The challenges of assessment in a new learning culture

Abstract

The role of assessment has always been crucial in education. It is a truism that assessment shapes how teachers teach and students learn. If we want to know the truth about an educational system, we have to look at the assessment practices and what qualities of students and their work that are being valued by the system. If educational reforms do not include assessment, they often fail. Changing perspectives on teaching and learning combined with new demands in society on students' knowledge and abilities are gradually reshaping learning cultures. In such contexts we also need to see assessment through new eyes. While assessment in the past has primarily been a means of certification and accountability, a much wider range of purposes of assessment are now advocated. A new vision for assessment for the new millennium integrates learning and assessment and redefines the roles of students and teachers in the assessment process. Assessment for learning is now gaining importance over assessment of learning. The keynote speaker will discuss new modes of assessment from a socio-cultural perspective, focusing on how to engage students actively in the learning process through for instance portfolios, self-assessment and peer review, but also on the dilemmas arising when formative and summative forms of assessment are mixed.