten through 12th, and encompasses all or part of the cities of Anaheim, Garden Grove, Orange, Santa Ana, and Villa Park. In 1953, the citizens of the area voted to form a “unified” school district, combining the original five elementary districts with the high school district into one unified district, now known as the Orange Unified School District. The District has a long history of excellence that continues to grow and be enriched by the accomplishments of its students, teachers, staff and community. VISION - Our Commitment Inspiring our learners of today to be purposeful leaders of tomorrow. MISSION - Our Intention In partnership with our community, we will provide a safe, equitable, and innovative culture of learning for each scholar to have a competitive EDGE as a leader. CORE VALUES - Our Foundation * Integrity - We embrace a culture of ethical and transparent decision making and actions. * Equity - We promote inclusive and culturally relevant environments by supporting the social-emotional and intellectual needs of all. * Respect - We advocate for strong, compassionate relationships that appreciate the unique qualities of our diverse community. * Excellence - We strive for the highest standards in all endeavors by deliberately pursuing continuous growth and innovation.
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We, the APA Style team, are not robots. We can all pass a CAPTCHA test , and we know our roles in a Turing test . And, like so many nonrobot human beings this year, we’ve spent a fair amount of time reading, learning, and thinking about issues related to large language models, artificial intelligence (AI), AI-generated text, and specifically ChatGPT . We’ve also been gathering opinions and feedback about the use and citation of ChatGPT. Thank you to everyone who has contributed and shared ideas, opinions, research, and feedback.
In this post, I discuss situations where students and researchers use ChatGPT to create text and to facilitate their research, not to write the full text of their paper or manuscript. We know instructors have differing opinions about how or even whether students should use ChatGPT, and we’ll be continuing to collect feedback about instructor and student questions. As always, defer to instructor guidelines when writing student papers. For more about guidelines and policies about student and author use of ChatGPT, see the last section of this post.
If you’ve used ChatGPT or other AI tools in your research, describe how you used the tool in your Method section or in a comparable section of your paper. For literature reviews or other types of essays or response or reaction papers, you might describe how you used the tool in your introduction. In your text, provide the prompt you used and then any portion of the relevant text that was generated in response.
Unfortunately, the results of a ChatGPT “chat” are not retrievable by other readers, and although nonretrievable data or quotations in APA Style papers are usually cited as personal communications , with ChatGPT-generated text there is no person communicating. Quoting ChatGPT’s text from a chat session is therefore more like sharing an algorithm’s output; thus, credit the author of the algorithm with a reference list entry and the corresponding in-text citation.
When prompted with “Is the left brain right brain divide real or a metaphor?” the ChatGPT-generated text indicated that although the two brain hemispheres are somewhat specialized, “the notation that people can be characterized as ‘left-brained’ or ‘right-brained’ is considered to be an oversimplification and a popular myth” (OpenAI, 2023).
OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Mar 14 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat
You may also put the full text of long responses from ChatGPT in an appendix of your paper or in online supplemental materials, so readers have access to the exact text that was generated. It is particularly important to document the exact text created because ChatGPT will generate a unique response in each chat session, even if given the same prompt. If you create appendices or supplemental materials, remember that each should be called out at least once in the body of your APA Style paper.
When given a follow-up prompt of “What is a more accurate representation?” the ChatGPT-generated text indicated that “different brain regions work together to support various cognitive processes” and “the functional specialization of different regions can change in response to experience and environmental factors” (OpenAI, 2023; see Appendix A for the full transcript).
The in-text citations and references above are adapted from the reference template for software in Section 10.10 of the Publication Manual (American Psychological Association, 2020, Chapter 10). Although here we focus on ChatGPT, because these guidelines are based on the software template, they can be adapted to note the use of other large language models (e.g., Bard), algorithms, and similar software.
The reference and in-text citations for ChatGPT are formatted as follows:
Let’s break that reference down and look at the four elements (author, date, title, and source):
Author: The author of the model is OpenAI.
Date: The date is the year of the version you used. Following the template in Section 10.10, you need to include only the year, not the exact date. The version number provides the specific date information a reader might need.
