Assessment Principles

Understand the principles and requirements of assessment

1.1 Functions of assessment

There are a range of functions that assessments fulfill. These include;

A formal measurement and evidence recording of a learners achievement that assures that learners competence is fit for purpose against required standards. Assessments also form the basis of performance review by adoption of clear and definable targets (with criteria) to enable both the assessor and learner to understand progress against or towards targets. Implicit within the assessment process is monitoring of progress made by a leaner and the use of the Assessment process For Learning (AFL). The assessment process should also enable objective benchmarking of performance against acknowledged best practice and thus form a key component of a robust quality assurance system.
In short then, assessments are an assurance of the quality of a qualification along with knowledge and skills of a learner against acknowledged best practice.

1.2 Define the key concepts and principles of assessment

The key principles can be summarized as follows:

The ultimate purpose of assessment is to improve student performance and in that sense it is critical to choose carefully what is to be assessed taking in to account students learning styles along with fact that the assessment process itself should be holistic and cognizant of the facts that good evidence of performance can be revealed in a number of ways by learners.

Programmes of learning should ideally be designed to take into account the requirement for assessment to avoid it being used as a bolt on activity. As part of the course design process, a key principle is that it should be self evident to the learners themselves, what the criteria for assessment are. This in turn supports the principle of self assessment by learners.

A robust assessment system should be designed in a way to meet the various stakeholder needs and in particular to provide clear...