1st Edition
Rethinking Assessment in Higher Education Learning for the Longer Term
Assessment is a value-laden activity surrounded by debates about academic standards, preparing students for employment, measuring quality and providing incentives. There is substantial evidence that assessment, rather than teaching, has the major influence on students’ learning. It directs attention to what is important and acts as an incentive for study.
This book revisits assessment in higher education, examining it from the point of view of what assessment does and can do and argues that assessment should be seen as an act of informing judgement and proposes a way of integrating teaching, learning and assessment to better prepare students for a lifetime of learning. It is essential reading for practitioners and policy makers in higher education institutions in different countries, as well as for educational development and institutional research practitioners.
Contents
Part 1. Setting the scene
Chapter 1.
Assessment for the longer term. 6
David Boud and Nancy Falchikov
Chapter 2.
Reframing assessment as if learning was important. 25
David Boud
Part 2. The context of assessment
Chapter 3
Assessment in higher education: an impossible mission? 47
Ron Barnett
Chapter 4
Learning assessment: students’ experiences in post-school qualifications 69
Kathryn Ecclestone
Part 3. Themes
Chapter 5
Contradictions of assessment for learning in institutions of higher learning 95
Steinar Kvale
Chapter 6
Grading, classifying and future learning 118
Peter Knight
Chapter 7
Assessment engineering: breaking down barriers between teaching and learning, and assessment. 143
Filip Dochy, Mien Segers, David Gijbels and Katrien Struyven
Chapter 8
Rethinking feedback and assessment-for-learning 167
Dai Hounsell
Chapter 9
Conceptions of self-assessment: what is needed for long term learning? 188
Kelvin Tan
Chapter 10
The place of peers in assessment 212
Nancy Falchikov
Chapter 11
Assessment and emotion: the impact of being assessed 242
Nancy Falchikov and David Boud
Part 4. The practice of assessment
Chapter 12
Writing about practice for future learning 264
Peter Kandelbinder
Chapter 13
The contribution of sustainable assessment to teachers’ continuing professional development 277
Margaret Kirkwood
Chapter 14
Developing assessment for informing judgement 299
David Boud and Nancy Falchikov
Biography
David Boud is Professor of Adult Education in the Faculty of Education, University of Technology, Sydney. He has been Foundation Director of the Professional Development Centre, University of New South Wales and President of the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia. He has written widely on teaching, learning and assessment in higher and professional education and workplace learning.
Nancy Falchikov is a psychologist by training and uses her discipline to help improve teaching and learning. She has taught in higher education for many years, and has conducted research into student involvement in assessment and peer learning. She has written widely on these subjects and is author of two books, Learning Together: Peer Tutoring in Higher Education and Improving Assessment through Student Involvement, both published by RoutledgeFalmer. She is presently a Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh and Honorary Associate in the Faculty of Education at the University of Technology, Sydney.