IN-PERSON MADRID FOCUS ON PEDAGOGY. SECTION B
Abstract
This paper examines the ways in which authentic assessment – assessment which aims to mimic “real world” professional scenarios – can be used in large classroom settings to help prepare students for professional practice as town planners. The paper begins with a short overview of the current literature on different approaches to assessment, and situates authentic assessment within the broader context of UK universities’ role as provider of both education and, increasingly, professional or vocational training. The paper then draws on case studies from current teaching practice with postgraduate planning and surveying students to describe a variety of different assessment strategies which have been successfully adopted and implemented at a UK university both to evaluate students’ learning from a particular course unit and simultaneously to provide a simulacrum of “real world” professional experience. The paper then situates these assessment strategies within the teaching and learning strategy of the university with a view to exploring both the synergies which exist, but also to draw out tensions between university-level strategy and course unit level aims and objectives in terms of teaching, learning and students’ future professional practice. The paper closes with suggestions for how these tensions may be resolved going forward, and then looks more broadly towards how any lessons learned from this approach may be applicable to a broader context of teaching and learning.
Dr Nick Green MRICS MRTPI is a Lecturer in Town and Country Planning at the University of Manchester. He originally specialised in the restoration of historic buildings before moving into academia following postgraduate studies at University College London. Prior to his current post, Dr Green was Policy Officer at the TCPA, Research Fellow at the University of Manchester, and lecturer at the Universities of Salford and Liverpool. His most recent book “The Settlement Patterns of Britain: Past, Present and the Future Foretold in Eight Essays” is published by Routledge.
Dr Bertie Dockerill is a Lecturer in Planning History at the University of Manchester. His primary research interests are on aspects of belonging and identity and how centrifugal forces have impacted urban forms and expanded urbanness. As the Departmental and School Lead of both employability and placements he works with a variety of stakeholders across sectors to facilitate students’ experience of “life in practice” prior to graduation.
9:30 am - 11:00 am
Thursday 25th June, 2026