ABSTRACT
This first of five chapters on assessment clears some ground for later discussion of key aspects of assessment in the primary school. It deals with matters that are general to assessment in any subject area, leaving the discussion of matters specific to science for later chapters. We begin by defining assessment and related terms, distinguishing particularly between assessment and testing. The question of why we assess leads to identifying the purposes of assessment considered here as being for helping learning and for summarising learning. We then tackle questions of when and how to assess, involving decisions about what is relevant evidence, how to collect and interpret it and communicate the result. We discuss the meaning of reliability and validity in relation to assessment and how these two concepts interact. Finally we summarise the characteristics of formative and summative assessment.
