Report-Yellowbook2015.indd

31 / 52

NTNU – THE FACULTY OF ARCHITECTURE AND FINE ART
31
A minimum level of professional development in principles
of effective assessment and feedback practice needs to be
organised and undertaken by all those engaged in assess-
ment activity.
Ideas for solutions/methods to develop
The seven principles of effective feedback and assessment
practice elaborated by Nicol and MacFarlane-Dick(2006)2
could be used as a helpful guide to future practice within
the programmes, namely that effective assessment and
feedback practice should:
1. Clarify what good performance is
2. Facilitate self assessment
3. Deliver high quality feedback information
4. Encourage teacher and peer dialogue
5. Encourage positive motivation and self-esteem
6. Provide opportunities to close the gap between
current achievement and the desired performance
7. Use feedback to improve teaching
If the degree programs at NTNU are to serve as a prepara-
tion for future professional practice, as well as an opportu-
nity for imaginative rethinking and critique of conventional
practice, then assessment might be used in the same way
that professional architects evaluate each others’ work,
ie through peer critique and review. There is emerging
evidence (PEER Project 2012)3 that students who engage
in both the providing and receiving of feedback ultimately
perform at a higher level.
So the existing format of the ‘crit’ should be reviewed, to
include an element of peer critique, and also to discourage
the practice whereby censors occasionally humiliate and
publicly ‘trash’ the work of students in order to display their
own authority.
The use of a feedback proforma which might draw atten-
tion to performance in knowledge, skills and values, and
which can indicate means to improve future performance is
recommended. A structure similar to the following might be
employed:
Furthermore a proforma of this type could also be used by
the individual student concerned, prior to submission of their
assignment, as a means of self-assessment. It could serve
equally well as a tool for students to provide peer review and
feedback to each other, perhaps operating in triads, with
each member of the triad providing feedback to the two
others and receiving feedback from two peers in return.
As noted earlier in Section 7.d. on Pedagogy, NTNU has
an excellent existing facility to support future professional
development in relation to assessment and feedback. This
is the Educational Development Centre led by Professor Leif
Martin Hokstadt, which could provide an evidence-based
approach to assist team development in the areas of assess-
ment and feedback practice.
7.f. International Program in Sustainable Ar-
chitecture
Architecture and planning has for a number of years been
focused on sustainability. It has gone from being a ‘different
kind of architecture’ in the 80´s and early 90´s, to now being
fully integrated. It is no longer an area of knowledge for
those especially interested in the topic, but embedded in ar-
chitecture and planning. Scandinavia has a special focus on
the matter and NTNU is considered to be a spearhead within
the topic. The students of the program consider sustainabili-
ty to be ‘the knowledge for the future’.
STRENGTHS
• Attracting global students with global knowledge
– students as resources
• A ‘new’ program – the possibility of defining what
people with a Master of Science in Sustainability should
be able to contribute
• Interdisciplinary knowledge and research of
international quality available (for example ZEB)
OBSERVATION and EVALUATION
In relation to their academic background and nationality the
students of the program vary from class to class. There are
only a few students attending the Masters in Sustainable
Architecture program from the architecture program. Most
of the students come from abroad with backgrounds other
than architecture and they have different backgrounds aca-
demically. They have different roles coming into the program
and they want to ‘do different things’ when they finish the
program. This makes the students a very diverse group.
2 Nicol,D. and MacFarlane-Dick, D. (2006) Formative assessment and self-regulated learning: A model and seven principles of good feedback
practice. Studies in Higher Education Vol 31(2), 199-218
3