Explore

Students' work 2025

Evgenija Jovanova:

Dear Professor,

I have read the Interview with Jan McArthur and found it really interesting. I especially liked how she explained that assessment is directly related to students’ contribution to society as our skills will define how we will act in different situations in the real world.

She places a focus on authenticity. When we as learners actually decide that the task is worth doing, we are automatically more motivated and more inspired to complete the task as we hope that it will contribute to our personal, and professional lives or maybe even to the lives of other people.

Students as she mentions shouldn’t experience the assessment as if the teachers pulled them backwards if they got low grades, they shouldn’t feel like they are the victims of the emotional process. To prevent the development of victims, and I think Leni Dam also places focus on this, students should be judges of their own work because only then will they be able to see how far they have gone.

She also emphasizes the importance of subjective tests such as essays. Essays as she says, are an excellent assessment task as the student can freely and critically express what they think, why they think so, what they have achieved, why they couldn’t achieve something and so on. That way, actual learning happens because the student reflects deeply on what they have achieved.

In terms of grades, I wonder how we as teachers would explain to our students that a lower grade does not mean that the student is incompetent, I think that students are very emotional about grades.

I think I covered the main things.

Regards,

Evgenija

Kostanca Spoa:

Dear professor Elena,

I found the interview very inspiring and connected to a similar discussion we had last Friday about students being part of the University world and outside of that.

I would like to comment on the authenticity that Jan McArthur mentions. She critiques the traditional way of assessing, reasoning that it should not only be "real-world tasks" connected to work, but rather to reflect students' role in society and for it to be meaningful beyond employment. I especially like this statement of hers: " While the world of work is really important to people's well-being, it's not all there is to a human life", because it talks about how even though work is important, one should not forget to spend time on their relationships, hobbies etc.

I was really surprised to see that there are still people who know what values more in life- that it is not all about having As all the time, and that what matters is our contribution to the well-being of the others in the society. I was surprised to see a comment by a teacher as her " you know what? you need to find joy outside,as well, because that's the only way any of us survive, and are happy and healthy", which brought me back to the moment when I told you a few days ago that in this period we are not solely focused on assignments, but rather (I think McArthur would agree with me on this one :) ) there are more important questions of what's next?

Another point that I agree with is the boundaries moment, where she gives an example with the email, and how there should be boundaries on the behalf of both sides, and that we should both as teachers and students respect our time.

Sincerely,

Kostanca Spoa

Ana Atanasova:

Dear professor Elena,

I am writing my reply/discussion to the interview you did with Dr. Jan McArthur.

Dr. Jan McArthur has some interesting thoughts on assessment. She argues that it should focus more on real learning instead of just grades. Transparency is key for her; students know exactly what they're being assessed on and why. She's not a fan of rigid rubrics that limit how students engage with their work; instead, she suggests using criteria that push students to think critically. What stood out to me the most was her view on failure. She sees it as a natural part of the learning process, not something to be afraid of. For her, assessment should encourage students to take risks and explore ideas, rather than just punishing mistakes.(This ties into the concept of washback, where the way we assess students shapes how they approach learning.) McArthur also critiques how assessment is often used as a control mechanism, rather than a tool for growth. If students are only focused on grades, they miss out on deeper learning (!!). She argues that assessment should help students build critical thinking skills and confidence, not just meeting preset expectations. Her approach aligns ideas like validity and authenticity: assessments should reflect what they claim to measure and be applicable to real-world scenarios. One thing that really stood out to me was her point about involving students in creating assessment criteria. But this raises the question about reliability; how can we ensure fairness if every student’s assessment method is a bit different? And while transparency is a strong point, balancing flexibility with grading security is a bit tricky.

If I had the chance, I’d ask McArthur how her ideas could fit into standardized testing systems. How do we make this work alongside institutional requirements? She challenges a lot of traditional thinking and really makes you rethink what assessment could be. I admire her openness and views on assessment.

Finally, not a lot surprised me with this interview, I quite enjoyed her experience and shared thoughts. I most enjoyed her answer to the second question regarding life-work. It is a question that is quite overlooked these days in education and other fields.

Thank you for the good read!

Ana Atanasova 30238

Marija Kostoska:

Dear professor,

Here is my reply about Jan McArthur's interview.

I found this interview very useful and thought-provoking regarding how some methods used in assessments can impact student’s well-being, especially the most important for me was the emphasis on self-worth and how important is to create an environment where students feel valued and cherish their everyday progress.

