Hi!

So it’s certainly not designed for individual tailoring or evaluation, but for higher level instructional design. In a large part it will simply reflect the opportunities students have had, which is why it’s so important to collect one’s own data, and do so every year if possible.

Should there be any reason to *not* trust students when reporting on their past experience? They’re certainly going to have a better idea of what they did than any staff who passed the equivalent level many years ago and possibly in an entirely different educational system.

It should provide an indication of what sort of thing it may be reasonable to ask of students. For example, that most students have had *some* experience of control over practical work indicates that providing a modifiable experimental set up and a basic task, perhaps with theory, and asking students to create their method would probably be appropriate in terms of providing sufficient structure while also encouraging independence – planning, thinking, decision making etc.

A lot of ‘aptitude’ can probably be developed through experiences that support development, but alignment of courses often focusses on assessment rather than checking that provision is appropriate.

One reason for never considering individual tailoring is that it may widen inequities by grouping those who have more confidence or have had more previous opportunities together and even encouraging them to gain experiences that others are not able to share in.

I hope that makes sense. In short: trust your students and they requite your trust; consider development without asking students to do something that is likely to harm their self-efficacy or deliberately benefitting those who have already got/had plenty of advantage (don’t harm them, but, more importantly, don’t leave anyone behind).

(replying to my own comment here… :-) )

I am still reflecting on this… what is the important factor here? the students’ past experience?

How should we go about identifying their *aptitude* towards enquiry learning, both at the personal and group level?

*even if students accurately report what has happened, is that closely related to their aptitude and skills? Or maybe just a reflection of the opportunities they happened to have?