ASSESSING FOR LEARNING - SOME DIMENSIONS UNDERLYING NEW APPROACHES TO EDUCATIONAL-ASSESSMENT

The theory and practice of assessing learning are currently undergoing a paradigm shift. The critical realization in producing this change is that educational considerations should drive testing, not psychometric or political ones. Three dimensions interact to yield different modes of assessment, including different kinds of performance assessment: the measurement versus the standards model of testing, quantitative and qualitative assumptions as to the nature of what is learned, and whether the learning and testing is situated or decontextualized. The modes of assessment so generated are suited for different educational aims, but the most appropriate modes are underrespresented in current practice, quantitative and decontextualized modes being greatly overrepresented, resulting in backwash often deleterious to teaching and learning. Conceptual and structural difficulties in implementing qualitative and situated modes of assessment are discussed.