Enhancing pre-service students' understandings of assessment processes

This paper reports on my action research project within a pre-service teacher education module on the topic of English language assessment. In this module, I attempted to experiment with a variety of “innovative” practices, designed to enhance students’ understandings of assessment processes. These elements included a) regular mass e-mails to students focused on their learning on the module, b) collaboration with a primary school guest lecturer also involved in assess-related action research, and c) an emphasis on feedback for improvement within a summative assignment. Methods of evaluation for the action research included written feedback from the whole class through “five minute papers,’ oral feedback from a focus group of three students, formal module and teaching evaluation data, and my own reflections stimulated by meetings of the action research team. Some issues for the further development of assessment practices are discussed. Copyright © 2003 The Hong Kong Institute of Education.