Developing a Formative Assessment Criteria-referenced Tool (FACT) for doctoral students

Peter Grainger; Joseph J Scott; Kate Mulgrew; Melinda Dean; Michael D Carey; Craig Johnston

doi:10.1080/13803611.2025.2556048

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Developing a Formative Assessment Criteria-referenced Tool (FACT) for doctoral students

Journal article

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Developing a Formative Assessment Criteria-referenced Tool (FACT) for doctoral students

Peter Grainger, Joseph J Scott, Kate Mulgrew, Melinda Dean, Michael D Carey and Craig Johnston

Educational Research and Evaluation, Vol.30(7-8), pp.748-765

2025

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13803611.2025.2556048

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Abstract

assessment

doctoral education

rubrics

feedback literacy

preconfirmation

Universities rely on rubrics to assess student performance and have done so for decades now. It is an accepted practice and appreciated by students and assessors by providing transparency and promoting consistency of assessor judgments. However, the performance of doctoral candidates often depends on supervisors' subjective feedback and ultimately external examiner reports, often without rubrics to guide judgements. This research reports preliminary findings of a pilot study of the perceived efficacy of rubrics, based on student interviews with doctoral candidates at a regional university. The project team created the Formative Assessment Criteria-referenced Tool (FACT) to be used for formative purposes with probationary doctoral candidates across different disciplines, based on a review of the literature that identified common characteristics of performance regardless of discipline. There was unanimous agreement among participants with all reporting that they perceive the tool as a useful formative feedback mechanism to guide them in writing.

Details

Title: Developing a Formative Assessment Criteria-referenced Tool (FACT) for doctoral students
Authors: Peter Grainger (Corresponding Author) - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Education and Tertiary Access
Joseph J Scott - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Education and Tertiary Access
Kate Mulgrew - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Graduate Research School
Melinda Dean - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Health - Biomedicine
Michael D Carey - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Education and Tertiary Access
Craig Johnston - University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, School of Education and Tertiary Access
Publication details: Educational Research and Evaluation, Vol.30(7-8), pp.748-765
Publisher: Routledge
Date published: 2025
DOI: 10.1080/13803611.2025.2556048
ISSN: 1744-4187
Copyright note: © 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
Organisation Unit: School of Health - Biomedicine; Healthy Ageing Research Cluster; Indigenous and Transcultural Research Centre; Graduate Research School; School of Education and Tertiary Access; Cancer Research Cluster; Centre for Bioinnovation
Language: English
Record Identifier: 991155035802621
Output Type: Journal article

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