I see this point very important because when people know their self-worth they can accomplish literary everything, that’s why we have to help our students to be aware of their self-worth and to build their confidence.

I also totally agree with the following sentence: ‘There is a big mental crisis in society and in our students’ because no one is talking about this issue nowadays. We are in pursue for better grades and we grade students just by their results and not by their real worth. Nobody ever thought about all other factors that can cause bad grades. What if some of our students suffer from anxiety, depression and we as professors can’t see this as real threat for the upcoming success of our students? Also, grades according to me are irrelevant. One student can have so many talents, but anyway he won’t study because of these X factors that we are not familiar with.

In general the concept of authentic assessment is pretty new to me, to be honest, I have never read such useful interview that somehow made me think more deeply about this potential problems that occur in educational system and how actually students are dealing with real-world issues.

Cornerstones of testing:

Usefulness- This interview is connected with authentic assessment and as described by Jan, this kind of assessment deals with the so-called real-world tasks (teach the students to apply their skills and knowledge outside the classroom). I find this assessment useful because of the use for which it is intended, and that is preparing the students for the world beyond the classroom.

Reliability and Transparency: In the part where Jan is talking about involvement in assessment, she clearly states that we should make assessment look like there is a really clear set of steps to follow and if we follow those steps, we will get the right mark. But anyway assessment is about judgement and it can be messy and can’t be precise so basically reliability can sometimes be more challenging.

Validity: This kind of assessment have high validity because it truly measure what is supposed to measure, and that is real-life tasks.

Washback: In the part where Jan is talking about how terrific are reflective essays which professor grades with pass or fail…This kind of essays encourage many students to engage more deeply in the subject and they can benefit greatly from this kind of self-critical reflection.

Security: In a world of AI, security is an issue.

After this interview I can say that this kind of assessment and self-feedback really focuses on students’ improvement and growth rather than just good or bad grades and I would like to know how can we balance the authentic assessment and traditional assessment, since traditional way of teaching is still dominant here in our country.

Regards,

Marija Kostoska

Ana Gjelova 30195

Authentic assessment to nurture students’ self-worth: Interview with Jan McArthur.

The main focus of the interview is authenticity in assessment. McArthur believes that assessments should be meaningful and connected to real life, so students see value in their work beyond just getting a grade. She talks about usefulness, explaining that authentic assessments help students stay motivated and really understand what they’re learning. Instead of just memorizing facts, students get the chance to develop skills they can actually use in the real world. When it comes to validity, I feel like McArthur doesn’t mention it directly and talk about it specifically, but her ideas mentioned in a way suggest that assessments should actually measure what they’re meant to, not just how well a student can memorize or handle test pressure, but their deeper understanding, as well as critical thinking, and engagement. When it comes to washback, which is all about how assessments affect students’ learning, McArthur argues that assessments shouldn’t just be about giving a score, but they should actually help students learn and grow. When students find meaning in their assessments, it boosts their confidence and self-worth. She also briefly comments on transparency, saying that students should clearly understand why they’re being assessed and how it connects to their learning. When the expectations are clear the students can focus on improving rather than just worrying about their grades. From what I have read I think that McArthur doesn’t really go deep into talking about practicality, reliability, or security, but she mentions it in a way that the problem with authentic assessment is that it might be hard to standardize and I think that she wants to say that this makes it harder to ensure that every student is judged equally and fairly across different classrooms or schools.

One really interesting point was how much McArthur focuses on talking about self-worth in assessment. We talk a lot about this in our classes as well, but it is definitely not talked about and taken in consideration in most of the courses or the learning process in general. Usually, assessments are just seen as a way to measure students’ performance, not as something that can build their confidence. This made me realize even more that traditional assessments might negatively affect how students see themselves. Also connected to this, when she talks about AI in the interview she says that with the usage of AI students nowadays overlook on the important skills like creativity, critical thinking, and self-confidence, which is really bad.

Ilinka Taseska

Dear teacher,

I read the final paper and I must say that everything I've read I see that you are trying to implement that in our classroom. In terms of transparency, I think it is great that she mentioned that we should share the grading criteria and what we are expecting from our students. In my opinion writing a final reflective essay cannot be successful when it comes to reliability because we all know that with the development of AI most of the students will email AI produced essays but, if they have to do the same reflective essay in class it is most likely to be written by them. Furthermore, I am going to say that authentic assessment and usefulness are closely connected for me. It is hard to make the right judgment and grade students fairly so I feel positive about giving students a chance to make a choice whether to do a task or not. Yes, we shall tell them why we are giving them that particular task and not the other, they should know what are the outcomes if they choose not to do the task. I feel like the grading criteria from A to E is there for the students who are not willing to put in the work during the year/semester. As for the self - assessment part some students may give themselves a lower grade just because they are scared of the judgment of the teacher. Personally, I don't give myself an A right away, I feel like that will be bold of me, maybe it is connected with my lack of self-confidence.

