Category Archives: book reviews

Book review: 53 interesting ways to assess your students, 3rd Edition.

B53 interesting ways to assess your studentsook review 1 Victoria Burns (2015 ed.) 53 interesting ways to assess your students. 3rd Edition. 2 Newmarket: The Professional and Higher Partnership £19.81 (RRP) ISBN 978-1-907076-52-7

I wouldn't usually start a book review with a personal point of context, but when the first edition of this book by Gibbs, Habeshaw and Habeshaw was published in 1986 I was still in primary school. While many early 21st century books look decidedly dated the '53 ways' series is sufficiently enduring that 30 year-old copies of the various '53 ways' books remain on the shelves of our Centre for Learning and Teaching library and are still consulted by early career lecturers taking the PGCert in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education course.

Each '53 ways' book consists of 53 'ideas' of 2-3 pages each. For example in 53 interesting ways to assess your students way 1 is actually an introduction to choosing assessment methods, way 2 is 'the standard essay', way 20 is 'writing for the Internet' and way 36 is the 'seen exam'. These ways are grouped together in chapters ; for example Chapter 1 (ways 2-4) is called 'Essays' and Chapter 9 (ways 33-38) is 'Examinations'. Each assessment way is then described and explained and the strengths and limitations of each form of assessment is briefly considered. Strictly speaking there are more than 53 assessment ways as many ways have variations on the theme.

As with other '53 ways' this volume can be read from beginning to end, flicked through or dipped in and out of at the reader's pleasure. New and experienced lecturers alike will find treasures here; I thought the 'learning archive' (way 29) whereby students are set the same question in years 1, 2 and 3 and are given the opportunity to reflect on their intellectual development particularly interesting. Framed in the context of the 2010 Equality Act, Way 51 on inclusive assessment and equal opportunities is useful for UK readers, but will no doubt be helpful to others too. It was also positive to see a chapter of ways devoted to feedback as well.

Inevitably, every reader will identify omissions. Many of our PGCert participants write about Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCEs), and although a fairly specialist assessment discipline-wise they are probably worthy of a place in the book, and could fit nicely into the chapters on authentic assessment or problem-based assessment. Similarly field trips/ visits might have been included, but perhaps they didn't sit well in a publication aimed at a general academic audience, or may have made the '53' difficult to achieve. '53 ways' books are not and do not purport to be in-depth theorisations of their subjects and when introducing assessment and feedback I like to 'drill deep' with the principles and purposes of assessment with other texts; I see '53 ways' as a good quality accompaniment to a module on assessment and feedback rather than a core text.

For the benefit of readers familiar with previous editions the publisher's foreword (p. ix) helpfully outlines the connections between Burns' editorial work and the previous work of Gibbs and his colleagues. A balance has been nicely struck between producing a work which is fit for purpose in the second decade of the 21st century while maintaining the approach and appeal of the earlier editions which lies in the accessibility, diversity and brevity of the 53 ways. A balance has also been struck between maintaining content from previous editions while introducing new material, the most notable development between the second and third editions being the small matter of the World Wide Web! Not only have new assessment ideas such as 'Writing for the Internet' and 'Designing Multimedia materials' been added a substantial amount the material is actually new material developed by Burns and her team.

In conclusion I highly recommend that lecturers at any stage of their career take time to look at '53 interesting ways to assess your students'. Although I suspect many of its readers will be academics at the beginning of their careers I particularly hope it will challenge experienced lecturers who have long relied on traditional staples such as unseen exams and set essays to see the rich possibilities of assessment.

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Notes:

  1. This review was carried out at the request of the publisher who sent me a review copy of the book.
  2. First edition 1986, Second Edition 1988. This third edition is long overdue!

