London Met’s Dr Eleni Meletiadou has received a significant grant to explore inclusive formative assessment literacy in higher education, in an increasingly internationalised context.
Date: 9 August 2022
London Met’s Dr Eleni Meletiadou, Course Leader at the Guildhall School of Business and Law, has recently received external funding from the British Association of Lecturers in English for Academic Purposes (BALEAP) to investigate EAP lecturers’ inclusive formative assessment practices in Higher Education (HE). BALEAP is a vibrant community of EAP professionals which supports the professional development of those involved in learning, teaching, scholarship, and research in English for Academic Purposes (EAP).
EAP lecturers indicate that most undergraduate learners face considerable challenges with various academic skills and either fail in exams or produce written assignments of poor quality. The assessment methods currently used in HE do not seem to address diverse students’ needs and help them improve valuable academic skills, i.e., writing, necessary if they want to graduate and secure a career-enhancing position in the future. Moreover, very few studies – if any - have explored EAP lecturers’ inclusive formative assessment practices in HE.
This externally funded project comes as a continuation of the internally funded (London Met’s Rescaling Fund) Inclusive Formative Assessment Practices (IFAP) project Eleni was working on last year. This revealed that the use of IFAP can have a statistically significant positive impact on undergraduate students’ writing performance in only one academic semester. 200 first-year students who took part in this study expressed their wish to experiment more with IFAP. As LMU’s Student Union offered Eleni the Award for her Contribution to Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, Eleni promised she would continue to explore the use of IFAP and help more colleagues use them in their classes to support their diverse cohorts i.e., their multilingual and multicultural students.
The internationalisation of HE worldwide has broadened student diversity in HEI in recent years. However, it translates into a challenge to ensure equity and inclusion for all students to facilitate maximum personal, social, and academic growth. In HE, educators can plan and implement a variety of techniques to conduct assessments that are meaningful, authentic, and informative of a wider range of students’ skills. The LIFAL in HE project wishes to explore their current practices along with their challenges and attitudes towards IFAP and support them in their efforts to promote equity and fairness by valuing individual differences in students’ capabilities and skills, which in turn makes education relevant and engaging for all students.
Dr Eleni Meletiadou is a Senior Lecturer and Course Director at London Met's Guildhall School of Business and Law. Her research covers educational and language assessment, equality, diversity and inclusion, Education for Social Justice and Sustainable Development, writing, gender in management, leadership, crisis management, multilingualism, intercultural competence, HRM and more.
She said: “I am humbled and grateful that my research funding application to the BALEAP was successful. BALEAP’s work builds on 4 core values that align perfectly with my values and those of the university I work for. These are professionalism, development, inclusivity, and collaboration. I am therefore excited that in terms of my new externally funded project, I will be exploring EAP Lecturers’ Inclusive Formative Assessment Literacy (LIFAL) in Higher Education (HE) with my research team. ”
You can find more information about the project on Dr Meletiadou's website.