A question for Jan

How are you going to implement the self-assessment criteria with primary school students?

best,

Ilinka

Metodija

Dear Professor Elena,

Having read the interview with Dr Jan McArthur, I must say that I like the way she sees assessment. From the very beginning, she emphasised the importance of students understanding their role in society with assessment being in their favour when contributing to it. Here I would like to mention her view on authenticity, which is really important for today’s world of education. I completely agree with her statement that we need to be aware of why we do something and whether it is useful for us. This applies both to real life and the classroom. If a task helps us to become not just better learners, but better people as well, then it is authentic and worth doing.

This brings me to another point that amazed me - understanding education as a matter of relationships. I have never thought of education like this before and, honestly, it makes sense. Understanding the impact we have on others can significantly boost our interrelationships and create new opportunities for collaboration and getting better by helping each other.

Another thing that stood out for me was her explanation of the involvement of students in the assessment design, which should be as transparent as possible with them knowing what they are going to do and how they are going to be assessed. Rather than being passive recipients, as she says in the interview, students should be encouraged to judge their own progress and reflect on it afterwards. This point brought me back to our self-assessment and reflection on our work both for PP1 and Learning Strategies modules. I felt that I had control over my work and by receiving peer-reviews I knew what I needed to change to enhance my progress. It’s all about understanding our achievements.

Finally, I would like to comment on the potential washback of this kind of assessment. Generally, I think that students benefit from it in the sense that it prepares them to think more critically and use self-reflection to become better citizens in the real world.

Kind regards,

Metodija

Eva Tomovska

Dear professor,

Reading Jan McArthur’s interview was refreshing—it felt honest and insightful. It made me think more about certain things which I never thought of before, like the idea about fail-pass grading rather than numerical assessment. Her view on education as being all about relationships is something I strongly agree with, because real connections in learning make it more meaningful. I also love that she looks beyond the classroom, seeing learning as part of the bigger picture rather than separating it from the real world. Her argument that assessment should reflect students’ membership in society, rather than just preparing them for jobs, really stuck with me. It makes so much sense, and I think it’s something we don’t hear enough.

McArthur highlights transparency as a key aspect of assessment, saying that students should understand not just what they are being assessed on, but why. By clearly explaining the criteria and reasoning behind assessments, students can feel more involved and motivated, knowing where exactly they need to progress and doing it deliberately.This approach makes assessments more useful for learning, as students can see them as opportunities to improve rather than just to get a grade. What surprised me in the interview was McArthur's critique of traditional grading systems. Her suggestion of ungrading, like pass/fail assessments, supporting student development was unusual. While I see how grading can limit growth, I also think competition can be motivating and inspire students to push themselves.

If I had the chance, I would ask Ms. McArthur what the "perfect" transparent assessment would look like according to her ideas. How would it be in practice and does it already exist in education? I’d also ask if competition in assessment is a harmful thing or if it can sometimes be beneficial for students.

Best regards, Eva Tomovska

Sofija:

Dear professor Elena Oncevska Ager

I personally think that this is a very intriguing interview, how Dr. Jan McArthur doesn’t only focus on the technical meaning behind assessment, but also how a student grows as a person. She emphasizes that we should use the underlying purpose of our actions as a guide through the uncertainty of questioning, “Is it worth it?” This is how I interpreted her perspective, connecting it to the concept of usefulness.

In response to the first question, McArthur argues that traditional tests are more inclined to see if students are ready to be employed, instead of simply being about their contribution to society. This I connected to authenticity. Also, in an indirect way, refers to reliability. Stressing the importance of assessment with communication that is more student centered, instead of repetitive tasks.

It is clear that McArthur is strongly critical to the idea of traditional grading of students, in that the students don’t actually learn and grow from those grades. But learn when they are genuinely involved in their self-assessments, instead of letting ordinary numbers get to them. In line to the concept of validity.

As for puzzling moments, I can’t say that I have encountered any. Maybe enlightened on her debate about the world beyond the classroom.

Kind regards,

Sofija.

Want to print your doc?
This is not the way.

Try clicking the ⋯ next to your doc name or using a keyboard shortcut (

CtrlP

) instead.