Collaborative assessment as a learning tool for social work students

ABSTRACT

Despite the body of evidence demonstrating learning gains in both knowledge and engagement for higher education students, social work educators appear to have been slow to incorporate collaborative assessment in undergraduate and graduate courses. This is disappointing given collaboration is an important practice skill and is a common graduate attribute required by accreditation bodies. In this exploratory study, the learning gains and experiences of a group of Bachelor and Masters level Social Work students are explored. In addition, the experiences and opinions of the academic staff involved in administering the assessment are analyzed to inform design and implementation considerations. Results show that, on average, students improved their results on the assessment by around 9% when completed collaboratively. Both staff and student participants saw collaborative assessment as an effective and engaging learning strategy. Positive results are seen not only in grade performance but also in classroom dynamics with students practicing some core social work skills, including clear articulation of ideas, effective listening, negotiation, and managing conflict.

KEYWORDS:

• Collaborative assessment
• collaborative learning
• social work
• pedagogy
• mixed methods

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge and express our appreciation to all students who participated in this study as well as their tutors who contributed significantly through focus groups or interviews: Heather Downey, Kristy Hunter, Kerryn Bagley, Tony Newton, Catherine Ennis and Prue Atkins.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

Support with data collection and analysis was in part funded by a Teaching Project Grant provided by La Trobe University’s College of Science, Health and Engineering

Notes on contributors

Prue Atkins

Prue Atkins is an academic in the discipline of Social Work and Social Policy at La Trobe University’s five campuses, teaching across graduate and postgraduate social work courses and with abroad range of research interests.

Kerryn Bagley

Kerryn Bagley is an academic in the discipline of Social Work and Social Policy at La Trobe University’s five campuses, teaching across graduate and postgraduate social work courses and with abroad range of research interests.

Heather Downey

Heather Downey is an academic in the discipline of Social Work and Social Policy at La Trobe University’s five campuses, teaching across graduate and postgraduate social work courses and with abroad range of research interests.

Fiona Gardner

Fiona Gardner is an academic in the discipline of Social Work and Social Policy at La Trobe University’s five campuses, teaching across graduate and postgraduate social work courses and with abroad range of research interests.

Rachael Sanders

Rachael Sanders is an academic in the discipline of Social Work and Social Policy at La Trobe University’s five campuses, teaching across graduate and postgraduate social work courses and with abroad range of research interests.

Anastasia Kanjere

Anastasia Kanjere is an academic in the discipline of Social Work and Social Policy at La Trobe University’s five campuses, teaching across graduate and postgraduate social work courses and with abroad range of research interests.