Although assessment is acknowledged as vitally important in its effect on students' approaches to learning, there is much criticism of assessment practice. This paper argues that if a social constructivist approach is applied to the assessment process many of the problems could be overcome. It describes what a social constructivist approach to…

Three studies investigating the existence of sex bias in the grading of undergraduate students, by examining interrater reliability for blind and non-blind grading, are reported. Negative evidence found in the results and the confusing picture presented by previous research indicate little firm evidence of sex bias in grading. (Author/MSE)

Preliminary findings concerning crib card examinations, in which students bring their own notes for use during testing, show that while crib card test results were similar to those from traditional examinations, students' anxiety was reduced, and testing time was saved, claims that the cards may enhance learning were not substantiated. (MSE)

A study of the use of cassette tapes to give feedback to colleagues on written work found that the method was convenient for the giver and receiver, and was perceived to be more helpful in a variety of ways and more motivating than traditional written feedback. (MSE)

An experiment in self-assessed learning in which college students set their own goals weekly and prepare a self-assessment open to discussion by peers encountered some problems but was found to be the only method of achieving "deep," as contrasted with "surface," learning in higher education. (MSE)

A study of the reliability of oral tests in a medical school illustrates the use of a balanced incomplete block design, chosen when not all participating examiners can rate each examinee, for experimental research. (MSE)

This paper reports on findings relating to a project on gender and essay assessment in HE. It focuses on one aspect of the study: the assessment of and feedback given to two sample essays by 50 historians based at universities in England and Wales. We found considerable variation both as to the classification awarded to the essays and to positive…

A study comparing continuous assessment of a British business administration program with traditional summative evaluation found that continuous assessment had resulted in a rise in standards. (MSE)

The importance and problems of evaluating the final-year projects of students in electrical and electronics engineering education are discussed, and guidelines for achieving uniformity in assessment are given. The approaches used in two African universities are also described. (Author/MSE)

A course evaluation method is described in which the adoption of a desirable change is integral to the process of evaluation designed to motivate teachers, students, and other course organizers to improve and consequently change the structure, content, and conduct of the course when necessary. The course illustrated leads to a Postgraduate…

Use of student self-evaluation in grading is recommended, and several ways in which self-evaluation may be incorporated into the grading process are described, including grades justified and moderated by faculty and/or peers, criteria generated by peers, weighting, combining self-evaluation with demonstration of competence, and learning and grade…

A peer evaluation experiment in a British polytechnic institute found peer grading correlated positively with teacher grading. A survey of participants (n=70) found that five advantages of peer marking had been achieved and that students believed their work had been marked fairly and the marks should count toward final grades. (Author/MSE)

This paper describes a new ICT assessment tool that reduces multihandling of marks, comments and scores specifically where professional judgement is involved. Whereas previous ICT applications in most fields of education have focused on student learning, this tool focuses on the lecturer task of the assessment process. Unlike many ICT based…

Student self-evaluation and peer evaluation are compared with traditional student assessment methods in terms of reliability and the possible effects on learning and personal development, and the results of a program of self- and peer evaluation are reported. (MSE)

Fictitious student evaluations of a faculty member's teaching performance are presented to the reader in an exercise in interpreting such information. Evaluator comments reveal a widespread divergence of views. (MSE)