Rethinking Assessment in Higher Education

David Boud is Professor of Adult Education in the Faculty of Education, University of Technology, Sydney. He has been Foundation Director of the Professional Development Centre, University of New South Wales and President of the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia. He has written widely on teaching, learning and assessment in higher and professional education and workplace learning. Nancy Falchikov is a psychologist by training and uses her discipline to help improve teaching and learning. She has taught in higher education for many years, and has conducted research into student involvement in assessment and peer learning. She has written widely on these subjects and is author of two books, Learning Together: Peer Tutoring in Higher Education and Improving Assessment through Student Involvement, both published by RoutledgeFalmer. She is presently a Research Fellow at the University of Edinburgh and Honorary Associate in the Faculty of Education at the University of Technology, Sydney.

• Part 1: Setting the Scene 1. Assessment for the Longer Term 2. Reframing Assessment as if Learning was Important Part 2: The Context of Assessment 3. Assessment in Higher Education: An Impossible Mission? 4. Learning Assessment: Students’ Experiences in Post-School Qualifications Part 3: Themes 5. Contradictions of Assessment for Learning in Institutions of Higher Learning 6. Grading, Classifying and Future Learning 7. Assessment Engineering: Breaking Down Barriers between Teaching and Learning, and Assessment 8. Rethinking Feedback and Assessment-for-Learning 9. Conceptions of Self-Assessment: What is Needed for Long Term Learning? 10. The Place of Peers in Assessment 11. Assessment and Emotion: The Impact of Being Assessed Part 4: The Practice of Assessment 12. Writing about Practice for Future Learning 13. The Contribution of Sustainable Assessment to Teachers’ Continuing Professional Development 14. Developing Assessment for Informing Judgement