Title: The name of the model is “ChatGPT,” so that serves as the title and is italicized in your reference, as shown in the template. Although OpenAI labels unique iterations (i.e., ChatGPT-3, ChatGPT-4), they are using “ChatGPT” as the general name of the model, with updates identified with version numbers.
The version number is included after the title in parentheses. The format for the version number in ChatGPT references includes the date because that is how OpenAI is labeling the versions. Different large language models or software might use different version numbering; use the version number in the format the author or publisher provides, which may be a numbering system (e.g., Version 2.0) or other methods.
Bracketed text is used in references for additional descriptions when they are needed to help a reader understand what’s being cited. References for a number of common sources, such as journal articles and books, do not include bracketed descriptions, but things outside of the typical peer-reviewed system often do. In the case of a reference for ChatGPT, provide the descriptor “Large language model” in square brackets. OpenAI describes ChatGPT-4 as a “large multimodal model,” so that description may be provided instead if you are using ChatGPT-4. Later versions and software or models from other companies may need different descriptions, based on how the publishers describe the model. The goal of the bracketed text is to briefly describe the kind of model to your reader.
Source: When the publisher name and the author name are the same, do not repeat the publisher name in the source element of the reference, and move directly to the URL. This is the case for ChatGPT. The URL for ChatGPT is https://chat.openai.com/chat . For other models or products for which you may create a reference, use the URL that links as directly as possible to the source (i.e., the page where you can access the model, not the publisher’s homepage).
You may have noticed the confidence with which ChatGPT described the ideas of brain lateralization and how the brain operates, without citing any sources. I asked for a list of sources to support those claims and ChatGPT provided five references—four of which I was able to find online. The fifth does not seem to be a real article; the digital object identifier given for that reference belongs to a different article, and I was not able to find any article with the authors, date, title, and source details that ChatGPT provided. Authors using ChatGPT or similar AI tools for research should consider making this scrutiny of the primary sources a standard process. If the sources are real, accurate, and relevant, it may be better to read those original sources to learn from that research and paraphrase or quote from those articles, as applicable, than to use the model’s interpretation of them.
We’ve also received a number of other questions about ChatGPT. Should students be allowed to use it? What guidelines should instructors create for students using AI? Does using AI-generated text constitute plagiarism? Should authors who use ChatGPT credit ChatGPT or OpenAI in their byline? What are the copyright implications ?
On these questions, researchers, editors, instructors, and others are actively debating and creating parameters and guidelines. Many of you have sent us feedback, and we encourage you to continue to do so in the comments below. We will also study the policies and procedures being established by instructors, publishers, and academic institutions, with a goal of creating guidelines that reflect the many real-world applications of AI-generated text.
For questions about manuscript byline credit, plagiarism, and related ChatGPT and AI topics, the APA Style team is seeking the recommendations of APA Journals editors. APA Style guidelines based on those recommendations will be posted on this blog and on the APA Style site later this year.
Update: APA Journals has published policies on the use of generative AI in scholarly materials .
We, the APA Style team humans, appreciate your patience as we navigate these unique challenges and new ways of thinking about how authors, researchers, and students learn, write, and work with new technologies.
American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000
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Mr. Walz, now the Democrats’ vice-presidential nominee, asked his high school students in 1993 which country was most at risk for genocide. Their prediction came to pass: Rwanda.
By Neil Vigdor
The prediction was spot on: Rwanda was barreling toward a devastating genocide.
It did not emanate from a think tank, but from a high school geography class in western Nebraska. The year was 1993. The teacher? Tim Walz, now the Democratic vice-presidential candidate and Minnesota governor.
Thirty-one years later, the class project is drawing new attention. Mr. Walz, a geography teacher at the time, had asked his students to take what they had learned about the Holocaust to predict which nation was most at risk for genocide.
“They came up with Rwanda,” Mr. Walz said, talking about the project at a conference last month . “Twelve months later, the world witnessed the horrific genocide in Rwanda.”
