Organised by the Northumbria CETL and the English Subject Centre, this national conference on assessment in English Literature and Creative Writing brought academics from across the UK to Newcastle to discuss the practice and philosophy of assessing students’ work. Styles of assessment debated included students constructing their own critical glossaries, the use of fact-based questionnaires and assessing modules which address employability or professional development issues.
The discussion during and between sessions was lively and engaged; initial feedback from the conference has been extremely positive, with many participants indicating that it offered them a stimulating forum for debate within the field. Academics from both ‘new’ and ‘old’ universities were represented, and the event indicated a range of common concerns and issues across the sector.
Plenary speakers included Professor Rob Pope (Oxford Brookes University) and the author Michelene Wandor (Royal Literary Fund Fellow), both addressing the boundaries between critical and creative work in an innovative and provocative manner. The session on plagiarism, introduced by Professor Richard Terry (Northumbria University), produced a particularly lively debate, as delegates addressed the complex issues around this problem. There was also a lively and informative session on changes to the A Level English syllabus regarding forms of assessment, which was introduced by two speakers: Janine Creaney, an Assistant Head Teacher who has taught A Level for many years, and Adrian Beard, who is Chief Examiner for English literature A Level (Board AQA B). Professor Peter Barry (University of Wales, Aberystwyth) closed the conference with a fascinating plenary on what he described as the ‘writing continuum’ and the ways in which we might rethink our own assessment practices in relation to this. Victoria Bazin, University of Northumbria
More details and information about presentations can be viewed on our website in the Events Archive.
