International norms and standards for juvenile justice

• Pages: 42-40

52

Vol. 9 No.2

September, 2023

Balkan Journal of

Interdisciplinary Research

E-ISSN 2411-9725

ISSN 2410-759X

1. Introduction

The challenge for teachers is to ensure that there is alignment between teaching meth-

ods, assessment techniques, assessment criteria and learning outcomes. This link be-

tween teaching, assessment and learning outcomes helps to make the overall learning

experience more transparent. Student course evaluations show that clear expecta-

tions are an essential part of eective learning. Lack of clarity in this area is almost

always associated with negative evaluations, learning diculties and poor student

performance. Toohey (1999) recommends that the best way to help students under-

stand how they should achieve learning outcomes is by clearly dening assessment

techniques and assessment criteria.

In terms of teaching and learning, there is a dynamic balance between teaching strate-

gies on the one hand and learning outcomes and assessment on the other.

It is important that assessment tasks reect learning outcomes as far as students are

concerned, as assessment is the curriculum: “From the students’ perspective, assess-

ment always denes the actual curriculum” (Ramsden, 2003). This situation is pre-

sented graphically by Biggs (2003b) as follows:

The teacher’s perspective:

Objectives Desired learning outcomes Learning Activities

Assessment

Student perspective:

Assessment Learning activities Results

Figure 1: Teachers’ and students’ perspectives on assessment

The connection between curriculum and assessment

Biggs (2003) emphasizes the strong link between curriculum and assessment as fol-

lows:

For the teacher, assessment is at the end of the learning sequence of events, but for

the student it is at the beginning. If the curriculum is reected in the assessment, as

shown by the arrow down, the teacher’s learning activities and the student’s learning

activities are both directed towards the same goal. While preparing for the assess-

ment, students will learn the curriculum (Biggs, 2003).

They will teach what they think will be appreciated, not what may be the curriculum

or even what has been covered in lectures!

Towards the future with learning outcomes

As already indicated, international trends in education show a shift from the tradi-

tional “teacher-centred” approach to a “student-centred” approach. While tradition-

ally the focus was on what the teacher does, in recent years the focus has been on what

students have learned and can demonstrate at the end of a module or programme.