A Lateral Approach to Assessment

Abstract

Drama lessons for advocates ... designing more effective “Wanted” posters …taking the pulse of High Court judges — this work certainly excites thought about assessment (!) The authors were “looking for a way to encourage people to break free of the traditional methods of assessment in their disciplines”. (4) Instead of structuring a book of assessment materials around the various disciplines, they have produced a book which purports to be structured around abilities which are “common to all disciplines”. (4) This is a difficult brief which, unsurprisingly, only partly succeeds. The book is compiled by a team drawn from the Professional Development Centre at the University of New South Wales. The production was funded by a grant from the Committee for the Advancement of University Teaching. The materials themselves are largely the work of various academics who responded to the project team’s call for innovative and carefully thought out assessment proposals in their various disciplines. The project team then had the challenging task of turning the various contributions into case studies which were (hopefully)-to be of more general use; in other words, of use to other disciplines. They settled on eight clusters of abilities, which provide the structure for the package