Undergraduates as researchers in humanities and social sciences courses: articulating assessment by means of micro and macro cooperative and integrated tasks

Abstract

The proposal presents an experience of formative-summative and research-based assessment method developed for Humanities and Social Sciences undegraduates. Such assessment experience is organized in micro-tasks that guide the students towards the development of an original and cooperative piece of research, or macro-task. Students are invited to conduct a research with first-hand data and think about the transferability of its results to society and a potential professional future. Here, we describe each assessment procedure and task as well as the tools developed to support the students in the learning process. We also provide examples of the macro-tasks developed by the students, and draw conclusions as regards the effectiveness of such assessment experience. Following a socioconstructivist approach to the teaching-learning process, the method aims at fostering meaningful and contextualized learning and evaluation at university, as well as undergraduates’ individual autonomy and cooperative skills.