Assessing ESD
QAA Advance HE 2021 ESD Guidance.pdf[PDF 6,523 kB]
The QAA and Advance HE "Education for Sustainable Development Guidance" (2021) says:
“the developmental nature of competencies benefits from formative assessment and placing a focus on the process rather than the product of learning. Assessment criteria should be designed to prioritise how students reached a viable solution to a problem in preference to the problem solution. Authentic assessment instruments such as blogs, vlogs, websites and wikis engage students and provide a way for students to showcase their learning and share it with interested stakeholders. The conceptualisation of assessment as both ‘for’ and ‘as’ learning is useful in this respect.
“Sustainability competencies can also be developed through extracurricular and co-curricular activities and evidenced via a range of non-formal routes including micro-credentialling, digital badges, CVs, LinkedIn profiles, professional development planning or the HEAR report.”
Assessment OF learning:
Students self-assess their work and are graded for this evaluation
Assessment criteria prioritises how students identified and agreed a viable solution to a problem
Provide learners with choice of topics related to sustainable development or UN SDGs
Provide synoptic assessment tasks linking the subject to sustainable development or UN SDGs
Assessment AS learning:
Students self-review and/or peer review to critically evaluate their work and that of their peers
Students judge their work based on holistic criteria such as sustainability competencies
Students record their own learning achievements through portfolios that identify sustainability competencies
Students and educators collaborate to create assessment criteria that address sustainability competencies
Assessment FOR learning:
Students act on feedback and are able to identify and build links from their work to other SDGs
Scaffolded tasks designed to promote development of sustainability competencies
Use real-life scenarios and teaching practices in environments that allow for dynamic feedback
Provide opportunities for dialogue between students and educators on all aspects of teaching, learning and assessment in a climate of mutual respect and accountability
Examples of teaching practices
Collaborative teaching
a method of learning that is often self-organised and occurs outside of the formal learning environment
Enquiry-based learning
based on self-directed enquiry or investigation in which the student is actively engaged in the process of teacher-facilitated enquiry
Play-based learning
approaches that allow students to explore scenarios, actions and consequences in a safe learning environment
Problem-based learning
active learning that uses real-world issues or problems to increase knowledge and understanding.