Understanding Assessment: Purposes, Perceptions, Practice

This book is written specifically for teachers-in-training which will clarify the 'big picture' of monitoring and assessment and makes the crucial distinctions in this large (and still taken-for-granted) field. There has been a huge effort over the last decade to bolster external, summative assessment (ie SATs) which has distorted teachers' perceptions of the potential of good formative assessment to raise achievement. This book addresses the principles and practice of educational assessment in a manner that is relevant and accessible to the student teacher. It takes on the whole canvass from marking to public examinations and is guided by the authors' concerns to make the 'big picture' meaningful and coherent for the new teacher.

David Lambert is Reader in Education at the University of London Institute of Education.