Assessment — enabling participation in academic discourse and the implications

Abstract

The current study was an exploration of how to develop assessment resources and processes via in-depth interviews with 30 teachers. The focus was on how teachers use and apply different assessment situations. The methodology, which was a predominately qualitative approach and
adopted case study design, sought to use a set of criteria based on constructs from literature reviews to evaluate assessments. Thus these characteristics guided the study which included: a brief description of assessment and moderation; assessment materials/resources; assessment objectives; assessment activities; assessment/re-evaluation; and alignment/consistency. The case (one site) and 30 respondents were selected purposively. The study revealed that assessors need to use different methods of assessment depending on the socio-cultural setting of learners’ environment and resources, if applicable. We argue that teachers should note the socialisation within their domain as well as the culture of their domain and domain-specific ways of talking, acting, and seeing the world.

Keywords: academic; assessment; consistency; continuous planned process moderation; evaluation; feedback; standards of assessment; surface learning and resources