Have you ever noticed that you may consciously or unconsciously start a new semester with the influence of what Biggs (1995) terms as "Backwash"? Backwash, in essence, means the potential effect of testing on learning and teaching including the curriculum, teaching methods, students' learning strategies, to name a few. There is nothing inappropriate if the testing in our subject serves as a means to demonstrate to what extent the intended student learning outcomes is attained. The testing, on the other hand, has the wider effect in a way that we may sometimes modify the curriculum, emphasize the teaching of some topics or simply be too measurement-oriented with the primary aim of helping our students to pass the assessment tasks. What students therefore learn focuses on those knowledge and skills that are most relevant to their assessments. Such backwash effect definitely is not conducive to the holistic development of students' understanding of the disciplines they pursue in HKCC.
Backwash, by its nature, does not necessarily bring a negative impact on learning and teaching. In what ways an assessment task functions as a constructive component rather than an end on its own in the iterative cycle of learning and teaching is the key. The positive backwash effect can be materialized via pedagogically sound and practically feasible assessment tasks such that the ways teachers teach and students learn are advantageously informed by these tasks. The positive backwash effect can even facilitate students to become lifelong learners in the pursuit of their disciplines' understanding.
As the new semester has just started, it is never too late to do some soul-searching and review the kind of learning and teaching behaviour we present to our students. Let us be reflective practitioners in every new semester!
Biggs, J. B. (1995). Assumptions underlying new approaches to assessment. Curriculum Forum, 4(2) , 1-22.