ABSTRACT
Introduction This chapter provides a brief overview of current theoretical issues in educational measurement applied for two purposes: assessment of individual student performance and evaluation of the teaching programme. These two purposes are quite distinct, but the underlying theory and terminology is quite similar, potentially leading to some confusion. Confusion can be exacerbated by reading the medical education research literature, as there are international variations in assessment terminology. In North America, student assessment is often known as student evaluation, so literature searches need to use both 'assessment' and 'evaluation' as key words when seeking information on student assessment, and then to decide whether the information is relevant to student assessment or to programme evaluation.
