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Salient. Victoria University students' Newspaper. Volume Number 39, Issue 7. April 12 [1976]

What is Assessment Meant to Measure?

What is Assessment Meant to Measure?

An investigation into what assessment is meant to measure reveals just how spurious the logic is.

QUIET EXAMS IN PROGRESS

Assessment in such departments as English, presupposes that such imponderables as 'quality of mind', 'critical thinking' 'understanding' can be measured. It is assumed that practical work - the demonstration of skills learnt - is best measured in a competitive form, not orally or in group work.

Another popular misconception is that Competition is needed to 'make students work'. There are no studies of human nature to substantiate this belief (but myths are stronger than facts anyway!).

If students have to be forced to learn then obviously it is the educational system which is defunct.

It is also assumed that students cannot plan their own courses, work progress, and assessment, whereas academics who have no training in the skills of leading groups of students are qualified to teach and assess them.

Assessment assumes that giving students a pass or failing them, teaches them something about their understanding of the course. However, contrary to this, exam scripts are never revealed or discussed.