6.5 Assessment as medium for change: a long-term perspective

the call for “judgement”-based assessment and learning indicates recognition of a shared human capacity to know, to do and to relate without relegating such responsibilities to detached tests or methods (of assessment and learning) cloaked in “objectivity” and/or “reliability”. The goal of “futureorientedness” (for assessment and learning) highlights the profound challenge of preparing learners/ourselves for the uncertainties of the future (see later section, “Preparedness for the ‘uncertain’ future of work”), which is driving the shift towards a more learner-centric approach that makes ethical as much as economic sense, and where learning is envisaged to be more widespread and self-directed.

David Boud’s work on “sustainable assessment” is an extension of all these fundamental shifts in educational and learning perspectives, and it contributes to the idea of learning as empowering, enabling and enlightening. The discourse of sustainable assessment (Boud & Soler, 2016) as “educational intervention”, “assessment reforms” and “assessment discussions” (ibid, p. 12) provides potentially productive cultural resources to shift thinking and understanding (apart from economic, instrumental and bureaucratic rationalities) that might intervene in learning and education on the levels of curriculum and assessment design, motivation, and ideology.

6.5 Assessment as medium for change: a long-term perspective

Assessment as learning, while aligned with the national policy and vision of “lifelong learning”, is a longer-term goal that needs the right conditions and support to flourish. For instance, participation is a key factor in assessment as learning, where learners learn to recognise how they are learning, take responsibility for their learning, and continue to learn beyond the immediate course/training. Learners need to be respected and considered as equal partners rather than as customers or passive recipients in the assessment and learning process, and assessment needs to change from being a deterministic high-stakes practice to a more constructive and enabling one. Assessment as learning is premised upon the notions of empowerment, independence and autonomy embedded in and enabled through learning, but does not compromise on excellence, mastery and quality of learning.

Transforming assessment of learning into assessment for and as learning requires a shift in focus from what trainers do to what students learn; from what inputs are made into the education/learning process to what outcomes or effects come out of the process; and from what has been learned to what is needed to support or sustain future learning. Educators, curriculum developers, assessors and learners themselves are all involved in helping the learner master (basic) disciplinary knowledge and skills as well as develop the awareness, disposition and conscience to “thrive” in the world.

The fact that educational reformists such as David Boud and education critics like Ken Robinson (2010) continue to highlight the gap between learning through the formal education sector and “thriving” in the world suggests that assessment plays a role beyond instituting change in learning practice. The success of assessment as learning is simultaneously indicated by and hinges upon more fundamental shifts in institutional and societal values and expectations. Following Vyogtsky, Wells wrote: “For it is in the formation of individual’s identities and dispositions through their collaborative engagement with others in worthwhile and intrinsically motivating activities … that we can most effectively make these the values of the wider society” (Wells, 2000, p. 75).

The incorporation of assessment for and as learning into the education/learning system potentially engenders wider societal change such as that suggested by Vygotsky, engendering policy makers who are able to recognise and continue to support as well as manage a broader shift in thinking and perspective. For example, shifting the idea of “vocation” and “vocational education” from a model of education that emphasises a highly technicalised and decontextualised notion of “skill” to new understandings of skill as embodied learning, personal formation, systems of knowledge and forms of knowing. These are perhaps better expressed, understood and conceptualised as “practice” or “practice

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