Reflecting on ‘assessment’

1. The purpose of assessment

Put simply, assessment is a type of commentary on the quality of your learning according to a set of pre-established criteria.  It has two principal purposes: it can be used to ‘measure’ or grade your learning (knowledge, understanding, critical thinking ability, evaluation skills, etc.) but it can also be used as a way to encourage, support and improve your learning.  It is this second purpose that is not always fully exploited.  The distinction is often referred to in terms of ‘assessment of learning versus assessment for learning.’  The important point to remember is that all assessment can be used, to some extent, as a way of developing and improving your learning.  Feedback on your completed assignments is the most obvious way that you can learn from assessment and this will be discussed in more detail later in this unit.  Marks or grades can also be used to gauge your progress: if, for example, you get a number of incorrect answers on a multiple-choice test you will know that your ‘understanding’ of those questions needs some more work.  In some cases it may be possible to get feedback on end of term exams.