Patchwork assessment
What can patchwork assessment assess?
While a diverse range of subjects might adopt patchwork assessments the importance of critical reflection, particularly in the final ‘stitching’ of the individual elements, means that subjects where students need to integrate their practice/experiences with theory might find patchwork assessment particularly useful (e.g. clinical placements, work-based learning, teacher training, etc.). Furthermore, the importance of pivotal learning moments in patchwork assessment means that it is a particularly useful way of capturing learning over time. It may not be appropriate for highly conceptual subjects unless there is a need to reflect on how conceptual learning is being used and applied.
A patchwork assessment is not random; the 'stitching’ together of the patches, and their links and relationships, is crucial and so the tasks/incidents need to be carefully selected and planned. Formative feedback as the patchwork is developed should enable learners to gain confidence in analysis and synthesis of their learning and so reflect on its significance to their knowledge, understanding and practice. Whilst the process might be teacher-led at the outset it should become less so as the learner becomes more self-reliant and able to direct their own development and select the pivotal learning moments.
What alternative assessment methods could I choose?
Winter (2003) reporting the outcome of the Patchwork Text project, provides a neat definition of this assessment approach:
The essence of a patchwork is that it consists of a variety of small sections, each of which is complete in itself, and that the overall unity of these component sections, although planned in advance, is finalised retrospectively, when they are ‘stitched together’. Thus, a ‘patchwork text’ assignment is one that is gradually assembled during the course of a phase of teaching and consists of a sequence of fairly short pieces of writing, which are designed to be as varied as possible and to cover the educational objectives of the teaching....The sequence of tasks within a Patchwork Text… is intended to build into the assessment process a recognition of learning as a gradual 'coming to know'.
It will be important to consider the number of assessment pieces that would form the patchwork and consideration of the balance between formative and summative assessment is necessary. One possible model is that each patch is assessed formatively by self and / or peers and is compulsory; the summative element would then be how the individual elements are ‘stitched’, possibly through a critical, reflective and consolidating piece of writing. A further consideration is how the individual elements are identified; one approach would be that students select these themselves from a wider pool of material. In this case the reasons for the selection of the patches might offer an insight into students’ thinking. The modality of the elements would also need to be considered: written, pictorial, video, audio, presentation are all possibilities. The extent to which students have choice about the modality will need to be decided during design, however, this does not need to be consistent across the whole patchwork - for example the students may have choice about the individual elements but are required to submit a written summative reflective text to consolidate the individual elements. The curation of the individual elements needs consideration and perhaps a technological solution such as Moodle or MyPortfolio would allow the small sections to be built up over time and be available for consideration by tutors or peers.
Can it be used for group assessment?
Individual patchworks might be developed for learning and assessment. However, it would also be possible for a group to work together, perhaps with each person from the group contributing a single patch and then each individual produces a unique and consolidating ‘stitching’ making use of the various group contributions.
Constructive alignment of the learning outcomes and the assessment through the patchwork approach is possible with careful design of the assignment brief. Consideration of how marks will be awarded across the whole patchwork is important at the design stage. Different models for assessing the patchwork against the intended learning outcomes could be adopted including:
- each small section being assessed formatively by self-assessment, peer assessment or tutor assessment with the final reflective analysis accounting for 100% of the summative assessment
- particular learning outcomes could be associated with individual patches, with the reflective analysis, or with the work as a whole
- each of the small patches could contribute to the overall assessment mark in one of the following ways: choosing the best patches (and so the best mark overall), averaging over the submitted patches or providing a mark holistically across the whole patchwork.
Your learning outcomes are likely to include higher order Bloom-type statements such as evaluate or critique. A challenge in designing patchwork assessment is to include tasks that ensure that learners demonstrate the required thinking and reasoning in line with the learning outcomes; it is too easy to be descriptive rather than analytical. In planning for the assessment careful thought will need to be given to how to help students demonstrate this higher order thinking.