Assessment of practical work

Abstract

In recent years, much attention has been focused on the need to develop effective and efficient strategies and procedures for the assessment of laboratory work. Increasingly, the emphasis has moved towards a skills-based approach. The paper addresses a number of philosophical issues concerning this orientation and argues that the skills-based approach is philosophically unsound (because it isn't based on a valid model of science), educationally worthless (because it trivializes learning) and pedagogically dangerous (because it encourages bad teaching). An alternative, more holistic approach to assessment, based on a more valid model of scientific practice, is proposed.