Notes:

So this is the plan of the presentation. I would like to start by saying something abut the purposes of assessment and the role of those involved in assessment processes. This will help to define what assessment means to me and how I have made sense of it. I will then talk about the value of assessment principles and describe what makes a good principle. I will end that discussion by presenting 10 principles that I believe are important in thinking about assessment.

This leads on to a consideration of the dimensions and dynamics involved in implementing a principle. Principles are mainly useful in how they inform practice, so I also discuss an instance of practice. I use the 10 principles to understand how one might think about first year teaching and learning and about the problems normally associated with large first year classes (low motivation, failure and drop out). I end by discussing some conflicts that exist when applying principles. I do not present actual studies of practice here because there are many examples in the conference. Also, I am keen to have some of the time spent at the conference in discussing the value one should put on principles and on the theory practice relationship.