ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at a number of issues related to assessment and personal and social development. It contends that methods of assessing in personal and social development are possibly the least problematic aspects of this work. The chapter opens with a brief discussion about current national assessment practice which has moved from initial attempts to assess the process of learning and provide information which was relevant to the learner and teacher, as well as the parent, towards an assessment of a narrower range of outcomes, in the name of reliability and accountability. The chapter goes onto explore presumptions which underlie effective personal and social development and asserts that these are also the conditions which need to be present in the school setting if effective work is to be done.
