The Influence of the Evaluating Instrument on Students’ Learning

Does the evaluating instrument influence the nature and consequence of learning? And if so, how and to what extent? Over the past sixty years there has been much theoretical discussion of these questions and over the past thirty years some spasmodic research attempting to answer them. Unfortunately, the number of experimental studies seems to be decreasing, few definite answers are available, and there is apparently no comprehensive collection of research findings upon which to base further studies.