We argue that assessment and feedback practices in higher education need to be transformed to better address three purposes: "promoting" learning, "assuring" assessment rigour, and "communicating" students' employability. To address shortcomings in the current assessment and feedback culture, we propose programmatic…

With some of the propositions from the literature on 'policy enactments' as a backdrop, this paper addresses the circulation of a research policy innovation and its effects on the knowledge territory of an unlikely profession. Specifically, I show how the Research Excellence Frameworks' impact policy in the UK was an object first managed by…

Growth in collaborative research raises difficulties for those tasked with research evaluation, particularly in situations where outcomes are slow to emerge. This article presents the 'Diversity Approach to Research Evaluation' (DARE) as a novel way to assess how researchers engaged in knowledge creation and application work together as teams.…

This paper returns to the question of whether business schools alone can meet the challenges of enhancing creativity and innovation in entrepreneurial education. Policy makers have side-stepped definitional argumentation in order to embrace a more nuanced potential for entrepreneurial competency development, using multidisciplinary practice in…

Both of us were drawn into the writing assessment field initially through our lived experiences as schoolteachers. We worked in radically different contexts -- Martin was head of a languages department and teacher of French and German in the late 1990s in the UK, and David was a Grade 12 teacher of Academic English in Alberta, Canada, at the turn…

Was the approach proposed for calculating exam grades in summer 2020 fair? Were the grades eventually awarded (after policy changes) fair? What is a fair arrangement for 2021? These questions have been at the heart of debate in the UK in the light of COVID-19. After schools were closed in the spring of 2020 and the decision was made not to proceed…

Calls for increased monitoring and evaluation of education policies and practices have not, so far, included widespread and consistent assessments of the inclusiveness of education settings. Measuring inclusion in education has proven to be a challenging exercise, due not only to the complexity and different uses of the concept, but also to its…

In this paper we outline the use of a concept mapping narrative method to elicit the complex and interconnected conceptualisations of specialized knowledge (assessment literacy) for a specific cohort of participants (teacher-examiners). In particular, we are interested in exploring how relational concept mapping and narrative interviews can be…

As the Science Co-ordinator at St Paul's RC Primary School, the author has been involved in producing and trialling resources for the Teacher Assessment in Primary Science (TAPS) project over the last four years. This article explains how St Paul's has used the Focused Assessments (FAs). The author has always tried to promote enquiry-based…

In 2020, because of the COVID-19 pandemic the higher education sector, in the United Kingdom and internationally, transitioned to online assessment, at a speed and scale which might have been unimaginable under normal circumstances. The priority in the sector was to ensure that fundamental principles of assessment, including integrity, were…

This report and the accompanying online repository (https://sfdora.org/dora-case-studies/) bring together and analyse case studies in responsible academic career assessment. The case studies are intended to serve as inspiration for institutions planning to become or already engaged in a complex review process, and to provide potential pathways of…

This paper aims to provide a tentative roadmap for ensuring that higher education policy makers and practitioners are apprised of what might be done to advance a concept of socially just assessment praxis. It extends current thinking around the notion of social justice approaches to assessment by further developing the conceptual framework…

Background: School attainment tests and Cognitive Abilities Tests are used in the United Kingdom to set targets for educational outcome. Whilst these are good predictors, they depend not only on basic ability but also on learnt knowledge and skills, such as reading. Method and Aims: VESPARCH is an online group test of verbal and spatial reasoning,…

Different conceptualizations exist about the components of the knowledge teachers need to teach mathematics with professional consciousness, and a researcher needs to describe and assess that knowledge. The fact, however, is that different conceptualizations respond to different needs, and thus, the variety is even a chance to develop the field…

Holt Primary School is a village school in which teachers work as a team within a climate of respect and trust. The teachers were fortunate to take part in the Bath Spa TAPS (Teacher Assessment in Primary Science) research project, which also overlapped with undertaking Gold PSQM (Primary Science Quality Mark). As a result, teacher confidence in…