Assessment Modes, Learning Styles, and Design and Technology Project Work in Higher Education.

Effective assessment strategies enable staff to tailor learning to individuals, to evaluate the appropriateness of the work, and to evaluate their teaching. The management of learning within technology project work is particularly challenging, and so assessment at various stages is needed to obtain the necessary feedback. A significant problem, however, is the effect of the assessment regime on the learning strategies adopted by students. As assessment strategies are made more explicit, there may be a tendency for students to “work the system” rather than focus on the development of the project. This article reports part of an ongoing project on assessment strategies and the influence on learning styles within technology project work, particularly the effects of peer-group review and self-assessment strategies. The work looks at the potential for encouraging the development of more effective learning strategies at a transitional point in a student’s education. The target group included students in a program of Industrial Design and Technology at Loughborough University, United Kingdom. Fifty students completed a self-reported profile to establish their learning styles as related to technological project work prior to joining the university. From this initial sample 10 students who exemplified certain styles were interviewed. The interviews examined the influence of assessment on learning styles, particularly an assessment strand concerned with peer-group review. Conducted in the context of a series of technological design projects, we examined changes in learning style and attitudes towards assessment among the student cohort. Three areas of this study were preferred student learning styles in project work prior to university, student motivation in relation to three critical areas of project work activity, and student perceptions of the benefits of using peer review and self-assessment techniques towards modifying their learning styles.