The curious case of the colliery and the blanket: an investigation into the language of assessment

The tutor authors have previously considered the synergy between tutor and student interpretation of feedback language<sup>1</sup><sup>1</sup> Dawn Jones and Lynn Ellison, “When Is a Word Not Just a Word? An Investigation into the Dissonance and Synergy between Intention and Understanding of the Language of Feedback in Legal Education” (2021) 55 The Law Teacher 155., leading to this project, which examines whether students have an accurate understanding of tutors’ intended meaning behind command words and language used in law assessments. A unique aspect of this research was that it was a collaboration between two tutors and two students. The student researchers were able to bring a different perspective and elicit valuable contributions from their peers during the student focus groups. The existing literature considering the understanding of language used in assessments is limited, particularly in relation to higher education. This research project considered the understanding of command words in assessment instructions and the impact of misinterpretation of fact patterns provided in law assessments, the consequences of any misinterpretation and the relevance, if any, of student backgrounds. The authors used the survey method to obtain free text comments from both law students and law tutors that were then followed up with separate student and staff focus groups. The focus groups gave the opportunity to consider issues raised in the surveys in more detail and for discussion between the attendees where the authors could seek further clarification of the issues raised.

Citation

Ellison, L., Jones, D., Sultana, A., & Whitehouse, J. (2025). The curious case of the colliery and the blanket: an investigation into the language of assessment. The Law Teacher, 59(1), 50–63. https://doi.org/10.1080/03069400.2025.2452777

Type

Journal article

Language

en

Description

© 2025 The Authors. Published by Informa Ltd. This is an open access article available under a Creative Commons licence. The published version can be accessed at the following link on the publisher’s website: https://doi.org/10.1080/03069400.2025.2452777

ISSN

0306-9400

EISSN

1943-0353

Collections

Faculty of Arts, Business and Social Sciences