ABSTRACT
A review of assessment practices in higher education is certainly timely. External and internal factors have combined to highlight many shortcomings in the present system and to suggest that the quality of students’ learning is being adversely affected by the assessment practices in use (Atkins et al., 1993; Heywood, 1989). These factors include modularization and credit transfer schemes, the rapid expansion in student numbers, and the arrival of NVQs and GNVQs. Concurrently, a growing body of research is confirming the nexus between assessment methods on the one hand and learning styles, strategies and outcomes on the other (see, for example, Marton et al., in Laurillard, 1984; Entwistle and Entwistle, 1991; Entwistle, 1992; Otter, 1992).
