4 - Student Expectations
Ensuring a match between student and organisational expectations.
Students bring their prior experience and expectations with them into tertiary education, and these can have an influence on how the TEO approaches assessment policy and practices (Davidson et al.). A tuition fee environment can result in a “user-pays” attitude that payment should ensure success – which is the responsibility of the TEO. International awareness of equity issues has led to increased expectations that students have an equal chance at success in their study and pursuit of qualifications thus assessment must be fair, transparent and culturally appropriate.
In New Zealand, the impact of the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) is also just beginning to be felt as school leavers enter TEOs with prior exposure to classroom assessment as well as final examinations. These students may have an expectation that tertiary teachers will give them multiple opportunities to
demonstrate their competence and choices in the assessments they complete. As tertiary students, they may be more sophisticated, practiced and accountability-focused than the previous “bursary” generation in New Zealand.
Case Studies from the Symposium:
None of the papers explore this issue directly, but the possible implications are discussed in one paper (Clarke et al.) and student views of assessment are discussed in another (Anderson et al.).