Literature tells that educational systems all over the world require students to submit assignments and teachers to evaluate the assignments, typically in text-based formats. Back in 2006, the OECD report ‘Personalising Education’ rejected the “one-size-fits-all” approach to teaching. For several years, research has argued in favor of student centering and teaching differentiation, with or without use of ICT.

One of the essential findings in a range of Danish research projects in high schools since 1995 is that a majority of students have pointed out variation both in organization and forms of teaching, teaching activities, and assignments and evaluation formats is pivotal for them as students and their engagement . This paper follows up on this point, focusing on the extent to which ICT can give rise to increased variation in assignment formats and teachers’ estimation of the effect of students’ academic outcomes.

Social media and the continuing development of apps invite educational systems to rethink students’ and teachers’ activities revolving around the production and evaluation of assignments. Taking into consideration that students’ skills vary and thus might their benefit from inclusion of ICT, we consider it fruitful to include analyses grouping the students in relation to academic level. The overall question is: In which contexts can use of ICT provide an academic benefit? We present survey questions posed to the teachers concerning ICT, variation, formative evaluation, summative evaluation, academic outcome and the relation to students’ academic level.

This paper addresses: Rethinking the concept of teaching in relation to assignment forms, evaluation forms and students’ academic level.  

Based on a national research and development project, 2012-2014 , we discuss findings regarding teachers’ uses of reflections on ICT as an agent for change in teaching and learning.. Despite the project is based on Danish high school teachers approaches,  the findings are interesting for both european and international educational systems, when focus is on teachers approaches to assignment and evaluation activities when ICT is in play as an agent of change. 

Purpose

The overriding purpose is to present and discuss findings from this widescale empirical research study carried out in Denmark (Mathiasen et al, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014). The research question of this paper concerns teachers’ approaches to and evaluations of actualized new forms and formats of assignments and evaluations, combined with their estimation of ICT use and different students groups’ academic outcome.

Theoretical framework – focus on the concept of communication

The theoretical framework underpinning this study is inspired by Niklas Luhmann’s systems theory, and his concepts of communication. The key concept to understanding the core values of teaching and learning is communication.  Learning is defined in this context as the deconstruction, construction, and reconstruction of individual mental constructions and reconstructions (e.g. Kelly, 1963). The concept of teaching, inspired by Luhmann, is understood as a special form of communication, a highly specified type of communication, intended to bring about change (Luhmann, 2002). Essential characteristics of the concept are, that teaching is more than a traditional teacher-student relation in lecture contexts, often communication initiated and actualized by the teacher - it also includes feedback processes, guidance, direction and supervision.

The concept of teaching is regarded as communication that aims to change a person, in the sense that knowledge construction may be possible - not that it will happen per se. The teaching environment can be considered a ‘disruptive’ activity with the intention of triggering knowledge construction.

This is the point of departure when it concerns the selection of the methodological design of the empirical study and the subsequent analysis. The systems theory used corresponds the way, in which the survey is constructed.

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