"Feedback from an outsider helps me to look beyond my professional bubble."

‘In our department, we have a practice of reviewing assessment questions among colleagues, but I also think it's important to ask someone from outside the department,’ says Kim. ‘An outside perspective often helps to identify any ambiguity in the questions, ensure that the language used is clear, and check that we are not assuming vocabulary that students may not (yet) have mastered.’

The course in question has had a relatively low pass rate on the multiple-choice test for some time. This surprises Kim: ‘The lectures always form the starting point and basis for the questions, and those lectures are usually well attended, so what do we miss?’ As luck would have it, she came into contact with Jamie, an old acquaintance, at Risbo. ‘I knew Jamie from the time she did her Master's in Educational Sciences with us. I was pleased to see that she had found such a good employer. And yes, I was also curious to see how the role switch would work out, as she was going to review my work now!’ 

Adjectives and Anglicisms

Kim shared an exported file with the questions with Jamie, and got it back with feedback via track changes. She remembers that a lot of that feedback was about linguistic things: "Sentences that were too long, for example, and – something psychologists often struggle with – too many adjectives. Jamie also removed the Anglicisms, which I often use unconsciously. And sometimes there was a question, such as “do you mean this, or that?” What surprised me most was that I often thought: I actually know this, why didn't I see it myself? But that's precisely the point of having someone from outside read your work. And in this case, Jamie's background was an added bonus, because I could tell from her substantive feedback that she is familiar with the basic theories of personality and developmental psychology.

Kim incorporated much of the feedback. And where Jamie structured a question slightly differently, for example, Kim applied that to other questions with the same structure. There was really only one piece of advice she didn't always follow, and that was about the use of English terms. ‘Jamie advised using a Dutch translation wherever possible. But the literature is entirely in English, and students also need to know those English terms in lectures. Moreover, translations of concepts can sometimes cause considerable confusion.  So I usually use the English term, such as “coping”.’ 

Professional bubble

“Feedback from outside helps me to look beyond my own professional bubble. It's easy to overestimate where first-year students are at. For example, I received feedback on questions with too many details: ‘I haven't read the text, but it seems like a very detailed question to me. One or two questions at that level is fine for the good students, but I wouldn't make it a habit.’ And sometimes you have to make a case study more black-and-white. That feels unnatural, because you have to leave out nuances that are present and relevant in the real case study. But from a didactic perspective in the first year, that's better for the student's learning process. Of course, you try to pay close attention to this yourself, but that doesn't always work out due to professional deformation. Then it's nice and good when an educational advisor points this out."

Kim looks back positively on her collaboration with Jamie. It went smoothly, she was always enthusiastic, and clear in her communication about her availability and planning. ‘It was always ready within a week, often within two days. As a teacher, you're always juggling your own deadlines for the assessment, so if the proofreader is a bit quick, that's obviously very nice.’ 

Less discussion

"We have been doing these kinds of assessment reviews for some time now, often with the help of our L&I colleagues, and I have noticed that the questions are becoming clearer and better. In the past, when we only proofread the content, we would still have discussions after the exam about questions that were simply not clear. That happens much less now. The discussions afterwards are no longer about “it wasn't clear to me what I had to write here”, but about other issues," Kim analyses.

‘I recommend it to everyone, absolutely. Of course, I've only worked with Jamie so far, but Risbo stands for quality. That outside perspective, with professional knowledge, is really useful, given the bubble you're in.’