Learning and Teaching in Practice/Assessment theories, principles and practices/Purpose of assessment



''The main purpose of assessment is to improve learning and teaching. Formative assessment can be used to support, structure and enhance the learning and teaching process as well as helping students and teachers to monitor understanding and progress. Summative assessment measures whether learning outcomes have been achieved, and is an indicator of successful (or not) course completion.''

Types of assessment
Assessment is a huge and varied area of teaching and learning. Assessment possibilities are only limited by imagination as they can occur in many varied forms. Five main categories of assessment are listed.
 * Formative: Informal or formal and used to provide feedback and support learning.
 * Summative: Formal only - measures whether learning outcomes are met, and learning achieved.
 * Self-assessment: Informal or formal - students check their learning against specific criteria or reflect on their learning.
 * Peer-assessment: Informal or formal - students give feedback to other students on their work.
 * Assessment of Prior Learning (APL): Formal - includes cross credits, Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) and Credit Transfer. For RPL, previous experience is used to demonstrate how learning outcomes of specific courses are met.


 * At Otago Polytechnic certain qualifications can be obtained through an APL facilitated process where learners develop case studies of their previous experiences (work and life) to demonstrate how they meet the requirements of the chosen graduate profile. See CapableNZ, Otago Polytechnic.

Why do we assess?
Given that many tools and methods that can be used for assessment, it is useful to think about the reasons for assessing.