Disentangling Teaching and Summative Assessment in Higher Education? Pros and Cons from Students’ Perspectives

The impact of the examiner on students’ perspectives on learning and assessment is investigated. A disentangling of support and evaluation roles was implemented for two courses. The lecturer did not have the responsibility for the summative evaluation. Instead, this was the task of an examiner. Students’ conceptions of the disentangling were investigated by means of focus groups (=21) before and open-ended questionnaires (=50 and =18) after the actual disentangled courses. Results showed as well pros as contras. Pros were that students felt free to express their own opinion during the examination, that they could ‘team up’ with the lecturer during the academic year, and that some of them believed this enabled the examiner to pass them a more objective judgment. Contras were that some students felt uncomfortable because they did not know the examiner, that they feared a wrong first impression would result in a less objective evaluation or that some students reported that they would behave less respectful to the lecturer if this person would no longer examine them. Students’ arguments thus reveal what matters to them in assessment: they desire a reliable, a valid and a transparent evaluation