Despidos colectivos tramitados en expedientes de regulación de empleo

The second theme in relation to cultural differences in pedagogy is assessment and feedback. Assessment has already been discussed in relation to measuring academic achievement, but it is also significant in relation to the transition from the students’ own learning culture to the UK learning context. All students in the focus group, except the Danish student, made some reference to the different types of assessment, but again it is impossible to state whether this was the difference between undergraduate and post- graduate study, or indeed the subject area of their programme. The Omani student was familiar with the style of delivery of material but noted that the greatest difference to his previous experience was the assessment.

The way of delivery for me is very similar, the lectures, the same but the big difference in the assessment. Here they depend a lot on essay assessment, writing a lot. In our country it is different; they give us a lot of multiple choice questions, true false, many presentations and short answer questions. [3|1]

Most students had not experienced writing lengthy essays which is required in all Health and Life Sciences Masters’ programmes. The difference in assessment means a adopting different approach to gaining academic achievement. Writing essays requires creativity, criticality and independent learning, whereas students’ previous assessment experiences required mainly memorisation.

We don’t do courseworks, we don’t do labs and all, we only do exams. You can cram, read the books the night before, all night, then go in and pass the exam. [2|1]

The Nigerian students’ experiences of assessment tended to be focused on exams, but the Asian students had experienced a variety of assessment methods. However, the approach to studying for these promoted memorisation and repetition.

All students, as part of their induction programme, were required to attend a seminar regarding expectations of assessment of post-graduate health and life sciences programmes. Students were, therefore, aware that the skills required for the types of assessment on their programme would be very different to their previous experiences. This is evidenced by the following quote from the Bangladeshi student.

Our [in Bangladesh] education is based on exam. You learn the material and they test your knowledge. Here they assess the way you think, not what you know. [1|2]

This point is further supported by one of the Nigerian students.

What they want here is to see your train of thought. [3|3]

These differences in experiences of assessment were not confined to the Central African, MENA and Asian students. The British student who had a degree from Slovakia had very a different assessment experience, as all of her undergraduate degree exams were oral. She was positive regarding the transferable skills from oral

examinations, stating that, as a vet, she would have to be able to explain an animal’s condition orally. However, writing post-graduate essays was going to be challenging given her lack of experience. She also stated that memorisation was required more so than understanding.

All my exams at undergraduate were oral. It’s not what you think, they give you a question, you have to memorise the answer and speak it in an oral exam.

[1|1]

Although the type of assessment for most students is very different, a couple of Asian students commented that the load of assessment was lighter in the UK. This is

summarised by the Indonesian student in focus group 2.

My undergraduate is much harder than here, so many exams and seven lab reports per week. Here we only have two lab reports for the semester but here I am struggling more … In Indonesia we also have different courseworks, presentations, exams, reports. [2|2]

Some of the students in the focus groups had submitted summative assessment, yet only one had received feedback. Most students had submitted some form of formative assessment; this will be further discussed in the following subsection. As there was minimal experience of feedback, students did not raise the importance of qualitative feedback as would be expected. Any reference to feedback from their previous educational experience was in relation to a mark. Due to the assessment of their

to be more important for their learning than quantitative feedback. The only student to raise feedback as a concern was the Danish student, who was also the only student who did not discuss a major difference in assessment experience.

You need feedback, a meeting. You need to know what you did wrong, where did I go wrong and see your mistakes. [2|3]

Perhaps had the focus groups taken place later in their learning journey, feedback would have been a greater issue for them.

There is much evidence to show that, for the majority of these students, the current assessment methods are very different from their previous experiences and it is expected that these experiences would have contributed to their learning conceptions. The students from Nigeria had the least experience of a variety of assessment methods yet rated the higher the learning conceptions, ‘personal development’ and ‘broadening horizons’, higher than the other cultural clusters with a wider range assessment

experiences.