Perceptions and realities in the functions and processes of assessment

Assessment is acknowledged as a central motivator for learning, as being perhaps the most difficult and arduous task for tutors, and also, a defining component of institutional quality, curriculum, courses and degrees. Therefore, given this, surely our understanding of terms, processes and their relationships, which reveal our knowledge of theories, practices and research, would be expected to be coherent and critically defensible. Yet, this study supports other literature that demonstrates that this is not the case. What to do about resolving theoretical and practical issues in assessment is perhaps a key challenge for education and educationalists. One problem is that it is often perceived as being the realm of specialists and for specialist journals, when the reality is that understanding assessment is central to everyone in education.