The ICE Model and an Essays Exercise Application

The ICE model of qualitative learning assessment (Wilson 1996; Fostaty Young and Wilson 2000 describes learning as a process of growth from novice toward expert and is based on a cognitive development theory similar to the well known SOLO Taxonomy developed by Biggs (full reference given at bottom of page).

ICE is an acroynym for Ideas/Items, Connections and Extensions (see attached handout for full definitions)

An essays exercise (see links on right hand side) has been developed to illustrate the developmental concepts of ICE and within this “ideas you can use section we would like to suggest how both the ICE model and the essays exercise can be used.

Using the ICE model

University staff have found the ICE model useful in a variety of ways. It can help when:

• Designing a specific assessment task
• Setting assessment criteria and standards
• Developing a scheme to describe how requirements for academic work change as students progress (e.g. Year 1 to Year 3)
• Communicating requirements, criteria and/or standards to students (e.g. what makes a good/less effective answer?)
• Marking students' work. The general framework that ICE provides can be especially helpful for staff new to marking student work.

Using the Essays exercise

The essays exercise is currently designed as a group discussion task and has mainly been used with new university lecturers.  Other ideas for using the essays exercise are:

• an elearning approach where discussion amongst staff takes place online, synchronously or asynchronously.
• an individual independent learning task.  The learner would then need feedback from a tutor on their response and/or opportunities to see the responses of their colleagues
• use of the exercise with students to help them to understand the requirements for academic work.  This might be as part of a study skills module.

Colleagues wishing to use the essays exercise might want to adapt or extend it. 

• If the staff (or student) group using the exercise is subject specific rather then drawn from a range of disciplines you might want to create a new set of essays on a topic in your subject.
• You might want to adapt or create new essays which better exemplify the kind of work that your students at a particular level of study might produce e.g. undergraduate year one, final year, or postgraduate students.  
• Depending on why you are using the essay exercise you might want to be more prescriptive about outcomes e.g. you might say that the outcome should be a set of assignment criteria agreed by the staff group.
• You could extend the exercise, particularly with students, by asking them to write a short piece that would exemplify one of the ICE categories.  This could be done individually or as a collaborative activity.

References

Biggs, J. (2003) Teaching for quality learning at university. Maidenhead, SRHE & Open University Press

Fostaty Young, S. (2005) Teaching, Learning & Assessment in HE: using ICE to improve student learning.  Paper presented at the Improving Student Learning Symposium, London, 5-7 Sep 2005 (due for publication 2006)

Fostaty Young, S. & Wilson, R. J. (2000) Assessment and learning: the ICE approach Winnipeg. Portage & Main Press

Wilson, R J (1996) Assessing students in classrooms and in schools.  Scarborough, Ontario, Allyn & Bacon

Note: The essays written by Imogen, Chandra and Elsa fit the categories of the 'ICE' model which can be applied to academic work