Implicit Theories, Unexamined Assumptions and the Status Quo of Educational Assessment

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the basis of evaluative judgments in educational assessment and question some of the tacit assumptions and ideas that seem to underlie them. I begin by considering current purposes and procedures of educational assessment, which suggest that assessment is primarily understood as a technology. In a broader historical perspective, however, assessment should be more appropriately viewed as a practice whose function and purpose are defined within the particular socio-political structure. Consistent with this view, I then propose a conceptual framework that takes into account sociological, philosophical and ethical-political questions that must be considered in defining the purpose, use, means and interpretation of assessment. A case of assessment is analysed to illustrate its implicit assumptions and theories, and the absence of important considerations necessary to the understanding of our practice.