Implicit Theories,Unexamined Assumptions and the Status Quo of Educational Assessment |
| |
| Authors: | Ginette Delandshere |
| |
| Institution: | Indiana University, School of Education , 4006 201 N. Rose Avenue, Bloomington , IN , 47405 , USA |
| |
| Abstract: | 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. |
| |
| Keywords: | |
|
|
