Notes:

What is the purpose of assessment? There has been a considerable discussion of this in the literature. There has been a recent focus on the need to use assessment to support and improve learning rather than just to measure learning. This is captured by terms like assessment for learning as opposed to assessment of learning. There is also discussion about making assessment more student-centred meaning that students should have a more active role in or share responsibility for assessment processes. In the REAP project I tried to be precise about what was important by suggesting that assessment practices should help develop students’ independence and autonomy (or self-regulation) in learning over the course of an undergraduate degree. This suggested that students should be more engaged than they had in the past in self and peer assessment and feedback processes. However, it went further than this by suggesting that students should have opportunities to engage actively with assessment criteria before, during and after a learning task (I related this to the research showing that experts as opposed to novices in a discipline spend more time planning and thinking about the end point before they engage in activity and that they also return to purpose and criteria as they carry out a task). I also considered the role of motivation and self-belief in assessment processes.