The project was reported on in a 2008 On Education column for The New York Times that has been widely shared in recent days. Mr. Walz had drawn the attention of the reporter, Samuel G. Freedman, for an earlier column because Mr. Walz was the only K-12 teacher serving in Congress at the time, Mr. Freedman said.
“While I was interviewing Walz for the initial column, he told me how the genocide project was one of his proudest moments as an educator,” said Mr. Freedman, who is now a journalism professor at Columbia University . That sparked Mr. Freedman to revisit the story later.
Mr. Walz, when he delivered the lesson plan, had been teaching global geography in Alliance, Neb., and had been chosen for a Belfer fellowship to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum that was opening. Speaking at the conference last month, held by Esri, a company that makes G.I.S. software widely used in mapping, he said the project had a profound effect on his students and bred some cynicism.
“How could a bunch of students in western Nebraska, in Alliance, use a computer program and some past historical knowledge to come up with this?” he said. “Why was nobody doing anything about that?”
Several years later, when he was studying for his master’s degree in experiential education at Minnesota State University, Mankato, Mr. Walz wrote his thesis on Holocaust education, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported .
As governor, Mr. Walz signed a bill last year that requires high schools and middle schools to teach about the Holocaust, along with other genocides.
Neil Vigdor covers politics for The Times, focusing on voting rights issues and election disinformation. More about Neil Vigdor
IMAGES
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An authentic assessment provides opportunities for students to practice, consult resources, learn from feedback, and refine their performances and products accordingly (Wiggins 1990, 1998, 2014). Authentic assignments ask students to "do" the subject with an audience in mind and apply their learning in a new situation.
This type of analysis can identify trends across content areas such as English/language arts, science, social studies, and math. At Ed Trust, we undertook such an analysis of 4,000 classroom assignments and found that students are being given in-school and out-of-school assignments that don't align with grade-level standards, lack sufficient ...
Easily distribute, analyze, and grade student work with Assignments for your LMS. Assignments is an application for your learning management system (LMS). It helps educators save time grading and guides students to turn in their best work with originality reports — all through the collaborative power of Google Workspace for Education. Get ...
St. Paul American School. There are three broad types of assessments: diagnostic, formative, and summative. These take place throughout the learning process, helping students and teachers gauge learning. Within those three broad categories, you'll find other types of assessment, such as ipsative, norm-referenced, and criterion-referenced.
Abstract. In all educational levels, teachers assign their students with different activities to practice and reinforce what they have learnt. Further, assignments are valuable educational tools ...
After creating your assignments, go back to your learning objectives and make sure there is still a good match between what you want students to learn and what you are asking them to do. If you find a mismatch, you will need to adjust either the assignments or the learning objectives. For instance, if your goal is for students to be able to ...
Types of Assignments and Assessments. Assignments and assessments are much the same thing: an instructor is unlikely to give students an assignment that does not receive some sort of assessment, whether formal or informal, formative or summative; and an assessment must be assigned, whether it is an essay, case study, or final exam.
Studies in higher education, 29(2), 165-184. Koohang, A., & Durante, A. (2003). Learners' perceptions toward the web-based distance learning activities/assignments portion of an undergraduate hybrid instructional model. Journal of Information Technology Education: Research, 2(1), 105-113. LeCourt, D. (1998).
The assignments we give to students don't simply have to be research papers or reports. There are many options for effective yet creative ways to assess your students' learning! Here are just a few: Journals, Posters, Portfolios, Letters, Brochures, Management plans, Editorials, Instruction Manuals, Imitations of a text, Case studies, Debates ...
Education • Common Assignments in Education • Evidence in Education: A Note on Research • Citations & Formatting • A Note on Peer Review Writing plays a critical role in the growth of your educational ideas, helping you both deepen your understandings about the complex events that
Knowing what is assignment in education helps teachers assess students better. Importance of Assignments. Giving assignments to the students is a crucial part of student assessment. The importance of giving assignments to the students is discussed in detail below: Learning practical skills Assignments enable students to develop new skills. In ...
