ABSTRACT
Assessment is a moral activity. What we choose to assess and how shows quite starkly what we value. In assessing these aspects of chemistry or by assessing German in that way, we are making it abundantly clear what we value in this programme and in higher education in general. So, if we choose not to assess general transferable skills, then it is an unambiguous sign that promoting them is not seen to be an important part of our work and of our programme. That position is, of course, defensible in several ways, not least on the grounds that these skills (whatever ‘skills’ might be) may not be quite so general, let alone easily transferable (see Eraut, 1994b and Atkins, this volume). Yet, whether the intellectual position is defensible or not, in choosing not to assess learners’ general transferable skills through these programmes we reveal our values.
