Assessment for Learning

It is widely recognized that the form and content of student assessment strongly influence students’ attitudes to study and quality of learning (Ramsden, 1997; Shepard, 2000). For most students, assessment requirements literally define the curriculum. Current research suggests it is assessment used in the right way, as part of teaching to support and enhance learning that has the most significant impact on learning (Elwood and Klenowski, 2002). James and his colleagues (2002) argue that carefully designed assessment is therefore a powerful tool for educators and caution that equally, “poorly designed assessment has the potential to hinder learning or stifle curriculum development”.
New forms of assessment

The realization of the significance of assessment to student learning has brought about reforms in assessment that shift the emphasis from the traditional measurement model to newer forms of assessment that value the process as much as the finished product and offer a more ‘authentic’ representation of practice (Palmer, 2004). Shepard (2000) suggests that traditional assessment practices are no longer compatible with teaching or with learning in present-day classrooms which encourage the development of intellectual abilities, construction of knowledge (rather than the reproduction of knowledge) and formation of students’ identities.
Assessment is now defined as ‘assessment for learning’ and seen as an integral aspect of the teaching and learning cycle rather than being ‘assessment of learning’ which is an event that describes students’ typical performance at the end of a course. This paradigm shift has resulted in a range of alternative forms of assessment to capture evidence of best performance across time, such as practical and oral demonstrations, classroom-based assessment, portfolios of work, reflective journals, case studies utilising problem based learning and peer or self assessment. It is claimed that alternative assessment is more valid and

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