Assignments with Significance. October 12, 2022. Perry Shaw and Amanda Rasmussen. It has been estimated that college students across the globe devote in excess of a billion hours per year to "disposable" assignments (Wiley, 2016). Students view the work as simply a hurdle to be crossed, and once submitted and assessed, worthy of nothing ...
Pedagogy is the combination of teaching methods (what instructors do), learning activities (what instructors ask their students to do), and learning assessments (the assignments, projects, or tasks that measure student learning). Key Idea for Pedagogy. Diversify your pedagogy by varying your teaching methods, learning activities, and assignments.
Sometimes writing assignments in Gen Ed directly mirror types of writing that students are likely to encounter in real-world, non-academic settings after they graduate. The following are several examples of such assignments: Example 1: Policy memo In Power and Identity in the Middle East, Professor Melani Cammett assigns students a group policy ...
See how Assignments can help you easily distribute, analyze, and grade student work. Learn more. Assignments, an application for your learning management system, gives educators a faster, simpler way to distribute, analyze, and grade student work - all while using the collaborative power of Google Workspace.
It then examines assignments requiring case study responses, as often encountered in fields such as health or business. This is followed by a discussion of assignments seeking a report (such as a scientific report) and reflective writing assignments, common in nursing, education and human services. The chapter concludes with an examination of ...
Journals. A journal assignment allows an online student to communicate with his or her professor directly. While topics are sometimes assigned, journals often enable students to express ideas ...
Tiered assignments can also be differentiated based on product. Teachers can use the Howard Gardner's multiple intelligences to form groups that will hone particular skills for particular learning styles. For example, one group would be bodily/kinesthetic, and their task is to create and act out a skit. Another group would be visual/spatial ...
Field assignments ; Field assignments involve collecting data, interviews, and observations. It may also involve a visit to historical sites, watching games, and observing phenomena like the launch of a rocket. It is a type of education assignment that brings the student face to face with an actual situation.
Advantages of Assignments For Students. Boosts understanding of topics - Assignments help students dive deeper into topics, providing a clear and thorough understanding that goes beyond surface-level knowledge.; Encourages independent learning - They promote self-learning, pushing students to study and solve problems on their own, fostering self-reliance.
In the dynamic world of online education, success isn't just about attending classes and completing assignments—it's about crafting a strategic plan to. Request Info Academics. ... Keep track of assignment deadlines, exam dates, and course milestones using a planner or digital calendar. Reflect on your strengths and areas for improvement, and ...
Easily distribute, analyse and mark student work with Assignments for your LMS. Assignments is an application for your Learning Management System (LMS). It helps educators save time marking and guides students to turn in their best work with originality reports — all through the collaborative power of Google Workspace for Education.
Create, collaborate, and edit with others in Docs, Sheets, Forms, Slides, and more. Enable teachers, students, and admins to work together from anywhere. Set policies, control access, monitor data, and quickly respond to threats. Create assignments, quizzes, and lesson content for your students. Monitor progress and gain visibility with a ...
Project type: You can choose up to five formats for a given assignment, giving students options to choose a blank format for completing the assignment. Template from Your stuff: Students will be directed to create a specific project (for example, a video).
The Assignment with Audie Cornish One Thing Tug of War ... Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz unveiled the part of his budget that focuses on education and kid-focused spending in January 2023.
About Us The Orange Unified School District serves approximately 28,000 students in grades kindergarten through 12th, and encompasses all or part of the cities of Anaheim, Garden Grove, Orange, Santa Ana, and Villa Park. In 1953, the citizens of the area voted to form a "unified" school district, combining the original five elementary districts with the high school district into one ...
We, the APA Style team, are not robots. We can all pass a CAPTCHA test, and we know our roles in a Turing test.And, like so many nonrobot human beings this year, we've spent a fair amount of time reading, learning, and thinking about issues related to large language models, artificial intelligence (AI), AI-generated text, and specifically ChatGPT.
The project was reported on in a 2008 On Education column for The New York Times that has been widely shared in recent days. Mr. Walz had drawn the attention of the reporter, Samuel G. Freedman ...