ABSTRACT
We live in testing times, and this book has been critical of many current assessment practices. This does not mean that we can dispense with assessment – we need it both to make judgements about learners and to help them learn. What is required is a clearer view of the potential and limitations of assessment; what it can be expected to do; and when it is being misused. This chapter seeks to do this; the intention is to reclaim assessment by both limiting its power and by encouraging the kinds of assessment that may improve the quality of learning. Part of this reclamation is to send some key assessment terms off for cleaning, with ability and intelligence being in particular need of a good scrub to find out what is really underneath.