Breaking the rules of writing book reviews

My latest internet addiction is www.chessgames.com. Although I’ve never been a serious player I enjoy playing through the games of great players, past and present. Last night I was looking at the game where the late Tony Miles beat the then World Champion Anatoly Karpov using the unusual St George’s Defence (For the uninitiated, the St George’s Defence looks like the sort of opening played by someone who has only just learnt how the pieces move).
On a seemingly unrelated note I have been leading a session for our research postgraduates on writing book reviews. Whatever rules exist about book review writing, Tony Miles broke them.
Of Samurai Chess: Mastering the Martial Art of the Mind Samurai by Michael Gelb and Raymond Keene he wrote:

Frankly I wish I’d never agreed to review this book. Criticism of it will inevitably seem like gratuitous Mondo [Raymond Keane] knocking, and praise will be seriously misplaced. Actually I quite like the cover. If you want something to leave lying about on a coffee table it’s just the job. However, opening it is not recommended. Click here for the rest…

If that review wasn't bad enough he only used two word to review Eric Schiler’s. Unorthodox Chess Openings:

“Utter crap”.

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Review of "The Shack" by Wm Paul Young (written 2009)

I wrote this review of the The Shack just over three years ago to share on Facebook. It was causing quite a stir in Christian circles back then. Opinion was divided between those who saw the book as modern day Pilgrim's Progress and those who saw it as voice of the Devil himself. I've not heard so much about it recently so perhaps its influence was fleeting. Whatever the case I've decided to publish my review here.

The Shack by Wm Paul Young.

The Shack largely passed me by until about four weeks ago, but once I had heard of the hype surrounding it I decided to give it a go. Unusually for a contemporary Christian fiction book I (or rather my wife Michelle) found the book in Waterstones on the 'three for two' table. This was enough to convince me that this book was not just for the Christian market. Online reviews are divided –this book is either the greatest work of Christian fiction since Pilgrim's Progress or it has been penned by the hand of Satan himself to deceive God's people. Christians I know personally are divided, many taking the view that they shouldn't read it at all. So having made the decision to read it, what do I think?

Firstly, its literary merits. The storyline is fairly compelling, it has a good plot, and its perfectly readable. However, it is not a great book and certainly not a Pilgrim's Progress for our generation. It does not come close in the depth of allegory of Bunyan, nor that of C S Lewis. I cringed somewhat at some of the prose. I found that the depiction of God the Father as an African-American woman as much a literary problem as a theological one. Of course that's the point though-- the depiction of God in this way is supposed to challenge our preconceptions. I suppose that if this is a starting point that this is no bad thing. However, if we change our view of God from an old white man like Gandalf to a black woman who likes cooking, then we merely exchange one misconception of God for another.

This leads me onto the book's theological merits. Mark Driscoll, pastor of Mars Hill Church unpacks the unbiblical view of the Trinity depicted in The Shack. Driscoll is more qualified than I am to explain these points, so I'll leave my readers to consider his views for themselves. Many reviewers on Amazon claim that The Shack helped them to understand the doctrine of the Trinity [better], though I'm surprised that a work of literature can succeed where pastors and theologians have not. I suppose that my point here is that I, personally, don't seek to learn theology from a work of literature, not even Langland, Bunyan, Tolstoy or CS Lewis. I discover deep truths (and errors) in them of course, but them again, I should never assume that other people think in the same way as me.

So where does this leave us? Like Rick Warren's Purpose Driven Life this book is both over-hyped and over-demonised. From both the literary and the theological point of view there are a million worse things to read than The Shack, many of them for sale in Christian bookshops. However, there are also many greater works of Christian fiction-- the Chronicles of Narnia and the Pilgrim's Progress for starters. When I next set foot in an North American Christian bookshop, I fear that I will see Shack notebooks, Shack pens, Shack mugs and Airfix model shacks in the 'holy hardware' section. Anyway these are my thoughts. I know many will disagree. I say if you needed to read The Da Vinci Code to see what all the fuss was about, then you'll need to read this too.

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Could our students demand we teach courses we don't already?

Student: I enjoyed your lecture today. I find Africa fascinating.

Lecturer: Thank you. I’m glad you enjoyed it.

