Reinterpreting Process-Centered Assessment Through Sadler’s Theory of Formative Assessment: Meaning and Implications

Process-Focused Assessment has become a central term in Korean assessment policy, yet the view of assessment and the epistemological assumptions underlying it have remained largely implicit. This study offers an interpretive reading of Process-Focused Assessment through the lens of D. R. Sadler’s theory. With the literature review, this study tries to answer this question: how can teachers’ qualitative judgement be trusted? From Sadler’s perspective, Process-Focused Assessment can be reinterpreted as follows. First, assessment is an irreducible act of judgement about quality, and its trustworthiness derives from the refinement of teacher judgement rather than the elaboration of instruments. Second, feedback needs to be redefined as a pedagogical act that cultivates students’ evaluative judgement rather than the transmission of results. Third, teachers’ evaluative judgement competency should be developed through communal calibration against externalized standards as well as individual refinement. Fourth, students need to be repositioned as agents of evaluative judgement rather than objects of assessment. This study contributes by articulating the view of assessment implicitly presupposed by Process-Focused Assessment and by proposing one perspective that grounds its trustworthiness in the refinement of teacher judgement and the alignment of assessment communities.