Assessment for learning in higher education

Abstract

A paradigm shift from instruction to learning is a goal for the whole education system; in this perspective, assessment plays an important role because of its influence on students’ study strategies and their approach to knowledge. This change is a professional challenge for university teachers called upon to revisit their didactic practices with particular attention to assessment.
Going beyond a mere vision of evaluation as a simple measurement is particularly urgent in the university context; it relates to young adults who are about to access the workplace where more than in the past, they are required to show what they can do with what they know.
The experience carried out at the Catholic University aims to put into action an evaluative strategy coherent with the paradigm of learning. The evidence collected, also gathering students’ views, support our initial hypotheses and also allow to develop some general reflections on university teachers’ profiles and their training, with particular reference to the scholarship of assessment,
considered as the heart of the scholarship of teaching.