ABSTRACT
Assessment can either be a significant means through which learning can happen, a motivator, an energiser and a means of engendering active partnerships between students and those who teach and assess them, or it can stifle student enthusiasm, commitment and engagement by forcing them to undertake activities, the value of which they fail to perceive. If we want to help students’ engagement with learning, a key locus of enhancement must be around assessment for rather than just of learning, since it is a crucial, nuanced and highly complex process.
This chapter suggests five propositions to ensure that assessment and feedback are integral to learning and genuinely contribute to it, rather than being simply a means of capturing evidence of achievement of stated outcomes. These are:
1. Assessment must serve student learning.
2. Assessment must be fit for purpose.
3. Assessment must be a deliberative and sequenced series of activities demonstrating progressive achievement.
4. Assessment must be dialogic.
5. Assessment must be authentic.
By adopting these propositions, we can empower students by helping them learn and grow during and throughout the process of assessment, adopting purposeful and evidence-informed approaches to assessment alignment, design and enactment.
