How can first-year assessment contribute to the continuing development of students’ academic writing skills?

There is an ongoing debate that first-year assessment does not prepare students to deal successfully with future writing tasks. This paper suggests that one of the reasons might be a narrow focus on assessment strategies and interventions that meet immediate learning goals to help reduce assessment shock. It is suggested that designing scaffolded pedagogical activities that prioritise development of students’ evaluative judgement might enable first-year assessment to achieve two ends: alleviating assessment shock and preparing students to more effectively traverse future writing tasks. The concept of evaluative judgement and embedded features of activities with the potential to develop this capability are elaborated. These, along with first-year students’ writing challenges, are considered as a basis for some practice design considerations suggested to establish a more effective learning environment that helps first-year assessment achieve its dual purposes.

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