Appraisal processes are a requirement for professionals working in the education sector. Often appraisal processes do not focus on strengths, rather, it becomes a process of meeting pre-determined requirements. This article takes a strength-based approach to appraisal and discusses a study which pilots the use of an Appreciative Growth Cycle…

Creative assessments hold the potential to counter outcome-oriented and utilitarian approaches to teaching, characteristic of neoliberal academia. This paper explores the potentialities of digital stories as one form of creative assessment that may help rupture normative ways of teaching-learning and engaging with affective pedagogies. The authors…

A combination of institutional requirements and research activity means health profession students receive many requests to complete evaluations or participate in research. This study aimed to understand pre-clinical medical students' perceptions and attitudes towards these requests. A prospective audit of evaluation and research requests to…

Learning outcomes and assessment frameworks guide educators in curricular decisionmaking, impact assessment, gap identification, and equity evaluation, aligning with anticipated learning objectives. Common frameworks include Bloom's taxonomy, Kirkpatrick's model, Fink's taxonomy, and Moore's Outcomes model. The authors identified a lack of focus…

While much has been done to advance narrative assessment practice in the early years, less attention has been granted to the role of the image in this pursuit. As a consequence, the purposes, value and strategic use of images (photographs, videos, visual metaphors etc.) in foregrounding learning of young children are not well understood. This…

Assessment News outlines findings from an investigation of inequalities in the current use of special assessment conditions (SAC) in NCEA assessments, along with rising demand for their use. The research also explored the potential of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) to help improve assessment accessibility, and to reduce the overall demand for…

There are many varied approaches to involving parents in assessment, but a coherent knowledge base is lacking. To gain a deeper understanding of the role of parental involvement in student learning, we accessed journal articles from three databases following the "Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses"…

In the context of significant reforms to the curriculum for New Zealand schools, this article presents an early line of findings from an ongoing ethnographic multi-case study investigating New Zealand primary school teachers' enactment of informal formative assessment. Data were gathered through observations, interviews, and document collection in…

This 2-year participatory action research project explored how learning to use narrative assessment supported teachers' inclusive practices for disabled secondary school-aged students who are considered to be working long term in Level 1 of The New Zealand Curriculum (NZC) (Ministry of Education, 2007). Although the Ministry of Education has…

Assessment News first announced the launch of the New Zealand Assessment Institute (NZAI) 4 years ago, and this current article looks at how NZAI has progressed, highlighting its key publications and activities from 2021. This update should be of use to teachers and school leaders who want to explore assessment more deeply, gain practical tips, or…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to understand student experiences of authentically assessed community partnership projects and reflect on authentic assessment from a social and environmental sustainability perspective. Design/methodology/approach: The authors present an elaborated case study including graduate-level courses at a university…

This qualitative study looks at multiple-choice questions (MCQs) in examinations and their effectiveness in testing higher-order cognition. While there are claims that MCQs can do this, we consider many assertions problematic because of the difficulty in interpreting what higher-order cognition consists of and whether or not assessment tasks…

A key role of universities is the credentialing of student learning by awarding degrees and diplomas. This requires universities to have confidence in the integrity of their assessment processes and in turn, external stakeholders to have the same confidence. This study investigates the following research question: 'Has COVID-19 had an impact on…

The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted some traditional assessment practices and drawn attention to the range of evidence students produce in their day-to-day learning. In this edition of Assessment News, Charles Darr and Rosemary Hipkins argue that using this evidence to make sound summative judgements requires a robust understanding of what it…

In this paper we examine the history and development of internal assessment practices at a university in New Zealand. The work re-visits the 'assessment arms race' study and builds upon the key arguments presented so far. It was discovered that student demand in the early 1970s triggered the introduction of internal assessment and workloads…