Formative Assessment Structures in First and Second Year Architectural Technology to Enhance Student Learning

The multiplicity of learning and teaching theories and strategies that a teacher can use to assist the process of developing greater student learning and engagement is very broad and it can be overwhelming determining what best suits a teacher’s particular environment or the type of learning required to be undertaken by the learners. However some in particular stand out from an Architectural Technology perspective that we believe will benefit many other taught project based Engineering and Built Environment courses.While the subject ‘Architectural Technology’ is often very closely associated and allied with Architecture, it is in fact quite different. The emphasis is on the construction technologies rather than a design concept. Architectural Technologists also have very strong links with the other built environment professionals that form part of the methodology or process that ‘gets buildings built’.In the world outside academia, graduates of the many different professions and disciplines that form the project teams that work alongside each other – collaborating and contributing their various skills that all amalgamate to complete construction projects of many different sizes and varying complexity. This great collaboration unfortunately does not generally take place between the various built environment courses delivered, yet we probably all teach, and the students learn, in a similar experiential manner.In this paper, we will outline and demonstrate how a technique we use called ‘Crit-marking’ can be used in a rigorous, technical and legislative discipline that will not only improve the quality of feedback to the learners, but will be faster and more timely. Promoting greater student engagement as well as nurturing deeper learning, this productive learning activity will help develop and enhance students employability skills along with an improved confidence, all moving towards enhanced personal and professional development.This particular formative feedback process and method of assessment, we feel, can be adapted for wider use to suit many different course types as well as become a far more creative and rewarding process for staff and students alike.