Professor Naomi Winstone, Professor of Educational Psychology and Director of the Surrey Institute of Education at the University of Surrey, UK, Dr. Karen Gravett, Associate Professor and Associate Head (Research) at the Surrey Institute of Education at the University of Surrey, UK. & Professor Sam Elkington, Professor of Learning & Teaching at Teesside University, UK.
Exploring and working with ecologies of assessment change
In Higher Education, assessment change has become a constant, from curriculum reviews requiring programmes to embed new skills and attributes, to ‘crises’ such as Covid-19 and GenAI prompting large-scale assessment redesign.
Assessment change can appear seductively simple: identify a need, make a pedagogical decision, implement the change. Yet lived experiences tell a remarkably different story. Change is entangled with people, relationships, policies, technologies, spaces, cultures, workloads, histories, identities and emotions, shaping what becomes possible, and who is able to act.
In this interactive masterclass, we – three educational researchers, teachers and leaders – invite participants to explore assessment change as an ecology: interconnected, emergent, affective and continually in the making.
Working with five stories drawn from real experiences of assessment change, participants will explore questions such as: What is happening here? What forces are shaping change? Where does agency lie? What is being felt, and what difference does that make? We will bring these questions into dialogue with our recent research, using four lenses to explore assessment change as entangled, emergent, affective and paradoxical in its possibilities for agency.
Rather than offering a recipe for successful change, the masterclass will provide a range of mirrors, lenses, and practical ideas for reflecting, thinking and acting differently: an adaptable ecological mapping approach, and provocations for opening conversations about change with colleagues and teams. Participants will be invited to reflect upon and share their own experiences of change, and will leave with new ways of noticing complexity, locating possibilities for action, and asking questions about what assessment change might become.
Biographies
Professor Naomi Winstone is Professor of Educational Psychology in the Surrey Institute of Education at the University of Surrey and an Honorary Professor in the Centre for Research in Assessment and Digital Learning (CRADLE) at Deakin University, Australia. She is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a UK National Teaching Fellow. Naomi is a cognitive psychologist specialising in the processing and impact of instructional feedback, and the influence of dominant discourses of assessment and feedback in policy and practice on the positioning of educators and students in feedback processes. Using her research and institutional leadership experience, Naomi works with schools, universities and organisations across the world to embed learning-focused approaches to feedback into practice.
Dr. Karen Gravett is Associate Professor and Associate Head (Research) at the Surrey Institute of Education at the University of Surrey, UK, where her research focuses on the theory-practice of higher education, and explores the areas of digital education, belonging, and relational pedagogies. She is Co-Director of the Language, Literacies and Learning research group, an Associate Editor for the journal Sociology, and a member of the editorial boards for Teaching in Higher Education, and Learning, Media and Technology. She is also a a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (PFHEA) and an Honorary Associate Professor for the Centre for Assessment and Digital Learning (CRADLE) at Deakin University. Karen’s latest books are Critical Practice in Higher Education and Relational Pedagogies: Connections and Mattering in Higher Education.
Holding both a National Teaching Fellowship and Principal Fellowship of Advance HE, Professor Sam Elkington is Professor of Learning & Teaching at Teesside University, heading their university-wide Learning & Teaching Enhancement portfolio since September 2018. Professor Elkington has over 15 years of experience in higher education across teaching, research, academic leadership, and policy. Having previously worked as the national lead for assessment & feedback and flexible learning at Advance HE, he is a prominent voice in UK higher education pedagogy, focused on transformative assessment, inclusive learning environments, and flexible, student-centred teaching. His blend of academic leadership, research, and public engagement makes him a leading figure in shaping effective and equitable learning experiences.
