ABSTRACT
The typology in Chapter 2 argued that students need to engage with implicit and explicit standards in an assessment community and to internalise assessment language and the implications of the criteria. These processes are integral to effective self-assessment and, potentially, a basis for deep engagement in the requirement for high grades. Notwithstanding the motivation that students gained from having and using the assessment speci®cations, there were indications in the previous chapter that the GNVQ assessment model exerted a powerful constraining in¯uence on students' motivation and autonomy. Importantly, merely adopting others' language undermined opportunities and the inclination for teachers and learners to construct meanings together. More generally, introjected and identi®ed adoption of external language and assessment structures trivialises what Black and Wiliam see as crucial social knowledge in assessment (Black and Wiliam, 1998a). To counter these effects, teachers would need to promote consciously a notion of collaborative dialogue to prevent students becoming stuck with the limited cultural capital created through the technical language and a particular mind-set about assessment that the GNVQ model imposed on their thinking. In turn, this conscious `moving on' would need to encourage students to ask different types of questions of teachers.
