ABSTRACT
My aim in this chapter is to draw attention to a number of potential tensions in the assessment process where learning contracts are used. Such tensions are, of course, apparent to differing degrees with all assessment processes. Heron (1981) and others have highlighted the assessment process as the most political of all the processes of education and one whereby issues of power are particularly significant. In earlier chapters in this volume David Boud and Phil Race have drawn attention to some of the negative effects of assessment on learning. I am sure we can all recall our own experiences of learning and assessment and the parts played, overtly and covertly, by power, politics, fear, teacher ‘cues’ and peer group pressure. These and other factors can turn the assessment process into a ‘game’, with largely unwritten rules, played by the different stakeholders in the process.
