Authenticity in assessment tasks: a heuristic exploration of academics' perceptions

This study was an exploration of the extent to which higher education tutors' perceptions of assessment were consistent with the construct of authenticity. Depth interviews with 12 academics sought views on what might constitute desirable assessment tasks and scoring methods to use with students. Summaries of transcribed interviews suggested that assessment should focus on real world problems and have some meaning to a real world audience. However, analysis of the interviews using Newmann's (1997 Newmann F (1997) Authentic assessment in social studies In G. Phye (Ed.) Handbook of classroom assessment (pp. 359–380) London: Academic Press [Google Scholar]) criteria for authentic assessment showed that, collectively, interviewees' conceptualisation of authenticity was incomplete. The results are discussed in terms of constructivist perspectives on learning.