Assessment for Learning - SOTL in practice?

This paper aims to present the process an institution has undertaken to achieve change in technology enhanced learning, teaching and assessment and the important role SOTL has played in the process. It will focus especially on the relationship between the pedagogical underpinning of assessment for learning and its effect on the implementation of e-assessment. Assessment for learning according to Gipps (1994) and Shepard (2000) is underpinned by the constructivist idea, in particular, the work of Vygotsky’s (1978) social constructivism. Vygotsky emphases that knowledge construction is a social process that originates firstly from social interactions (interpsychological) before it is constructed within an individual (intrapsychological). This social process as Palincsar (1998) state is often illustrated by the interactions between individuals with disparate knowledge levels based on Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). The Zone of Proximal Development is an important idea on learning and development that is central to the argument away from assessment of learning. Vygotsky (1978) proposes that rather than focusing on student’s actual development level alone, we should focus on helping students achieve their potential development level under guidance from more advanced individuals or in collaborations with others. Based on Vygotsky’s social constructivism, it is not surprising that Gipps (1999) states that assessment based on this framework will have to be “interactive, dynamic and collaborative” (Gipps, 1999, p.378). Having identified the context of assessment for learning, such a core idea is used to guide and engaged academics to inform their decision in the use of technology enhanced assessment. This paper then presents the changes in assessment and feedback guided by the integration of the underpinning pedagogy and technologies to achieve assessment for learning.