Here is a selection of comments we heard on this topic. We need to teach our students to think and make sure our assessment is not just a test of memory. Teaching for a common sense approach to data may well be more time consuming. Theory is best tied to data, so that students know when it is and is not appropriate, and balanced with practical applications. Motivation is strongly linked with assessment.
Visits have to be written up as an assessed report.
We have computer laboratory work and a final year project using real data which many students do not like. Students can learn by having to explain. Could we do this in an undergraduate course by having groups of, say, five explain to each other. We might have to disentangle this from assessment. Some of the staff feel that there is a need to have the students working in groups and then the students share out the group's mark according to the degree to which each person has contributed.