Learning assessment: students’ experiences in post-school qualifications

There is growing interest among British researchers and policy-makers at levels of the education system in assessment that encourages engagement with learning, develops autonomy and motivation and raises levels of formal achievement. These goals have been influenced by developments in outcome-based and portfolio-based qualifications in post-school education (see, for example, Jessup, 1991; Otter, 1989; UDACE, 1994). There is parallel interest in developing ‘learning to learn’ skills and encouraging a positive attitude to learning after formal education through assessment that serves what Boud calls ‘double duty’: namely, meeting immediate goals for achievement while establishing a basis for learners to undertake their own assessment activities in future (Boud, 2000; see also Chapter 6, this volume). More specifically, research offers insights about how to promote a sophisticated understanding of formative assessment that changes how students and teachers regard the purposes of assessment and their respective roles in it in order to enhance learning (see Black and Wiliam, 1998; ARG, 2002; Gardener, 2006).