Learning and Assessment: exposing the inconsistencies of theory and practice

The arguments presented in this article are based on the assumption that those involved in education hold particular views about the nature of learning and its relation to assessment. This article uses the insights that can be gained from recent research into students’ learning approaches and concepts of learning to identify inconsistencies between espoused theories of learning expressed in many policy statements and the theory that actually informs assessment practice. Specific areas of inconsistency are identified such as that between reproductive learning and a search for meaning and perceptions of the learner as a passive absorber of pre‐existing information as opposed to being the active agent for change. The article concludes by arguing that the rhetoric of curriculum reform with its references to the development of understanding, and life long learning is meaningless. Those objectives are unlikely to be achieved unless the accompanying assessment reflects the same theoretical principles.