Authentic assessment to enhance undergraduates' learning and development as effective practitioners in built environment disciplines

Purpose: Assessment feedback is an important contributor to student learning, yet research shows that built environment students are the least satisfied in respect of feedback and reasons for this are not fully understood. Further, recent research shows that built environment students are not always as well prepared for industry as employers’ desire. This work explores means by which use of authentic assessment, allied with assessment feedback, contributes to resolving both of these problems. Research design: The research takes an anti-positivist and interpretive epistemology. The methodology used comparative case studies to generate ideas for modifications to practice in action research, in which assessment was modified to be more authentic to professional practice. Data were gathered from documents, focus groups with students, and interviews with tutors and employers throughout the cycles of action research. Findings: Findings suggest that authentic assessment, allied with feedback, may provide an enhanced learning experience for built environment undergraduates. Professional practice activities incorporated within assessment exposed students to practice-based real-world activities and challenges, thereby supporting their development and better equipping them for industry. Further, assessment design influenced feedback design, which correlated with students’ perception and understanding of their feedback. Conclusions: Authentic assessment, allied with assessment feedback, supported student learning effectively and helped prepare students for industry through exposure to real-world activities and challenges. Making assessment more authentic to professional practice, and allied with assessment feedback, provided an enhanced learning experience for built environment undergraduates. Developed from this research, the thesis provides a toolkit for tutors to support their design of authentic assessment and allied feedback. The contribution to knowledge of this thesis is, first, the contribution to theory concerning assessment authenticity in relation to professional practice for built environment undergraduates, and, second, the contribution to practice through production of a tutors’ toolkit.