REDESIGNING AN UNDERGRADUATE RUSSIAN LANGUAGE UNIT: REFLECTIONS ON ALIGNING DEPARTMENTAL PEDAGOGIC OBJECTIVES WITH THE NEW TEACHING PROGRAMME AND ASSESSMENT

McNeilly Elena

DOI: 10.23951/2782-2575-2021-2-45-56

Information About Author:

Elena McNeilly, Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). Senior Lecturer in Russian. Language Director (Russian and Czech Studies). School of Modern Languages. Faculty of Arts. University of Bristol (17 Woodland Road, Bristol, BS8 1TE) E-mail: elena.mcneilly@bristol.ac.uk

In this paper, we look into how the new structure of the final-year undergraduate language assessment introduced by the School of Modern Languages (SML) at the University of Bristol (UoB) has affected the teaching on the final-year programme in the Department of Russian. This paper tests whether the intended learning outcomes, the content of the course, teaching on the individual modules, the learning resources and the new assessment can be considered as ‘constructively aligned’, i.e., whether the Russian language teaching team working on the new course design succeeded in ensuring that “the learning objectives, the learning processes and the assessment mode and criteria relate systematically to each other”. We will also explore whether the new blended synchronous and asynchronous teaching fits into the redesigned curriculum and whether the teaching programme continues to address the development of students’ discipline-related and transferable employability skills linked to the three areas of the Bristol Skills Network: knowledge and intellectual abilities; engagement and influence; personal effectiveness and wellbeing. The key element of this research is the analysis of the anonymous student feedback questionnaire (SFQ) which includes qualitative questions related to all three written modules taught on the redesigned final year Russian language unit: the students were given an opportunity to analyse the quality and effectiveness of their learning on this unit.

Keywords: learning, teaching, and assessing; learning objectives; intended learning outcomes, unit and programme design; constructive alignment; blended learning, quality assurance; peer-assessment; feedback; discipline-related skills, transferable employability skills

References:

1. University of Bristol. (2020). Unit and programme catalogue 2020/21

2. Biggs, J. (2003). Teaching for Quality Learning at University. The Society for Research into Higher Education & Open University Press.

3. Norton, L. (2007). Using assessment to promote quality learning in higher education. Learning, Teaching and Assessing in Higher Education. Developing Reflective Practice. Edited by Campbell, A., Norton, L. Learning Matters Ltd.

4. Wride, M. (2017). Guide to Peer-Assessment, Academic Practice; University of Dublin, Trinity College.

5. Lea, M.R. (2004). Academic literacies: A pedagogy for course design. Studies in Higher Education, 29:6, 739–756.

6. University of Bristol. (2017). Education Strategy 2017–23. education-strategy-2017-23.pdf (bristol.ac.uk)

7. Anisimova, A., McNeilly, E. (2021) Ways to develop employability skills in teaching translation to final-year students. Professional Discourse and Communication, Vol 3, No 1, 75–84.

8. Brennan, J., Williams, R. (2004). Collecting and using student feedback. A guide to good practice. Learning and Teaching Support Network (LTSN)

9. The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education. (2013). Responding to feedback from students. Guidance about providing information for students. The Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (qaa.ac.uk)

( 706.03 kB ) ( 690.06 kB )

Issue: 2, 2021

Series of issue: Issue 2

Rubric:

Pages: 45 — 56

Downloads: 345