Student: I want to study for a degree in African Studies

Lecturer: Er we don’t offer a course in that here.

Student: But the University of Harrogate does

Lecturer: Umm, well, we don’t here…

Student: I think we should make the university set up an African Studies course.

Lecturer: Errrrr….

Student: If they didn’t listen we could have sit-ins and protest to the Vice-Chancellor and get the local papers in.

Lecturer: Mmmmm

As far as I know this never happens in the UK. Students here select their subject of study on their UCAS form prior to arrival. Some universities will allow students to change course during or at the end of the first year. Students will protest if a university attempts to close down a department or a programme, but a protest aimed at getting the university to offer courses it doesn’t already teach or have the staff for? No way!

But at the US universities in Mikaila Mariel Lemonik Arthur’s book, Student Activism and Curricular Change in Higher Education this is precisely what has happened as students have sort to pressure senior management to set up courses in Asian-American Studies, Women’s Studies and Queer Studies. When I began to read the book for review in Innovations in Education and Teaching International I was somewhat intrigued by this form of protest (the book opens with an account of students getting arrested for occupying the administrative building at the University of Texas).

The differences between US and British universities cannot be addressed in anything as short as a blog post. But whilst I have difficultly foreseeing these sorts of campaigns in British universities, I think that there is an interesting point here. For students unable to ‘go away’ for university many subjects are not available to them. For example students in many areas of England are unable to access a languages degree in their own Travel To Work Area (TTWA) or even in the next one. Students who live in the Welsh borders, parts of Lincolnshire, parts of Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and Dorset and parts of North-East and North-West England are not within two TTWAs of a university which offers language degrees. I expect similar patterns would emerge for other subjects. Could students in the UK start lobbying for the provision of new courses in their university or locality?

Mikaila Mariel Lemonik Arthur, Student Activism and Curricular Change in Higher Education (Ashgate, 2011).

My review in Innovations in Education and Teaching International

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Why write book reviews?

For three years running now I have run a session for our postgraduates on writing book reviews. I have written quite a few for the British Journal of Canadian Studies and am about to begin to write my first one for Innovations in Education and Teaching International. When I started to think about how I might approach the session with the postgraduates I was surprised at how little discussion there is on how to write good book reviews, or if indeed we should even spend our time doing them.

As the status of publications go a book review is pretty insignificant. I don’t list them on my CV or on this website. I make it clear to postgraduates that book reviews are not perceived to be as ‘good’ as peer-reviewed journal articles, books, book chapters etc. Over on the Chronicle of Higher Education forums there are those who regard the appearance of book reviews on a CV as ‘padding’, even for more junior members of the academic community. In their view claiming a book review as an actual publication is along the lines of listing blog posts, tweets and postings to internet fora on your CV.

So, why do I do book reviews?

1. Keeping up with Canada. These days all my research is in the field of higher education teaching and learning, but by writing book reviews I can motivate myself to keep my interests in Canadian matters going.

2. The challenge of summarising. Summarising and evaluating a book in 500 words is a challenge. I have just submitted a review of Quebec and the Heritage of Franco-America, which contains six essays plus an introduction from one of the editors. In this case I have just about managed to address each chapter individually, but books with 10, 15 or more contributors are much harder to write about in 500 words.

3. A sense of providing a service to the academic community. I would like to think people actually read my reviews and find them helpful, but in all honesty no-one has ever mentioned anything I’ve written in a book review.

4. To increase the size of my book collection! I like having lots of books. My wife is less keen though. We have two big bookcases in our front room and many of the shelves contain two rows of books. My Canadian book collection takes up a couple of shelves and it is nice (for me) to add to this section.
If you are teaching a session on book my materials are available for open sharing in Humbox.

Other sources I have found online include:

Roger Shiner (adapted from Susan Swan), ‘Nine ways of looking at a critic’, Toronto Globe and Mail 30th November 1996. E23)

How to write a book review (Los Angeles Valley College)

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