ABSTRACT
Readers who have come this far in our exploration of assessment for learning should now be in no doubt about two things. First, that assessment is probably the most profound influence on what gets learned, when learning occurs and who does the learning. Second that assessment FOR learning is probably the most neglected topic in the whole of the educational world, whether this is educational policy making, educational research or educational practice itself. Why this should be so is not our primary concern here. Suffice it to say that it has a great deal to do with the extraordinarily important role that educational assessment has played over the last 100 years or so as a mechanism for testifying competence and allocating individual life chances. In our legitimate and pressing concern to devise fair and manageable instruments for this purpose, we have arguably lost track of the most important assessment issue of all: namely how it can help or hinder pupils’ learning. The rapid expansion of both traditional forms of educational provision at the present time, particularly at the post-16 stage, and the development of radically new opportunities for learning through technological developments, has begun to shift the focus of debate back onto learning itself and how we can create individuals able and keen to profit from these new opportunities. As a result, there has been a significant growth of interest in recent years in assessment for learning.
