Authentic assessment: partners in developing a web-based guide

Abstract

Field education in practice settings and its assessment are essential for the education of social work students. Many challenges in providing consistent, transparent and equitable assessment in field education have been identified in the international literature. This paper discusses the findings from an Australian three stage participatory action research project between social work and teacher education which aimed to develop authentic assessment tools. This paper focuses on the social work component of the research. The research process resulted in the development of 10 generic assessment frameworks presented as an online resource (socialworkfieldassessment.net). Each framework links specific learning challenges with relevant practice standards, suggested learning strategies, types of evidence produced by these strategies and ways of making a judgement based on the evidence produced. The frameworks provide guidelines with ideas, suggestions and resources which can be adapted to specific placement contexts. By examining the frameworks utilising Darling-Hammond and Snyder’s four criteria for authentic assessment, it is concluded the frameworks contribute to authentic assessment as well as being a useful resource for assessment in field education both nationally within Australia and internationally.