How Assessment Supports Learning

How Assessment Supports Learning: Learning-oriented Assessment in Action invites teachers in higher education to rethink the purposes of assessment and to revise their assessment practices in the interests of improved student learning. It combines practice, theory, research and extensive examples of assessment techniques to support academics in this vital part of their multi-faceted role.

This book presents 39 innovative assessment practices from a range of disciplines and located in a clearly articulated theoretical framework. This framework is congruent with outcomes-based approaches, currently being implemented in universities in Hong Kong and elsewhere. The practices, which can be modified for use in a wide range of contexts, illustrate how assessment can be used to engage students in productive learning, provide genuinely helpful feedback efficiently, and help students learn to evaluate and improve the quality of their own work. The book concludes with suggestions for responding to challenges at the interface between assessment and learning.

David Carless is an associate professor in the Faculty of Education, the University of Hong Kong. He has published extensively on assessment and evaluation in education. Gordon Joughin is a senior education development officer at the Hong Kong Institute of Education with a special interest in oral assessment. Ngar-Fun Liu is currently a freelance education consultant in Hong Kong. Her research interests include peer learning, curriculum design and assessment, bilingual education and second language listening comprehension.

“It is clear from the contributions that Hong Kong is in the forefront of assessment innovation. A pioneering book that should be taken up widely.” —David Boud, University of Technology, Sydney