Assessment for Productive Learning

The main purpose of this research is to assist schools improve student learning through assessment. The research will challenge conceptions of assessment that compartmentalize "assessment for learning" and "assessment of learning". This distinction is unhelpful and unproductive for schools and teachers. The key issue is not to classify different kinds of assessment but rather to develop strategies that make use of all forms of assessment to promote student learning. This purpose will be achieved through an in-depth investigation of the characteristics of Hong Kong primary and secondary school assessment policies and the way these policies are translated into practice. This investigation will enable the research team to:

construct and develop an understanding of how schools go about the process of developing assessment policies as the basis of school level practice;
investigate the balance between "assessment of learning" and "assessment for learning" in school policy and practice and how these two approaches to assessment can be reconciled into a single approach to assessment that can promote productive learning;
identify and explore school organizational and cultural contexts that affect school assessment policy and practice.

Purposes